My Own Picture That Lies

"Doctored images are troubling because they can mislead scientists and even derail a search for the causes and cures of disease." As this quote from the article states, altered images can be very destructive, especially in the scientific community. Misrepresenting scientific images can lead to misinterpretations of data and studies therefore posing serious problems for research efforts. This article mentions that images are being more closely monitored in order to prevent the publishing of inaccurate information. I personally believe that this is a very important step to take. We live in a world full of misleading information, such as photo shopped images of celebrities in magazines. However, it is important that academic information, such as scientific data, is portrayed as accurately as possible.

In my altered photo found on Google images, I chose to replace the object which the boy is holding. He originally held an apple; however, as you can see, he now holds a rather unhealthy substitute: a hamburger. I then formatted the the picture of the boy as black and white in order to emphasize the negativity of the image and allowed the hamburger to remain colored in order to suggest it as the sole reason for the issue at hand. I chose this image in order to portray the negative effects of unhealthy foods upon children. A health magazine might perform similar actions on photos placed in its articles in order to support whatever issue it is addressing. In this particular case, fast food could be blamed for the current issue of childhood obesity; however, in actuality the boy was originally eating an apple. Altering photos for such reasons is wrong because it does not provide an accurate representation of actual circumstances and can therefore cause viewers to become misinformed about current health situations.