Misleading cover page of "The Economist"

The New York Times blog, Media Decoder, made a fuss about a recent front cover of The Economist. The June 19th issue features an altered image of Barack Obama. The original image, which features a man and a woman standing alongside Mr Obama, was shot by Reuters photographer Larry Downing.

Why is such photo editing ‘taboo’? Presumably because it defies the concept underlying photojournalism, that of the (near) truthful depiction of a real event through an eyewitness account. It should be a reliable testimonial. Altering a photograph using Photoshop, or via ‘creative’ cropping, is considered unethical in photojournalism. That is tampering with ‘evidence’.

The unaltered image, shot on May 28 by a Reuters photographer, Larry Downing, shows Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard and Charlotte Randolph, a local parish president, standing alongside the president. But in the image that appeared on The Economist’s cover, Admiral Allen and Ms. Randolph had been scrubbed out, replaced by the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico.

It was the ideal metaphor for a politically troubled president.This picture makes readers think in the way that the president is very concerned about BP problem and that he came to the beach just to think of the possible solution for this problem.

Often editors use their techniques to mislead us. Unfortunately we can see that in almost all media, such as magazines, advertisements, newspapers, etc.

Homework #3: Charming ad of SKY vodka

        Nowadays, alcohol addiction became a huge problem among adolescence as well as among adults. the consumption of alcohol grows with every day and what helps it to grow is media. Media manipulates many of us and the don't mind if this can harm us; as long as they make big money they don''t care how many people will pass away. Advertisers use different techniques to mislead us and persuade us to buy the product. I will discuss the advertisement of SKYY vodka.

          When you first see this ad you notice happy, rich, beautiful couple who drinks SKY vodka, someone may think that SKYY vodka is magical and it makes you happy if you drink it. However, this ad uses different types of techniques of persuasion to mislead us, such as card-stacking, beautiful people and simple solutions. I will explain each of this term and then prove how they are using it in this ad.
         Let's start with card-stacking. Card-stacking provides a false context, telling only part of the story, to give a misleading impression. By looking at this happy couple you may think that SKYY vodka is the reason for their wealth and happiness; however, sometimes we need to think more critically. This ad provides us only one part of the story; however, we don't what happened after this moment. think of that in this way, they are having fun and they are happy while they drink this alcoholic beverage but do you know what happened after it? May be they got drunk or they were not even a couple or they robbed someone, no one can know that but the advertisers. They try to show us what will happen if we drink SKYY vodka, however we don't know the consequences of it.
        Another persuasion technique is beautiful people. Beautiful people technique includes using good-looking models in ads to suggest we’ll look like the models if we buy the product. Don't you think that advertisers of SKYY vodka meant that? This advertisement encourages us to buy this product by showing us the beautiful models who drink this beverage and they persuade us that if we buy it as well we will be as beautiful as they are. They use both sexes in the ad, female and male, so that means that their targets are both females and males. By looking at  this ad women may think that may be after this ad she will become as beautiful as this model and she will get such a handsome men, the same about men.
        Finally, advertisers use the persuasion techniques that is called simple solution. Simple solution is about avoiding complexities, unless you’re talking to intellectuals. Attach many problems to one simple solution. This ad claims that by drinking SKYY vodka we can solve all our problems and become as happy, rich and beautiful as this couple. However we should not forget about the post-effects of all alcohol beverages. We may stay happy for limited about of time but after some time we may pass out and get in to the hospital and this is the most positive ending. Many people get aggressive after drinking alcohol and they may hurt others.
      In conclusion, unfortunately many people don't understand the reasons of these type of advertisements and may be soon people will know about different persuasion techniques of the ads and they will stop buying the products that harm them and others as well. In addition,this research will prove my words because this research analyses all ads of SKYY vodka.