Friday 20th of November -- WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get

1. Photo manipulation has been regularly used to deceive or persuade viewers, or for improved story-telling and self-expression. Should newspapers be banned from using manipulated images? Is there a need for legislation on this issue?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_manipulation#Political_and_ethical_issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Hajj_photographs_controversy

http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/carson/papers/reynolds_cepe2007.pdf

2. Photographers at The New York Times (NYT) recently adopted a new photographic technology called High Dynamic Range (HDR) which provides a representation of reality that differs from the one provided by old technologies. Questions like Which one seems more natural? raise concerns about the use of these technologies in the media. So, should The New York Times and other publications consider allowing news photographers to use this HDR process for giving readers a clearer view of the world?

General discussion on: http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/thursday-puzzle-whats-wrong-or-right-with-this-picture/



3. Digital photography is also altering our perception of beauty. In the cover of popular magazines, models are “portrayed” altering their beauty with the use of digital photography. Do you think this is a form of ad-art or this distort the real perception of beauty and might trigger to much pressure on girls to look more beautiful (maybe pushing girls into anorexia)?

http://www.adrants.com/2006/10/dove-illustrates-why-perception-of-beauty.php

http://mashable.com/2009/09/24/photoshop-disclaimer/

4. How does digital photography impact online commerce and retailing in general? In a digital age where a large portion of the retail market takes place before the items are viewed, accurate representation becomes more important and at the same time digital photography makes mis-representation cheap (see abstract in Lewis, G. (2009): Asymmetric Information, Adverse Selection and Online Disclosure: The Case of eBay Motors). If sales contracts are entered based on mis-represented information, then a court might be able to decide given both the photo and the item, but might there also be a role for legislation to weight the law against the photographer before the contract is entered? Is the use of digital photography contractible?