Photoshopping: Truth or Dare to manipulate...

Beneath the heavy black smoke epitomizing war, behind the cheerful college crowd highlighting diversity, and within the model body signifying perfection, lies the ever so subtle manipulative techniques used to convey slanted ideals. Photoshopping photos has for long been used as a way of promoting appeasing or often unappealing ideals that the public generally holds or dismisses.  It has become common practice to accentuate the features of an individual to make the person in question look more appealing in a photo (a general technique used by fatigued actresses to ensure they look their best or even better).  An equally common practice is highlighting or minimizing certain portions of a photo to convey a political message as seen with the notorious photo of the note inscribed by President George W. Bush.

 

The photo of the note with the text "I think I may need a bathroom break.  Is this possible?" was magnified and used as a tool to defame the character of the President.  The photo taken by Hany Farid of Dartmouth college was altered by Reuters.  Although, the note was indeed real, its magnification was a manipulation that caused a harmless, general photo to become the image of defamation and controversy.  This manipulation resulted in establishment of a false characterization, showing the President as imprudent or immature. The manipulation was significantly harmful as it not only negatively altered the context of the photo it also lead to the unjustified debasing of an autoritative figure.  Often times photos are used to show the truth, but many times the truth seen is not true at all.   

The Many Faces of Google

When someone coins the term search engine, the first site that comes to mind is often Google. Google is vastly popular in today's society, being utilized for academic and entertainment searches alike.  Although this is today's popular search engine, there are many other equally efficient search engines and many interesting features within Google itself that the general public fails to realize.  As Chris Nolan, the Assistant Librarian, discussed these vast features and search engines often obscured, I learned that Google has a lot to offer and there are certain techniques that can be utilized to easily find the best suited document for a certain need, along the way learning some amusing facts.

Google is the most widely used search engine to this day, not surprisingly it does a great deal of business to fund its growth. Google is primarily funded by the funds obtained from advertisements and sponsored links.  This search engine organizes results in the order of popularity or the number of links the site can respond back to and the reputation of the site.  For example CNN is ultimately given more weight than a unknown personal website.  In addition Google places searches in order of relevance, word frequency, and word arrangement.   The little "I'm feeling lucky" tab, the one many of us considered as a pestering unimportant hindrance on the search engine site is actually a manipulated advertising tool highlighting the efficiency of Google's organizing system by showing how searches would others be found-through time, difficulty, and luck. 

Google also utilizes indexes to relate keywords to specific websites.  Ironically, this has led to many acts of "vandalism" or means of debasing.  The term "google bombing" was created to describe the use of terms and relating them back to a particular link, setting it as an index.  This  "bombing" was the cause of linking "miserable failure" to particular politicians.  Another fault in the organization of searches, is the fact since popular links are linked to more they appear on the top of the search engine, whereas scholarily links are found more later, as they do not generally appeal to the general audience.  To counteract this problem, Google developed Google Scholar, a search engine offering primarily scholarily articles. 

Another way to obtain credible articles is to look for websites ending with .org, suggesting a non-profit organization, and .edu, suggesting an education institution.  However, these sites may not always be scholarily and may contain biases.  Sites with more advertisements also tend to be less scholarily, as a result most scholarily articles are devoid of advertisements.   Examining advertisements can also be used to determine the bias of the site.

The best bet for finding sufficient articles is to search more than one engine, as different engines gather different information.  Some common search engines include Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, and Ask.  However, directories have also been created to fulfill the needs of those looking for academic articles.  Such directories include the librarian's internet index and infomine.

Chris Nolan's discussion provided a great outlook on the vast majority of articles and documentations technology has enabled us to obtain.  In addition it showed that the growing use of technology has led many documents to be biased and often irrelevant and such articles must be avoided when conducting academic research.

Copy,right or Copyright?

From the years of elementary school, the issue of plagiarism has constantly been expressed.  "Copying others work is wrong", school teachers would explain to their young pupils.  As the years progressed, students were continuously advised not to plagiarize, the emphasis of not copying gradually elevating each year of school.  However, as students learned the basics of plagiarism, the only consequence of the act known to them was the possibility that they would receive a dreadful zero.  Many people are concealed from knowing the greater importance of plagiarism and copyright as well as the complexity of the subject matter.  I was one of those people.  The presentation given by Diane Graves, the librarian at Trinity University has opened my eyes to the gravity of the situation and the as well as the controversies surrounding it.  

 

Although the issue of plagiarism is a commonly known issue, I had little knowledge of copyright laws before the presentation. Copyright laws in the United States have dated back from the 1790's.  Then simply defined as who can copy and distribute work for a certain amount time, the laws have greatly been modified over the years, especially with the growth of technology and internet use. Copyright laws were implemented to provide protection to authors or creators of original works.  By providing an author ownership of his or her work, he or she can make copies and distribute the work and display them publicly.  The laws also partially promote creativity, calling for people to make original works rather than blatant or manipulated copies of others. 

To ensure that these laws are followed, the government has deemed it illegal for anyone to copy or distribute the work of others without gaining prior permission from the copyright owner.  However, materials from the Public Domain are exempt from this law. The Public Domain holds materials "that can be used without requesting copyright permission".  In essence they are publicly available for use.  Publications for which no author, publisher, or copyright holder can be found, also known as "orphan works" are not part of the Public Domain.  Many mistakenly believe that if the creator or author of a work is deceased or the item is out of print, that the work automatically enters the public domain.  This is not true. The term for copyright in 1790 allowed the work to be copyrighted for 14 years before going into the Public Domain, however, the current term for copyright in the US for published works is now defined as the author's life span plus 70 years.  If the work is produced by a public company then copyright extends from the date of publication plus 95 years. However, this general term was further lengthened by the Sonny Bonny Act, also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.  The bill passed in 1998 extended the term of copyright an additional 20 years. Copyright laws seem to be strict and the consequences a little more harsh than just receiving a bad grade. Copyright infringement is a felony.  Criminal cases and lawsuits are possible when considering copyright infringement. 

Copyright terms have generated much controversy within the nation, especially in regards to education. The extensive length of time before a work goes into the Public Domain makes it difficult to use numerous works for educational purposes. The "Fair Use" doctrine was implemented to allow limited use of copied material without gaining permission under justified reasons, such as for education.  However, this does not mean that all educational use falls under "Fair Use".  Strict limitations are administered.  Files online can be used the first time as "Fair Use", but its utilization for a second time requires the institution to pay per person.  This in my opinion is not particularly fair.  Education is ultimately being confined as the lengthy terms of copyright keep materials out of the Public Domain.  Although the "Fair Use" doctrine is supposed to promote education, it does not serve an efficient function in the escalating world of higher education.  As the number of students in higher education increases, doesn't that simply mean that in the end an institution must pay large amounts to use a document? As institutions use funds and money to provide students with documents, which will one day enter the Public Domain, they are losing money they can instead use to pay professors or provide better technology, ultimately to improve the quality of a student's education.  The government has stagnantly stressed the importance of education. I find it ironic that in a way they may actually be limiting it by unrealistically lengthening the term of a copyright.

Facebook: A race to "friend" as many people as possible or something much more.

With the growing addiction to computer screens and the internet, our day and age has become habituated with the use of technology to complete many social activities.  Whether it be from sharing photos, to joining groups, or even communicating with others, common tasks have been facilitated through the use of the internet.  The growth of Facebook is no surprise with our societies growing need to complete things quick and on a large scale.  

Although defined as a "social networking" site, Facebook has progressed into a much more meaningful tool, used to reveal the often obscure images of everyday people.  Ironically, it has ultimately developed into a predominate figure in the academic world.  'Facebooking' has become a daily and constant activity for nearly all college students, almost analogous to life sustaining activities for some.  Although, Facebook is primary utilized by students to keep in touch with friends or acquaintances, it has gradually progressed into a mean of venting out personal ideals.  As illustrated in the article "Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact" in the Christian Science Monitor, Facebook is being used to establish "groups", a novice replacement of fliers and petitions, to advertise social and political ideals.  In addition, the ability to post documents and media has provided an effective way of backing up many of these views which may otherwise be limited to a piece of paper in fliers.  It offers a quick and easy way for many students to participate in social activities and fight for a personal cause.  

I've been a stagnant opposer of "social networking" sites, but as my cousin typed my username and stood there waiting for me to type in my password I was forever constrained to the world of Facebook.  Amazingly enough, Facebook has opened me to various views and issues, often viewed through the status's of friends or the groups or events created and joined by others.  As stated by the article "Thoughts on Facebook" enables a way to share and subsequently learn.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html