Photojournalism & Credibility

There are hundreds of reasons why we cannot trust mass-media photography, images can lie , there are many new image-manipulation software  available cheap in every market and in this Cyber-era famous photos are faked in one way or another and our traditionally trusted news media’s are also using it.

Time Newsfeed falls for a fake New York City Tornado photo that supposedly showed the tornado crossing the water near the Statue of Liberty, which began circulation on Twitter, (Stableford, 2010)

 

Source: www.thewrap.com

According to Stableford (2010): “Time posted the photo-nabbed from a Twitter user: on Times newsfeed blog under the heading, "Gotham Tornado: Amazing Photo of Twister Passing Statue of Liberty." The image was a real, once-in-a-lifetime photo: but the problem is it was taken in 1976: apparently lifted from the NOAA website.
Time eventually corrected the post: “Correction: This post previously featured a photo  from 1976. Original story follows: This photo comes courtesy of Dave Carlson's Twitter feed - not sure if he took the photo, or merely found it online”, (Snyder, 2010).

 These incidences raise the question of credibility of photojournalism even with deep resources like Time can be duped by the Twitterati.

There are many examples that we can take from the past: which questions the credibility of the photojournalism : “Reuters withdraws photograph of Beirut after Air Force attack after US blogs, photographers point out 'blatant evidence of manipulation” , (Lappin, 2006).

 

Source: You Tube: Reuters Manipulated photographs.

“The emerging realization is that photojournalism derives its meaning, its value to society, not from chemistry but from credibility. Readers do not believe the photos themselves; they believe the people who make the photos and present them as honest depictions of what happened in the community”, ( Wheeler 2002, p. xiv).

According to ABC news (2008): one of the Indonesia’s top news Weekly ‘Tempo’ has apologized for the 4-10 February 2008 edition, featured a drawing similar to the Last Supper scene which shows former president Suharto taking Jesus Christ's central place and his apostles replaced by his three daughters and three sons.

 

Source: www.daylife.com

Because of the image about a dozen representatives of several Christian groups as well as inter-religious organizations converged on the Tempo office to complain over the cover, Koran Tempo reported, (ABC news, 2008). “Document designers must visualize familiar objects and symbols that make direct contact with the specific local culture, requiring detailed study of the culture prior to designing the visuals”,(Schriver 1997, p.374).

If document designers don’t consider issues like these it will weaken the faith of audiences: will lead them to undermine the visual journalism credibility. 

References:

•  ABC News, 2008, ‘Indonesian weekly apologizes over Last Supper Suharto cover’, viewed 4 November 2010, < http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm>

• Lappin,Y 2006, ‘ Reuters admits altering Beirut photo’, Ynetnews, viewed 4 Novemebr 2010, < http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286966,00.html>

• Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp. 361-441.

• Snyder, SJ 2010, ‘Gotham Tornado: Amazing Photo of Twister Passing Statue of Liberty’, Time NewsFeed, viewed 4 November 2010, < http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/16/gotham-tornado-amazing-photo-of-twister-passing-statue-of-liberty/>

• Stableford, D 17 September 2010, ‘Times Falls for Fake Tornado Photo’, TheWrap, viewed 4 November 2010, < http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/time-falls-fake-nyc-tornado-photo-20941>

• Wheeler, TH 2002, Phototruth or Photofiction: Ethics and Media Imagery in the Digital Age, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. , Mahwah, New Jersey.