Blog Assignment: Ethics

•What are the ways readers can judge the credibility of an image even in this era of digital manipulation?

In this period of digital manipulation, the advancement of technology has blurred the line between a true event and a pseudo event. Credibility of an image is now questioned even more than the past. However there are still several ways to check on the credibility of an image.

First the source of the image is always important. For example s prominent or reputable source would most likely hold more credibility than those from a less reputable source. Next the viewer might want to check for some flaws in the image, such as the head might be superimposed badly onto the body. Such small details might be overlooked so these are just some tell tale signs of digital manipulation.

Unfortunately these are the few things I know to judge the credibility of an image. I mean the news can only be taken with a pinch of salt. However I’m not trying to say everything is falsely reported to make news sell. But I mean news is just merely a way for us to know more about the world, and images are just a way to further bring out the image in us readers. Therefore I suppose a little manipulation here and there is fine since pictures sometimes speak more than words. However if the photos are manipulated for the wrong purposes then it is wrong.

So what are considered ‘wrong’? I guess it would mean defamation of a person’s public image (such as superimposing a person’s head onto a naked body), exploiting the young (such as the incident of using a young lady’s picture from Flickr on an advertising campaign in Australia), and misusing another person’s work and claiming ownership, as well as tweaking the image to make the subject more vulnerable.

However in cases such as making the subject more aesthetically beautiful is fine with me, since who likes to look flaws when there are so many in our daily lives? Photo manipulation is necessary to sell in this society where the preconceived notion of beauty is already warped.


•Imagine yourself as a reader representative for a newspaper. What would you tell a reader who complained to you about a picture of a car wreck that was particularly upsetting?

Personally I would explain to her the purpose of using an image to convey the message. She might be violently against it, so I would have to be empathetic as well. However I would not agree to remove the picture unless it has a more personal affliction on the reader.
So first I have to understand where the reader is coming from then act appropriately.