I found this photo on moillusions .

I don’t know if these shots were taken from an actual photojournalism, or were they just used as a theoretical example, but either way consider this a pretty powerful demonstration. See for yourself how our our perception can be easily shaped, and manipulated with by the media. I believe it isn’t necessary to explain this optical illusion. Photos speak for themselves. Imagine you worked for an administration that wants you to show how soldiers have no mercy when it comes to war. You would use the cropped picture on your left in that case. However, if you worked for the other side, and wanted to depict soldiers as human beings, you would crop the right part of the original photo. There you have it! Such powerful example amazes me, but in the same time scares the sh*t out of me. Which makes me think, should we be more skeptic to stories medias bombard us with?

That's an awesome example of how they can sell any point of view that they want you to believe.

There's three sides to every story.

[edit on 22-2-2010 by In nothing we trust]

Great post. This is such a great example because people will easily be able to come up with the meaning themselves; as opposed to having every concept considered and written out for them.

On a tangent I'm watching a rerun of lost with my girl. I truly believe that shows like this were made simply to make people completely retarded. I have never seen anything nearly as cliche. The mind will become more complacent the more you let it.

Struggling to understand is the only way to strengthen understanding.

this is only an example of cropping, which is 1 of 100s of tools in photoshop, think of what else there could be.

I "woke up" a few years ago. This photo brings the point home of why I take anything the media puts out with a grain of salt, it's getting to the point where they don't even try to hide their biased agenda. The "brain washing has already affected some, I mean for example look at the reaction Fox news gets.

It may be a bit off topic, but I took my daughter to see Sherlock a few weeks back. I was absolutely disgusted by the BS national Guard comercial they played before the movie. It played just like a movie too...all special effects and heroes and glory. WTF? Way to cram it down the throat ot impressionable youths. Yes its scary, yes you should be skeptical. Everything mainstream media is cropped and shopped for your viewing pleasure. They even synchronize the TV shows to relate to the news....how do they know whats gonna be on the news? Fabrication, lies, lies , lies.....and more lies.....right in your face.....

I'm sorry, but you have presented here nothing but an example of photo cropping. Perhaps that technique is new and unknown to you, but it has been around since the invention of the camera itself. It is part of the trade of photojournalism and editoring.

And of couse, evidently out there still awaits for you the discovery of the incrdible world of "photoshopping"?

And, yes, of course any of these techniques can and will be used for nefarious purposes

Originally posted by TrainDispatcher
I found this photo on moillusions .

I don’t know if these shots were taken from an actual photojournalism, or were they just used as a theoretical example, but either way consider this a pretty powerful demonstration. See for yourself how our our perception can be easily shaped, and manipulated with by the media. I believe it isn’t necessary to explain this optical illusion. Photos speak for themselves. Imagine you worked for an administration that wants you to show how soldiers have no mercy when it comes to war. You would use the cropped picture on your left in that case. However, if you worked for the other side, and wanted to depict soldiers as human beings, you would crop the right part of the original photo. There you have it! Such powerful example amazes me, but in the same time scares the sh*t out of me. Which makes me think, should we be more skeptic to stories medias bombard us with?

Your last line: "Which makes me think, should we be more skeptic to stories medias bombard us with?"

is what struck me.

I would answer, YES! Of course you should be skeptical of mass media! They are the vehicle of all propaganda and if you don't think so, just take a little journey down memory lane and into the archives of ABC,NBC,CBS, TIME National Geographic ,Popular Mechanics etc etc etc and all the rest and you will see directly what was being presented to the people during say, ww2 or Vietnam and now that much is declassified, you'll be able to actually compare what lies were being told against what the real story was.

Be wary of any and all new pieces that deal with discontent between your country and another. I guarantee you, the other country is being painted as evil or wanting to do you harm.

Be wary of any news item that deals with a war your country is currently in. I can guarantee you that you are not getting the whole picture delivered.

Be wary of any article that deals with the Israel/Palestine question because now you are dealing in doubles and triples of propaganda. No story can be trusted in regards to the middle east situation.

Seriously, this is common sense. We all would like to have a message we can trust, but that has never been the case and will never be the case as much as we may wish upon a star.

Unfortunately, teh world really is a hard and ugly place and our governments and military forces do hard and ugly things to ensure that we remain comfortable, fat and ignorant.

BUt now that the rot is affecting the core of our society, we will see a rip in the fabric here and there. The tatter will indeed grow if not remedied quickly. And when I say no one is fixing the tears, I mean it. NO one is.

Obama for instance has not ended the war in Iraq. He has remained status quo with it.

7 years after the start of the war in afghanistan, we are still routing a bunch of filthy mongrels now and then?

It took less time to stop Hitler's huge war machine! Are we to believe that some filthy beggars in caves have been draining our economies of billions to fight them? It's ridiculous all the way through!

You, me and everyone else involved is being lied to in an effort to reform the entire planet and bring everyone under one boot heel all at the same time in the name of peace and happiness.

In reality, it is about control for a very small elite group who wish to remain monarchs without actually telling anyone they are the king.

Be aware.

As a photographer/imager there are many tricks of the trade that are less obvious to the layman....

Perspective: A High perspective is viewed as being more honest. A low perspective photograph seems less honest ( Snake in the grass)

Colour: A major tool in emphasising a point...eg....Saturate the part of a photograh you want to make the viewer see first. ( Light camo is the good guy, Dark camo the bad)

Warm colours to make us view the intended focus point, or sharpness, again to draw us to a conclusion.

That is why so many of the true icon images are in mono (BW) or sepia. they are what you see, not what they want you to think you see.

Respects

F'd and the S.

I don't disagree with your point whatsoever.

But, about this photo ...

I understand why the "manipulation" (if you want to call it that – I'll call it appropriately cropping an image) was done. In the photo the man that is being detained is clearly no threat to the GI's in the picture. They're giving him water. The soldier standing next to the detainee (with his knee in the picture) is not holding the gun. Another soldier behind him is holding the gun. It's not pointed at his head. In fact, if the gun were to go off, the round wouldn't even hit the detainee. It's being held in a safe position. I can tell by the way the M4 is being braced by the secondary hand.

The crop in the photo was correct.

Had the gun been intended to cover the detainee - perhaps intentionally pointed at his head - then I could understand someone calling a crop like this "manipulation" ... this however, IMO, is not the case.

EDIT: To clarify ... I agree that media manipulation is a constant and vile thing ... however, I think you present a bad example using this image. If the un-cropped image had been used as an example of brutality or cruel treatment of detainees, then I would argue, as I don't believe this image shows that. It's just a bad angle.

[edit on 23-2-2010 by tyranny22]

What a co-inky-dinky.
The photo on the LEFT is from MSNBC.
The photo on the RIGHT is from FoxNews.

To get an accurate account of the truth, you need to channel surf and hit multiple sites on the web, as represented by the photo in the middle.

That photo was from a textbook I think, I thought I remember seeing it in one I took a long time ago on the media. The unit talked about context and manipulation.