Written By Lida Qanun
With photography making up most of the content we face in this digital age, it is important to understand where photos have originated from. This is due to the fact that photos are a powerful communication tool for spreading knowledge. If you’ve heard the saying in passing, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, then reading this blog piece on photo manipulation will have more meaning when understanding the power behind an image. Often times, when attempting to make a photo more powerful, editors or creators turn to Photoshop editor. This infamous software program is known for image manipulation and often used to criticized photographers for the content they produce on there.
In her journal article where guidelines are emphasized when it comes to image manipulation, Emma Frow expresses her concern regarding image manipulation in the science community (Frow 2012) due to the miscommunication they provide. Her concerns come from a place where audiences from around the world are faced with manipulated images on the internet everyday (Module 8). In order to avoid fabrication of scientific data and deciding what can be used for research, guidelines defining acceptable and unacceptable images are necessary (Frow 2012). When data is misrepresented through images in the field of science, severe implications will arise in the future because we allow our actions to be impacted based on the knowledge that is distributed.
This is just one example that depicts the ethical concerns when it comes to photo manipulation, when in reality it is a reoccurring problem in more than just the science field. It makes up a large chunk of the content we come into contact with daily where the impact of the knowledge being gained from a manipulated photo is the least of our concerns. To understand this a little better, we can look at the internet as being made up of 4 layers (image 1). A single layer is dedicated to content, consisting of the video, text and images shared online. Specifically, the manipulated video, text, and images because manipulation has become a normalized concept in this digital age.
Bell, E., & Leonard, P. (2018). Digital Organizational Storytelling on YouTube: Constructing Plausibility Through Network Protocols of Amateurism, Affinity, and Authenticity. Journal of Management Inquiry, 27(3), 339–351. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492616660765
Zittrain, J. (2008). The future of the internet and how to stop it. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Visual Culture in CEID100 Blog 