Photo Manipulation in Journalism: The Effects

Jamie Janda

 

Photo manipulation involves the editing/altering of a photo to make it fit a better viewpoint in today's media and there are several reasons that this is an unethical process. The manipulation of photos in both advertisements and news can cause a series of issues, including distortion of information for the viewer, conflicting ideas, and ultimately just fake news in general. There are ways the the editing of a photo can be done ethical for certain purposes, but many of the current ways they are done is an attempt to trick the public into seeing and believing something that is simply just not true. Photo manipulation has been an issue dating back to at least the 1860's.

A prime example in history from a case that showcases this is the 2000 University of Wisconsin at Madison (pictured below) that was manipulated to include an African American student in the photo in an effort to showcase diversity within the school. 

Picture source: Wordpress

                              

As the rise of technology use continues to happen and information is spread at a much quicker rate than previous time, there is more opportunity for false information to be spread and better tools for photo shop to be used, making it even more difficult to distinguish between the truth and fake photos/information. Not only can photo manipulation be used in the way it was in the photo above, but most recently it is used to photoshop the bodies of people in advertisements and news to make them look more appealing to the public. This can have a string of negative effects among viewers. 

 

In today's time, expectations for body images are already fairly unreachable, but with the added photo manipulations to images, they are now 100% unattainable. People that are already thin and being photoshopped even thinner or with added proportions that any real human could not have. This can have a long-standing negative effect on how viewers see their own bodies and self-worth. 

In conclusion, the idea of manipulating a photo should be used lightly and it should not be an abused tool when it comes to journalism and reporting. There is a need for this tool as far as touching up photos to a certain degree or editing out irrelevant pieces in a photo and it has been a great factor in making for better news, but some reporters and journalists have abused it and completely turned stories upside down and made them inaccurate. Photo manipulation requires a certain level of discretion and following ethical codes when attempting to use it properly.