Phototruth or photofiction?: ethics and media imagery in the digital age

Description

The use of electronic technology to digitize, enhance, and manipulate photographic images has provoked many ethical questions and raised doubts about the public's ability to trust photographs as representations of 'truth' or 'fact' ... Wheeler tackles these issues, providing a critical analysis of image manipulation and considering the repercussions of the digital age not only on photojournalism but also on nonfiction imagery in general ... provides a framework for critical discussion of photo enhancement and alteration.  Read more... "Picture of reality": Qualified objectivity in visual journalism -- Old-fashioned fakery: Photo manipulation inthe pre-digital era -- Digital media landscape: Liquid imagery, shaky credibility -- New threat: Digital deception and the loss of faith -- Rationales and excuses: Justifying staged and manipulated photos -- Ethical foundations: Doing the right thing -- Taking journalistic photographs: Traditions and techniques -- Processing journalistic photographs: Keeping it real -- Publishing journalistic photographs: Context and viewer preconceptions -- The "nonfiction photographic environment": A range of implied authenticity -- Introducing the reader's "Qualified expectation of reality": The quote standard -- Previewoing the guidelines for photo assessment: Defining "Photofiction" -- Photofiction tests 1 and 2: The viewfinder and nonfiction photography's process tests -- Photofiction tests 3 and 4: The technical credibility and obvious implausibility tests -- Wording of a disclosure -- Prominence of a disclosure test 5: The "Essence of the image" -- Cosmetic retouching: Skin deep? -- Applying the gudelines: Case studies -- Journalistic photography online: A possible future -- Fragile fortress of credibility.