Individually, respond in writing on your blog page with the following prompt: "In the New York Times article, the author writes: 'Indeed a manipulated image, which is often more powerful than the sum of its parts, can affect not just visual perception, but opinions as well.' Reflect on this statement. What specific power do photos have to tell the truth? Are there specific guidelines that we should follow? What limitations should there be on image manipulations, posed events, and other types of fakey? What counts as manipulation, and what counts as reasonable editing, cropping or enhancement? "
Yes, I most definitely agree with the author of the New York Times Article; a manipulated image is undoubtedly more powerful than the sum of its parts, and affects both visual perceptions and opinions. Something that helps to understand the power of photos is when in class; Mrs. Ben Ozilio gave the example of a former student who went to this school. He was a nice fellow, however, in The Word (school newspaper), they quoted him for saying something he would never even think of. Over here, in the article, he was quoted saying that one should not bother to recycle, as someone else will obviously step in and recycle for you. The author of that article made a mistake, and quoted the wrong person. As a result, many people around campus started viewing this innocent student in a bad way. Although, in the next version, they sent out an apology letter, it was already too late, all the damage had been done. The same can be applied to manipulated images, as it can unquestionably change other people’s opinions and views towards a particular topic. A good example of this could be that of O.J. Simpson in the Time Magazine (as shown above). In this situation, Time Magazine altered with his skin color in an attempt to make him look more like a criminal. This was extremely unexpected, as I believe Time Magazine only did this to add some personal flavor to the news, to make it sound much more interesting and applicable. I believe that there should be specific guidelines that we should follow, which should include asking questions to yourself such as where the picture is from, who the photographer is, who uploaded it, etc. There most definitely should be limitations on image manipulations, posed events, and other types of “fakeys”; they should be based on to what extent it is published, who the audience is, whether it affects the people/places/etc. involved in a positive or negative way, etc. Nevertheless, I believe it will be extremely hard to monitor these image manipulations, as there is a steady increase in technology and products for digital manipulations. I believe reasonable editing, cropping or enhancement counts as long as it doesn’t affect anyone, a place, the audience, etc. in a negative way. This includes image manipulation of peoples faces, changing a site to make it look better/worse, changing the tones of a person, stereotyping a particular race, etc.
