This comes via Charles Apple. He recently shared this video, which showcases the new “content aware fill” feature in PhotoShop CS5:
As Apple said, this is worrisome for journalists because it will make it even easier for them to digitally manipulate photos, which is an ethical sin. Journalistic photos need to be unaltered. The only corrections that can be made to them are those that could have been done in the old days of the darkroom and film developing, such as adjusting levels, burning and dodging and cropping. Totally removing parts of the photos, such as this new feature allows, is unethical and shouldn’t be done.
I agree with Apple. More ethical training will be required to prevent this tool — which could be very beneficial in the right instances, such as in advertising or commercial photography — from being misused in the journalistic arena.
Todd R. Vogts, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of media at Sterling College in Kansas. Previously, he taught yearbook, newspaper, newsmagazine, and online journalism in various Kansas high schools, and he ran a weekly newspaper in rural Kansas. He continues to freelance as a professional journalist from time to time. Also, Vogts is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Journalism Education Association (JEA), and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), among others. He earned his Master Journalism Educator (MJE) certification from JEA in 2022. When he’s not teaching or writing, he runs his mobile disk jockey service and takes part in other entrepreneurial ventures. He can be reached at twitter.com/toddvogts or via his website at www.toddvogts.com.
