Lying through photos

Adobe Photoshop is a miraculous tool, that enables a designer to do almost anything they want. Just take a look at what it can do in the picture below!
1. Colour enhanced.
2. Smooth porcelain skin.
3. Bigger and healthier-looking hair.
4. Fuller chest.
5. Flatter stomach.
6. Beautiful background.
7. The list goes on...

[Source: Dailymail.co.uk]

In an article by Dreifus (2007) in The New York Times, discusses an interview with Dr. Hany Farid, an expert in digital forensics. He is hired by news organizations and scientific journals to authenticate the validity of images. It is a common scenario where tabloids manipulate their pictures by publishing photos of celebrities together, airbrushed photoshoot pictures, and so on.

I've seen tabloids that use this technique to either make celebrities look better, or worse. It is really entirely up to them, as they are in control when they make use of Adobe Photoshop, or any other image editing software for that matter. The main reason why this is happening is because "images have other effects that are different from words, particularly at affective, aesthetic and imaginative levels (Walsh 2006). With that said, the media place utmost importance in having images in their publications.

This allows images to be easily entered and modified. The result of this digital manipulation is a seamless, fast alteration of the photograph - and of its representation of "reality" (Ritchin 1991).

Question is: Is this ethical?

This has been a never-ending debate for a long time. Traditionally, it has been possible to crop a photo without damaging its integrity for publication purposes (Ritchin 1991). But, obviously photo editing has gone to much greater lengths now. Basically, it can be summed up in a quote by Professor Guenther Cartwright, "One person's enhancement is another person's alteration".

Journalists/Photojournalists just have to always prioritize practicing integrity in their work, keeping in mind to be considerate for all parties.

References

Ritchin F 1991, 'Photojournalism in the age of computers, The Critical Image: Essays on contemporary photography', Lawrence & Wishart, London. pp 215-224.

The New York Times 2007, Proving That Seeing Shouldn't Always Be Believing, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/02conv.html>

Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian journal of language and literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37.