Response Essay #2

Changing the content of photographs that are published is morally wrong. By doctoring a picture you deceive the reader and drastically decrease the credibility of your publication. In the case of the altered Martha Stewart photo, I agree with NPPA president Bob Gould’s quote that altering the photo is “a total breach of ethics and completely misleading to the public.” By publishing these altered photos, the publications are altering what the readers view and therefore deceiving them and decreasing trust. Credibility in journalism is already depleting and doctoring these pictures only gives the public one more reason to distrust them. The purpose of the media is to inform the public. By intentionally altering photos they are still informing the public, just not of the truth.

I was very disturbed by the article “Pictures May Lie but Doctored Photos Change History.” The fact that the simple act of altering a photo can change the way a person remembers an event is extremely scary. This gives the media the power to manipulate how we remember things. The study mentioned in the article proves that this manipulation works. As Franca Agnoli says in the study, “One major result was that modified images affected not only the way people remember past public events, but also their attitudes and behavioural intentions.” No one group of individuals should have this power. Changing an image is a very dangerous thing that only brings mistrust, dishonesty, and deceit to one’s publication. There is no single reason out there that could justify that altering an image is the only way to improve a story. If the image doesn’t work for a story that you are writing you should go back and find an image that does. Enhancing an image to enhance your story does just the opposite. By enhancing the image the story loses all credibility. One of the things that caught my attention most about this article was what was most affected in the minds of the viewers. The fact that the viewers who were shown the doctored images had a more violent recollection of the events pictured says a lot about what stuck out most to them in the images. Only a few things were changed in each image yet it completely changed how the group remembered the events.

I personally believe that photos should not be edited from their original form if it changes the meaning of the picture. The only types of editing that I think are acceptable are such things as making a photo clearer, red eye reduction, and changing the lighting to enhance the subject. Changing the appearance of people or altering what is happening in the photo is completely unacceptable and morally wrong no matter the circumstances. The TIME magazine cover that changed the shadows and shade of O.J. Simpson’s face made him look more menacing and inferred his guilt. This cover alone had the ability to change opinions about the, then ongoing trial. Nothing gives the media the right to do this. Time and time again, publications have apologized for doctoring images yet they still persist to publish these altered images. I agreed with Zibluk in that “I find it very disconcerting that Newsweek’s editors see ‘labelling’ as the answer to the issue. It’s not. The real answer to rebuilding the trust of the audience is to commit to true and accurate photojournalism.” In this quote he was referring to the Martha Stewart cover and the fact that Newsweek’s response to the outrage generated was to label altered covers as illustrations directly on the cover. In my opinion anything, the only illustration that should be on the cover of any publication is a caricature. We have the right to see prominent figures in a real state and form our own opinions about events.

In conclusion I believe that altering the meaning of an image is completely deceptive and morally wrong. By altering these images the media is manipulating what the public views and the opinions generated. It is because of these doctored photos that young men and women are constantly seeking the perfect, unachievable, photoshopped bodies of celebrities pictured on the covers of magazines. These altered images also have the power to change how we remember things and what opinions we form. No one group of individuals should use such a power even if they have access to it. The media needs to be much more responsible with the images they publish and show people and events in their true lights.