Ethics

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

Personally I think it is almost an impossible task to judge if an image has been processed before presentation. I guess this is the reason why cosmetics are selling well in the market. It is a promise from the company to deliver to the purchasers a perfect complexion although most of the time we know that it is impossible. But why do we still buy into it? I personally believe that finding the right product for yourself is a matter of trial and error rather than the promise delivered by the company.

Probably critical thinking can be a way to mitigate the effect generated by photo manipulation. Even in the area of journalism, we know that news are not facts and they can be bias in their portrayal of events. Hence, it is best to gather a variety of sources and compare them before deciding if an image is real.

We also need to resort to fate and be convinced that there is no external youthfulness that lasts a lifetime. How on earth can a bottle of product which cost a mere 10 over or 20 over bucks gives you a perfect complexion just like the celebrity who endorses it. In an article I read a few years back, a celebrity admitted that she was not as slim in reality as the image of her in the slimming advertisement.

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?

To answer this question, I guess as a ethical newspaper publishing company, it should not use pictures of extreme gore and violence in its publications.

However, in the case of a complain, I would firstly apologise and then inform the person who filed the complain that the picture is an accurate portrayal of the accident that occurred. It was used because we wanted to be as objective as possible. If the wreck was upsetting in the first place, the picture will inevitably capture the mood.