Photoshop: funny if we see it, concerning if we don't

Ryan Harroff
rh127214@ohio.edu

In the age of instant information, anybody with access to the internet does not have to experience curiosity if they do not want to. If someone thinks of a question, they pull out their pocket-sized device with the answers to all of life's dilemmas and simply search for the information they want. While making access to the truth this easy, however, we have also made it infinitely easier to share falsehoods.

For a short period towards the beginning of the internet age, people felt more comfortable believing something if it was accompanied by pictures. The phrase, "pics or it didn't happen," made its online rounds for longer than most cultural memes do today. Once photo editing software became so widely available and easy to use, however, one's own eyes couldn't be trusted to distinguish truth from falsity any longer.

In 2015, the New York Times published a series of editorials from respected photojournalists and commercial photographers about the issue of fake photos running in trusted publications. Many of the voices echoed on this editorial blog were frustrated by how wide-spread the practice of doctoring images is in modern news media and magazine publishing. However, those who chose to try and break from this status quo were often less successful for it.

Part of the problem that modern photojournalists face when it comes to fake photos versus real ones is that most people cannot tell the difference, provided the photo editor is skilled at their work. In July, the Washington Post published an article detailing a study done into how effective people were at spotting altered images. According to the results listed in the article, most people struggled to notice and especially identify what parts of photographs had been altered, if any.

Photo courtesy of College Humor

Many people overestimate their ability to notice when photos are fake. This is usually due to the massive amount of terrible efforts in manipulation seen around the internet, such as this young man pictured to the right, of this text who has made himself look like a cross between the incredible Hulk and the Pillsbury dough boy in an effort to appear more attractive.

This is a major problem for news media, since the public will be drawn more easily to falsified images than real ones in some cases. For example, most people would sooner click on a photo of a shark on a flooded highway during hurricane Harvey than a photo of a man's flooded living room.

This is not to say that photo manipulation is an inherently immoral or unethical action. When advertising for the new Avengers movie, for example, it would be ludicrous not to edit an image of actor Robert Downey Junior to include an Iron Man suit, since large portions of the movie will feature Downey in that same suit, edited using special effects software such as After Effects rather than Photoshop.

However, the ability to edit images before their release can be a powerful tool in the wrong hands, assuming the public falls for it. On a regular basis, North Korea releases doctored images in an effort to sway international opinions about the country. Though these pictures are normally debunked quickly, even by entertainment websites such as Kotaku, a video game entertainment website, they demonstrate a clear intent to use editing software to pass off lies as reality for political gain.

The unfortunate reality of the world today is that it is easier to lie than ever before, and harder than ever to see through those lies. It is vital that journalists make every effort to be as transparent as possible, including explaining why photos are edited, if they must be at all. Unless steps are taken to inform readers on what is being presented to them and how, trust in the media will not improve and peddlers of fake news and falsified images will continue to grow stronger.