Topic 3: Alterations in journalistic photography

Photo alterations in journalistic photography is unethical and unacceptable especially for press photographs. I think this because it is being un honest and photographing something the way it wasn’t seen. This may be making an event look worse than it is, or making a person look better than they do. I feel as though the media should be honest with there readers/watchers. Altering a photograph to make a place look more appealing or a person look more appealing is realistically wrong. I feel like the picture should be the exact same way it was taken, this would stop people from being so judgmental, knowing that the world isn’t perfect. Although it does make pictures seem more vivid and colorful. This helps with advertisements and marketing campaigns seeing an attractive person. Nobody is perfect so I guess there’s no way around photo alterations.

An example of this for instance is when we alter photographs to make ourselves look more attractive. We usually alter the brightness of the photograph as well as the temperature. In some cases people often make their teeth whiter too.

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Another example of this would the student that had taken a picture of her and her friends laying on the couch, a friend had altered the image to make it look like they were surrounded by wine bottles and beer cans. i think this can alter a person reputation, especially if they are seen as a non drinker and want to stay that way. I think this creates problems between families, because we're unsure of who exactly is being honest.


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Overall I think people alter images to make things seem more appealing. I think this is unethical because I feel as though people are being lied to when it comes to events as well as traveling around the world. We want to think the world is perfect like the pictures but unfortunately it is not.