Staged Photographs: A Media Problem
Since the mid-1800s, photographers and graphic artists alike have altered their camera’s output. Wartime images seem particularly prone to distortion, as propaganda demands drama to win hearts and minds. Thankfully, blogs have investigated recent images that seem too good (or too awful) to be true and these writers have shown the world that we need to keep a sharp eye trained on what the media offers to an international viewing audience.
Staging photos and videos is one problem within the realm of altered images that has existed for decades. Take, for instance, the notorious “Case of the Cottingley Fairies” as told by the James Randi Educational Foundation:
“In 1917 two innocent-seeming English schoolgirls, 16-year-old