I don’t know about anybody else, but I know that it is safe to say that between 10pm and 11pm on December 10th, roughly 80-90% of my twitter homepage was full of tweets related to the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. This is not me complaining about that at all, in fact I may have contributed a few of them also. It probably helps that I also follow Victoria Secret on twitter so they gave a ton of updates throughout the show and released many pictures of the models on the run way. So besides the fact that #VictoriaSecretFashionShow basically took over twitter for a little bit last night; I thought it was very interesting that during the show there was actually brief interviews of some of the angels talking about their interactions on social media websites. Many of the models agreed that using social media was very important in their jobs and that it was a great way to get out there to sell their image and their brands. One model even said that she almost never goes 3 or 4 minutes without checking her phone. They all have twitter and instagram accounts and some of the models have millions of followers and receive millions of likes on their pictures. After tonight, they probably have even more. Before, during, and after the fashion show the “angels” and the VS twitter account post sneak peaks and behind the scenes pictures that only excite their audience even more! Using social media is definitely to their advantage, especially on the night of the fashion show. All of the comments might not be positive, but most of them are, and hey, at least people are talking about it.
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Is photo manipulation the same as self manipulation for example make up? Some people would say that make up on a women could be as misleading as a photoshopped photo. In this photo who is the true self?
Photo manipulation… deal with it?
The more I think about it the more it seems that image manipulation is abundant not only in photography, but in other aspects of life. People at their very core make efforts to give off a certain image which they deem appropriate depending on their situation. Life is a stage on which we act. So is photo manipulation really that surprising? Think about the way in which people use makeup to change their appearance and the perpetual photoshopped world in which celebrities live, constantly wearing professional make up, even their social media images are manipulated. Is image manipulation a natural part of modern society?
Context and Caption
Amazing article on the way in which context affects one’s expectations of a photographs meaning. In this article a photographer had strangers pose together in intimate poses challenging peoples expectations of not only how people are supposed to act, but the way in which a photograph can be interpreted. Is it ethical for this photographer to mislead people even if it is not a negative manner?
Science and Media manipulation
In one of my Biology classes I just heard about something that occurred several years ago, but I think it fits well with this class/blog. A scientist by the name of Andrew Wakefield published a study back in 1998 stating that vaccines had been proven to cause autism. The paper was retracted first in 2004 and then in 2010 completely, due to fraudulent research. In the 10+ years time that this study was out, the amount of parents vaccinating their children plummeted significantly because of the accusations to their links with autism. Not only is this a terrible lie and manipulation of science, but it’s crazy how much media can cause people to change their actions. Because this article was published in a journal, people believed it and stopped vaccinating their children. This is a great example how media, in this case journalism, manipulated almost the entire world to believe one thing and how much of an influence it really has. To this day, some parents don’t vaccinate children because they still believe this. We can’t let media run our lives and day by day it seems to be happening.
Beautiful doesn’t mean perfect
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/disabled-mannequins-video_n_4379586.html
This doesn’t particularly relate to social media, but I found this video to be very inspirational. An organization for the disabled called Pro Infirmis had several people come in who had disabilities. They took notes on their physical appearance and also their measurements in order to create mannequins based off them. They even placed some of the mannequins in store windows. I think this is important because the media. especially the fashion industry, manipulates people to believe that there is an ideal looks, size, and shape to consider people beautiful. This video is great awareness of how this is almost never true. These people are disabled yet the people viewing the mannequins in the store windows didn’t seem too concerned about it. More things should be done like this in order to make people understand there is no definition of beauty. Everyone is beautiful in their own way.
Modern Life in Social Media 