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- Contributed By: Kevin Driscoll
Amazing video for sparking discussion around images of beauty in advertising and the mass media. Especially effective for use with students studying digital image editing as the film represents the role of tools like Photoshop in advertising.
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iWANEX Studios' portfolio features roll-over before-and-after images from their portfolio. Students will be able to see the changes that are made to photographs of celebrities to make them look "perfect". Skin blemishes, fat, body parts, wrinkles, and hair all disappear. This can be the start of a powerful (and empowering) discussion for your students.
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Great collection of digital photo manipulation in mass media imagery. Compiled by Dr. Hany Farid from Dartmouth.
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http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/
Big Topics for Discussion
Beauty in Advertising
Rather than using a traditional freewrite prompt such as a statement or question, I prepare the students for writing and then instruct them to begin their freewrite immediately at the conclusion of this video (which I will place twice.) This activity works best with students who are familiar with freewriting.
After freewriting, I typically offer a structured discussion activity (such as Eye on the Ball) to allow students to voluntarily share their thoughts in a safe environment. This also presumes that your group has established norms for safe discussion.
If your classroom works differently from mine, you might like to use the following link and allow students to explore for themselves first. This site has a portfolio of retouched celebrity images showing both before and after shots. The effect is astonishing.
Digital Image Manipulation in News Media
After considering the impact that digital image editing has had on their understanding of beauty, students are encouraged to explore the impact this technology is having on our understanding of the global community.
Note: many of the following links contain politically biased writing that should not be shared with students without intense discussion and qualification. You may find them more useful as sources for creating your own presentation or handout. I strongly advocate against sharing these links directly with students.
- Fake but accurate Reuters Doctoring Photos from Beirut
- Doctored Photo from the London Evening Standard depicts larger crowd in Baghdad
- Woman with photoshopped hijab on CAIR website
- Charlotte Observer Photographer Fired For Altered Colors
- OJ on the cover of Time / Condoleeza Rice in USA Today
The photos from Beirut are particularly useful because they clearly use the clone stamp tool which we require students to employ in their Face Transplant projects. They will likely identify this crude implementation of the tool and realize how even clumsy manipulation can reach the world stage.
Blogging assignment
Select one of the doctored photos we looked at in class today. Discuss your feelings about this photo. Would you have known it was doctored had you seen it initially? Do journalists and publishers have a responsibility to tell the absolute truth? If two people see the same event, do they always remember it the same way? Can you think of a way that we can rebuild the trust we are losing with mass media? (A strong response on this homework will be at least 3 paragraphs, and include your opinion backed up by SPECIFIC examples.)
Sample comments from 9th graders at PHA
I quickly recorded these comments from a group of ninth graders in response to the question: "As digital photo editing tools become more widely available, what effects will we see in society?"
- see it on TV more often
- more people over 20 will be aware of it
- become less prevalent as more people know
- younger people will be onto something different, think of photoshop as old news
- eventually stop because so many people will be able to detect it
- world will be a big lie / competition, won't ever stop because the media is so competitive
- people pay less attention to the news
- people will do more themselves
- big company will find a way to prove that a photo was edited and someone else will defeat this system
- games will sell more as graphics improve
- lots of people will edit their own images
- we won't trust pictures, magazines, celebrity images
- people will care less about how they look because they will know that not everyone is perfect see it on TV more often
- more people over 20 will be aware of it
- become less prevalent as more people know
- younger people will be onto something different, think of photoshop as old news
- eventually stop because so many people will be able to detect it
- world will be a big lie / competition, won't ever stop because the media is so competitive
- people pay less attention to the news
- people will do more themselves
- big company will find a way to prove that a photo was edited and someone else will defeat this system
- games will sell more as graphics improve
- lots of people will edit their own images
- we won't trust pictures, magazines, celebrity images
- people will care less about how they look because they will know that not everyone is perfect