Can I Just Change One Thing?

Claire Bowman

cb487521@ohio.edu

 

 

Help! I haven't posted a picture on Instagram in a few weeks, how are my followers going to know what I have been up to or if I'm even alive! All my selfies are so ugly. My face has no definition, I hate the shape of my arms and I don't have any cute clothes. What should I do? I must have the perfect picture for my followers. I got it! Time for some photo manipulation. I asked some of my friends to come to an apple orchard with me to take some pictures. However, the day we planned to go it rained. But I must get the perfect photo, so let's just change one thing: let's make my clothes match the background. 

I liked it a little too much, So I went into changing my skin to look clear. Let's change my dress to  make it a little bit puffier ...oh let's not forget about my arms ---lets tone those up a little too! 

Before you know it, you have just done photo manipulation.

Picture source: Post Production Institute

What is wrong with this? 

Besides the fact that this is extremely unethical, oftentimes people who see you on a daily basis won't even recognize you in the photo because so much has changed. But this isn't unheard of on social media, the news, or even videos and it is hurting the eyes of social media users. An example of photo manipulation  is in this article titled, Here's How Retouched Photos Impact Our Mental Health. As if life isn't already hard enough, social media users see an image like the one on the right above and the first thing they do is compare themselves to this image. An image like this hurts self-esteem and doesn't tell the whole truth. 

Different Instances 

Despite the fact that this is what many people do on social media, journalism is a whole different story. As if journalists don't have enough ethical challenges, an article titled How Journalists can responsibly report on manipulated pictures and video states that  "News organizations find themselves facing an array of new ethical challenges relating specifically to amplification." The instances, like a journalist finding a great photo but taking it to the next level by putting a basketball where it didn't exist; or moving a body to make it more dramatic. Aside from the fact that it is unethical and dishonest, is it taking too far?

 This link talks about this exact issue: Are journalists taking photos too far? Although the enhanced image I have already cited can be for the purpose of looking prettier, a lot of instances can be really offensive and create a lot of scary emotions for people. For example, in an article titled Stop Trusting Viral Videos said, "A controversial video of catholic students clashing with American Indians appeared to tell a simple truth. A second video called that story into question. But neither shows what truly happened." An additional image that can be placed on social media to change people's opinion or just for an unethical false story is this image of Prince William from a few years ago.

Picture source: Twitter Renaissance Man

 

Future of Journalism

 

Social media  and its falsified images will always be around; however, I just hope that more people can learn the dangers of photo manipulation of videos or news posts. Although I can't tell the future, I just hope others can learn to take photo manipulation with a grain of salt. But for now, the best I can do is help educate people on the truth behind photo manipulation.