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negative effects of media on human behaviour
photography in society
media and human behavior
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Media is everywhere. In the contemporary world, it is seen on the highway, on the sidewalk, on the internet, and on television. Due to its omnipresence, there is no escaping the looming, almost orwellian effects that this propaganda can have on humankind. It has changed the way society thinks, acts, and functions. Visual media resides in the foreground of this movement, particularly because of its false portrayal of people, places, and things. The deception of an audience, especially through the manipulation of photography, has been around since the invention of the camera, and the inherent results are both positive and negative (“Photo Alteration”).
When the photograph was invented on January 7th, 1839 by Louis J.M. Daguerre, it’s sole purpose was to represent an image as accurately as possible (Daniel, Malcolm). His process was known as the daguerreotype, and the results were remarkably detailed. From the moment of its birth, photography served two primary uses, as an artistic medium and as a valuable scientific tool. Daguerre promoted both approaches to his invention by taking still life photos for creative expression, and taking photos of a dead spider through a solar microscope for anatomical research (Daniel, Malcolm). On March 8, 1839 Daguerre’s laboratory burned to the ground. Regretfully, the majority of his work was lost, but photography lived on. Artists began to further explore the possibilities of this modern medium, and less than a decade after its societal induction varying techniques were being exploited in order to generate images that differed from the actual scene, such as when the Soviet Union manipulated photos in a 1940’s campaign that portrayed certain political leaders more favorably than o...
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Susan Sontag discusses the reality of the modern person’s addiction with “needing to have reality confirmed” by photos. Sontag says “we accept it as the camera records it” then goes to say “this is the opposite of understanding.” I agree with her wholeheartedly, as accepting photos as they are limits ones understanding of the world. The trust in photography led to the rise of pictures hoaxes, in which people take pictures out of context and assign it a new background; as well as Photoshop, which becomes increasingly popular as the years go by. Photoshop allows one to manipulate a photo to portray what they desire it to.
Gustavon, Todd. Camera: A History of Photography from daguerreotype to Digital. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2009. Intro p.2
In the chapter, “The Mirror with a Memory”, the authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle, describe numerous things that evolved after the civil war, including the life of Jacob Riis, the immigration of new peoples in America, and the evolution of photography. The authors’ purpose in this chapter is to connect the numerous impacts photography had on the past as well as its bringing in today’s age.
Photography developed as an art form primarily in the mid to late 19 th century, partially as an alternative to lengthy sittings for a painted portrait. As a result, many of the early photographs were formal, posed still portraits. Some view...
The mass media carries with it unparalleled opportunities to impart information, but also opportunities to deceive the public, by misrepresenting an event. While usually thought of as falsifying or stretching facts and figures, manipulation can just as easily be done in the use of photography and images. These manipulations may be even more serious – and subtle – than written manipulations, since they may not be discovered for years, if ever, and can have an indelible and lasting impact on the viewer, as it is often said, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. One of the most significant images of Twentieth Century America was the photograph of a migrant mother holding her child. The photograph was taken during the Great Depression by photographer Dorothea Lange, and has remained an enduring symbol of the hardship and struggle faced by many families during the Depression Era. This image was also an example of the manipulation of photography, however, for it used two major forms of manipulation that remain a problem in journalistic photography.
This trend also found roots in the emergence of photographic technology, originally developed in the early 1800’s and advanced continuously until the present. During this time, artists and photographers suddenly found that they could much more easily captur...
If you do not like photoshop ignore it, in fact the reason it is ok to photoshop celebrities is because it’s there job. Some people say it is not ok because it harms them. I think that photoshopping is ok because if you know what that person actually looks like then it doesn’t matter.
The industrial revolution created the societal circumstances necessary for photography to be born. The first and most obvious condition is that of technological advancement. Industry was advancing and expanding so rapidly that history appeared to be distancing itself from the present with unusual speed. Up until this time period life had not changed much from decade to decade or even from century to century. Photography’s popularity during the industrial revolution was, in large part, a result of people’s desire to slow down the perceived acceleration of history (McQuire). It has been argued that the acceleration of historical time is “leading to the possible industrialization of forgetting” and that “we will not only miss history…we will also long to go back to space and times past.” (Virilio)
What is a photograph? The simplicity of taking a photograph leads many to ponder its artistic value. Yet, it is undeniable that there are some photos that cause an emotional reaction deeper than simply observing a recorded point in time. Surely, there are photographs that cause more reaction than some modern art pieces. There seems to be two types of photographs. The first classification is the ‘time capture’ photo – an image with the sole purpose of recording a particular event or point in time. The second nature of a photo carries a ‘deeper meaning,’ which has the ability to change the observer’s mood and cause a reaction. But what distinguishes these two varieties? There are a couple factors. The first is the ability of the photographer to make a photograph of ‘deeper meaning’ out of an obscure or random scene. The second is the capacity of the viewer, whether viewing the photo in a museum or in the privacy of his/her own room, to interpret the image as art. A photo can be classified as art when the thoughts and interpretations of both the photographer and the viewer overlap. In this case, any photo is taken beyond the simple ‘time capture’ classification.
Controversies, petitions and experiments. Along with many questions and arguments imposed on the topics of photo manipulation, many controversies, petitions and debates have been raised. Many “Photoshop Fails” and overuse of photo-editing in photography competitions have created many controversies and the ethics of photo manipulation are widely questioned and discussed.
"History of photography and photojournalism.." History of photography and photojournalism.. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .
loosening the spesific creativity in each picture. When people see the major mass of photos
Have you ever seen a painting or picture that captivates you and directly stirs up emotion within you? More than likely, you have. Usually, viewers merely observe the picture and enjoy the way it looks and how it makes them feel. But, have you ever asked yourself, “why?” What about the picture makes it pleasing to the viewer? With each strategy the photographer uses creates their own touch and passion that floods all over the picture. The emotional connection nearly goes unnoticed for when the picture is well photographed, the viewers experience the sensation in their subconscious. This is one of the most powerful tools that a photographer holds in their hands. If one can become a master of manipulating how the photo affects its viewers, the said photographer can potentially maneuver people’s minds and thoughts with one click of a button. The time spent with my mentor has opened up the door for me to tap into that power though the use of background, focus, shutter speed, angles, and most importantly, lighting. Even with all these techniques, the person behind the camera must remember that creativity must be at the forefront of all operations. Caleno (2014), when writing about the basics of capturing a beautiful moment in a picture commented, “If we want to be creative we must drop these pre-conceptions and start looking at things from a small child’s innocence.”
In today’s society, there is a strong indication that the status of images is improving. We live in a mediated blitz world of images. They fill our newspapers, magazines, books, clothes, billboards, computer monitors and television screens as never before in the history of mass communication. We are becoming a visually mediated society. For many, understanding of the world is being accomplished, not through reading words, but by reading images. Ever since I became a Mass Communication major, I noticed that the television culture is replacing words as the important factor in social communication. Words will be reserved for only bureaucratic transactions through business forms and in books that will only be read by a few individuals. Reading is losing to watching because viewing requires little mental processing. Visual communication has the ability to convey messages, but this “language” means nothing to those who can only read words and not images.