The picture with many voices

Lately I’ve been noticing bias in the most obvious places: Pictures in the newspapers and pictures in the magazines.

The other day I picked up a Newsweek magazine while I was at my dentists office. I took notice at the magazine because it had Barack Obama on the cover. The article’s caption read something like this, “What it’s like to be black and white in America.”

The article also focused on the possibility of Obama winning a large majority of the black votes (it seemed like Newsweek was trying to give the opinion that Obama was courting black votes).

What I found incredibly amusing was the pictures inserted within the story. The picture that grabbed my attention (which I’m sure was the intent of the photography editor) was a picture of Obama surrounded by his security detail. The photographer made sure to get “a picture” that had all black security agents.

The reason I make this speculation is because in other pictures from different angles you can see that Obama had several white men that were part of his security detail.

As I turned the page, I noticed a picture of Obama’s wife, Michelle surrounded by an all black detail. Further in the, I see another picture of the audience – that’s right, a picture of three black women and one white.

Pictures are a definite source of perception. They help create and establish an opinion, a conclusion or a perception.

The place I see this occur the most is in Entertainment magazines. Just today I was in the grocery store and noticed a magazine that said “the skinny on the stars.” It had Angelina Jolie and several other stars that the magazine thinks are too skinny; however, it was quite obvious that Photoshop was part of the photo making process.

In my latest bias- translation search, I’ve noticed that structural bias is not only found in the words of news reporters on print or broadcasting, but it’s found in the pictures photojournalist take as well. Pictures speak a thousand words.