Distorted World

Jessica and Metta raise important issues in their recent conversation about how easy it is now to manipulate images using PhotoShop. This question of how photography—which once was considered unalterable “truth” because if you see it it must be true....—caught up to how words can skew words first burst into “civilian” consciousness when the National Geographic moved pyramids and camels on its cover to make a pleasing composition. Was it a heinous lie? Some thought so.

The central issue of both the manipulation of photographs and the slipperiness of words is the credibility of the press and other mass media—what can we believe? How do we know what we (think) we know? If journalists can select convenient facts and slant the truth in their reports, and if photographers can take reality and put Paris Hilton in the middle of it, then how can anyone trust anything?

Photojournalists deal with these questions all the time. Here's one story on that from American Journalism Review that's worth reading.

Peez, Head NewsDawg