Shattered Lens – Photo Bias Exposed in the Wire Services
December 9, 2010 10:23 by Honest837ReportingImages have unprecedented power to mold public opinion. The three international wire services – the Associated Press, Agence France Press / Getty Images and Reuters – have assumed a central role in presenting images from Israel and the Palestinian territories to the world.
HonestReporting first became intimately involved in the role of the wire services in photo choice when we exposed Reuters’ 2007 calendar gaffe, which followed the Fauxtography affair from the 2006 Lebanon War.
Since then, we have covered numerous instances of photo bias, including a blatantly staged photo of Hamas taken by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem in 2008. Reuters continues to publish Salem’s photographs of the region, including another series of staged images we documented shortly after the Gaza flotilla in June.
Until now, however, nobody has commissioned a study to examine the imagery produced by the wire services to see whether there are any identifiable trends that may indicate bias.
To find out if Israel is being treated fairly by the wire services, we embarked on a three-month in-depth study of how Israel is portrayed by all three wires. This study covers the period that began with the Gaza flotilla on May 31, 2010 and ended with the murder of four Israelis at the hands of Palestinian terrorists on Aug. 31, 2010.
The study was carried out by David Katz, a professional photographer with 25 years experience working at the highest levels in the media together with HonestReporting. Over three months, some 13,500 photos from Israel and the Palestinian territories were reviewed.
The study revealed a pattern of double standards and bias that has become a norm in coverage of the region, particularly in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Distortions of images mostly fell into the following categories:
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Deliberate Staging
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Use of wide-angle lenses and photographer positions to make photos appear more dramatic than the reality
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Photographers choosing positions that affect the events they are shooting
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Editorializing in photo captions.
The study did not reveal significant instances of photo manipulation through programs such as Photoshop. While dramatic examples of digital photo manipulation have been uncovered in the past, most notably during the Second Lebanon War, the study found that photo bias against Israel consisted largely of subtle techniques such as staging images.
To ensure objectivity in the study, HonestReporting used the wire services’ stated missions (Appendix 1) as its standard, comparing the missions to actual performance.
Over the coming weeks, we will be releasing the findings of our study, starting with an examination of the images produced during and after the Gaza Flotilla incident.
Read the whole of the Shattered Lens series:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PART 1 - THE GAZA FLOTILLA
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PART 5 – BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PART 6 – PHOTO BIAS IN DEPICTIONS OF THE IDF
EXPOSED: Photographer Reveals Market, Not Truth, Behind Conflict Images | Old Hag
8:35 am
Oct 12, 2011
[...] the reality of the clashes they cover, reinforcing many of the conclusions of HonestReporting’s Shattered Lens, a six-part study of photo bias in the wire [...]
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EXPOSED: Photographer Reveals Market, Not Truth, Behind Conflict Images | The Conservative Papers
12:53 am
Oct 13, 2011
[...] the reality of the clashes they cover, reinforcing many of the conclusions of HonestReporting’s Shattered Lens, a six-part study of photo bias in the wire [...]
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R_not
6:08 pm
Jul 02, 2012
Well, stop whining and start learning from them and get into the propaganda part of this war. If anyone doesn’t think we are in a war with islam – they haven’t read history nor the koran, hadith, sira or any sharia law. Identifying the problem is only part of the problem. Now we need to start taking action.
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Video: How to Fake an Anti-Israel News Photo | Blogs about Israel aggregation
8:27 pm
Jul 02, 2012
[...] For more on anti-Israel photo bias, check out HonestReporting’s Shattered Lens – Photo Bias Exposed in the Wire Services. [...]
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Fauxtography « Bugie dalle gambe lunghe
8:59 pm
Jul 11, 2012
[...] del Fauxtography è un problema serio, come evidenziato dal nostro studio approfondito Shattered Lens. E appare chiaro dal fatto che né il Sunday Times né The Indipendent hanno sentito la necessità [...]
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Shattered Lens – Photo Bias Exposed in the Wire Services | A Lot Of Coffee and Sleepless Nights
4:56 pm
Nov 28, 2012
[...] From Honest Reporting [...]
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From Al-Masara to the Wall Street Journal: A Case Report of Palestinian Fauxtography « American Infidels
10:40 pm
Dec 12, 2012
[...] retrospect, the photo-op was a classic case of fauxtography. According to a study sponsored by media watchdog Honest Reporting and performed by professional photographer David Katz [...]
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VIDEO: How to Fake an Anti-Israel PALLYWOOD News Photo « World-Media-Watch
10:24 pm
Dec 19, 2012
[...] – and demand that a correction be published. Read more on anti-Israel photo bias: http://honestreporting.com/shattered-lens-photo-bias-exposed-in-the-wire-serv… Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
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7. Video – How to Fake an Anti-Israel News Photo | Blogs about Israel aggregation
4:44 pm
Jan 03, 2013
[...] looked at in a video focusing on a photo of children who appear to be behind bars. The picture was originally debunked in our major study of photo bias in 2010. But appeared again on the Independent [...]
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2011 Media Bias Review | The Conservative Papers
1:24 am
Apr 04, 2013
[...] groundbreaking “Shattered Lens” study of photo bias in the wire services (page [...]
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Palestinian Fairy Tales | The Montreal Jewish News
1:16 pm
May 23, 2013
[...] I have conducted a wider study on this called Shattered Lens. [...]
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Tecniche della menzogna. « Notizie « ADI – Amici di Israele
6:42 pm
May 27, 2013
[...] del bravo Marco Reis a “Shattered lens” ( cioè “lenti frantumate”: http://honestreporting.com/shattered-lens-photo-bias-exposed-in-the-wire-services/) che classifica minutamente (ma in maniera assai divertente) le tecniche dell’inganno [...]
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