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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Visual ethics’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

May 9: Ethics? What ethics? State-of-the-art photo retouching tips from 1946 (2)

The find of the day: An instruction manual on how to retouch photos for publication, published in 1946. The PetaPixel blog posted a number of pages from this book, Shortcuts to Photo Retouching For Commercial Use, by Raymond Wardell. PetaPixel’s Michael Zhang writes: Think of it as a “Photoshop 101″ book for photographers who came more than half a century [...]

April 19: A little TOO close (7)

I understand the concept of finding a page and then re-using the idea. I really do. I think nearly all of us have done that at some point. But when you use someone else’s idea, please try to vary it just a bit more than this: On the left is the Huntsville Times from April 8, 2010, designed by the [...]

April 18: Wrong again, New York Post (1)

The cover of today’s New York Post is notable for only one reason. Officials, in fact, are fairly certain those two men did not have anything to do with the bombings in Boston Monday. New York tabloid journalism just gets worse and worse this week. Read more — with helpful links — at Salon. That front page is from the [...]

April 17: An update on that manipulated Daily News photo (1)

Joe Pompeo of watchdog site Capital New York picked up our story about the doctored photo on the front of yesterday’s New York Daily News. The manipulated bit is just under the man’s front leg, on the left side of that picture. Here’s the original, as shot by the Boston Globe‘s John Tlumacki… …and here’s a side-by-side comparison of the [...]

April 16: I hate to make an accusation here, but… (53)

A blog reader has pointed out a discrepancy between a jarring but important picture the Boston Globe‘s John Tlumacki shot in the aftermath of yesterday’s Boston Marathon bombings and the version of that photo as used today by the New York Daily News. Here’s the original photo, as posted last night by the Boston Globe‘s Big Picture blog… …and here [...]

April 2: Why I don’t mind the spadea wrapped around Monday’s NYT

Yes, that was a spadea wrapped around the front of Monday’s New York Times. This is new for New York Times readers. And one sent me that picture today. Note how the front page portion of the spadea actually has news on it. Meaning that when the spadea is in place, the reader doesn’t really notice. The pull-away spadea wrap [...]

April 2: One of these front-page shenanigans a joke. One is not. Can you tell which is which? (6)

I have two things to show you this morning. Example No. 1: The front page of Monday’s Times Daily of Florence, Ala., where the editors decided to play a little April Fools’ joke on readers. Can you see the lead art? Here’s a slightly larger look. Yes, that’s the Loch Ness Monster, Godzilla and a UFO floating over the Tennessee [...]

March 19: Toronto’s Globe and Mail and ‘Crotchgate 2013′ (3)

Did you catch the front page of Monday’s Globe and Mail of Toronto, Canada? No? Here you go, then. Click for a larger view… Now, right away, a certain number of you readers are offended by that picture that seems to highlight the crotch of a young woman. An underage young woman, in fact: Championship figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond is [...]

Feb. 12: What lousy timing for such an obtrusive ad (4)

The folks at the Los Angeles Times had huge news to report this afternoon: Christopher Dorner — that cop-killing, ex-cop fugitive who’s been on the loose for the better part of a week, now, is smack in the middle of a shootout with police in Big Bear, Calif. (In fact, the standoff is still in progress as I write this [...]

Feb. 7: Fargo TV station (apparently) digitally erases newspaper’s downtown sign (2)

We’ve all seen the dreaded Photoshop scandals in newspapers and magazines. But today, we bring you the story of what appears to be the first TV new Photoshop incident. And it’s not the news they’re enhancing or unpleasant parts of the story or even a “wardrobe malfunction.” It’s the name of the TV station’s competitor. Here’s a screen cap of [...]

Jan. 25: Today’s huge sports news: Virginia Tech changes its mascot (2)

This just in from Raleigh… Buried in this little women’s hoops brief in today’s sports pages of the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer: The Virginia Tech Hokies have changed their mascot name to match their in-state rivals, the Virginia Cavaliers. Either that, or it’s another embarrassing error for my former paper. It’s the latter, of course. It’s been painful to [...]

Jan. 3: Today’s horrifying ad juxtaposition

One day, perhaps, enough time will have passed after the Newtown, Conn., shootings for a newspaper in that area to run an advertisement for a gun show on the same page with a story about the aftermath of the shootings. Today, however, is not that day. That’s from today’s Stamford Advocate. Stamford is less than 40 miles away from Newtown. [...]

Dec. 18, 2012: New York Daily News tries to shock readers today. And succeeds.

Hey, I definitely understand — and agree with — the seemingly large number of folks who are in favor of tightening controls over firearms — especially assault weapons — in the wake of the Connecticut shootings. And I admire newspapers that are willing to take a stand on the issue on their editorial page. But, wow. “Over the top” doesn’t [...]

Dec. 15, 2012: Why can’t ‘the media’ get the facts straight in Connecticut? (2)

As you’ve noticed, “the media” — i.e., we — are struggling with details in the Connecticut shooting case. When my daughter and I first heard about the tragedy, the body count was two or three. We had just left my wife’s school — she’s a special ed teacher at an elementary school — so the story definitely caught my ear. [...]

Dec. 15, 2012: There is no excuse whatsoever for this stuff (3)

I spent five years as an artist and designer for the Herald of Rock Hill, S.C. I’ve always taken great pride in the fabulous work done by that paper after my departure, nearly 20 years ago. Today, not so much. This is the jump page in today’s paper, addressing the horrifying shootings in Connecticut. But dominating the page? A giant [...]

Dec. 14, 2012: For your consideration… (3)

I understand these banner ads are sold in advance. I also understand it takes folks in digital news operations a while to get under the hood and remove an ad that creates a bad juxtaposition with horrifying news. But really, Hartford Courant? This was reportedly still on the Courant‘s web site at 2:30 this afternoon. That would have been nearly [...]

Dec. 4, 2012: Yes, that’s really what it looks like (1)

Yes, that is indeed a man who was pushed from the platform of a midtown New York subway stop Monday, on the cover of today’s New York Post. Yes, just as the headline notes, the man — 58-year-old Ki Suk Han, a resident of Queens, a husband and father of a college-aged daughter — was killed nearly instantly, the Post [...]

Nov. 26, 2012: At least they didn’t find it in the sewer (3)

Submitted for your approval: Sunday’s Miami Herald: The lead story: A “man-eating” crocodile – indigenous to Africa — has been found in South Florida. The story breathlessly tells of how dangerous these creatures are and what a serious threat these “maneaters” pose to the region. Yet, only one African croc has been captured: The one held by the wildlife biologist in [...]

Nov. 13, 2012: Why you should never, ever steal an image off the internet (14)

The folks at Denver’s ABC-affiliated 7News last night ran a story about the David Petraeus sex scandal, his “mistress,” Paula Broadwell, and her biography of Patraeus, All In. Except instead of pulling an actual copy of the book cover, somebody just ran a Google search and pulled in the first thing they found. Which, unfortunately for 7News, was an altered [...]

Nov. 13, 2012: Today’s Petraeus scandal tab covers

Today’s winner in the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal tabloid war: The New York Daily News. Daily News covers over the previous three days:     Average daily circulation for the Daily News is 579,636. The Post today peeled off a little front-page space to cover another sex scandal — the Sesame Street thing. Sigh… The “Sister Act” headline is [...]

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