12 | February | 2020

The importance of having honest and non-photoshopped photos in newspapers is critical. They are critical because citizens trust that their news source will have truthful information. Having truthful information helps readers trust the press. Photoshopped/edited photos could lead to misread information.

Image taken from: http://www.alteredimagesbdc.org/oj-simpson

OJ Simpson was a famous running back in the NFL. According to Britannaca, he was accused of killing his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. There were many different rumors and photos going around talking about the trial. Many newspapers showed variations of photos that were taken.

In Time magazine they had edited Simpson’s mugshot to be darker. The editor claimed that his edits had “no racial agenda.” He had also said “I used my long-established style to give the image a dramatic tone.” Time even showed the before and after of the edited photo. The people who viewed these images could assume a lot of different things just from one edited photo. The different things could be spread and turn into a controversial argument.

According to the New York Times, in 2015 there was a competition called the “World Press Photo Competition.” Many people had to be disqualified from the competition due to “manipulation or excessive digital post processing.” To learn more about this event, and the actions that were taken during and after it, you can visit “Staging, Manipulation and Truth in Photography”. This is yet another example of how important it is to not edit your photos.

The reasons having unedited photos is so important because it makes people get the wrong impressions, and it could affect editors or photographers for the rest of their lives.

Image taken from: https://www.quora.com/Where-do-Japanese-people-get-the-surgical-masks-that-they-wear-when-theyre-sick

As we all know, sickness and disease are very common parts of our lives. Everybody knows that eventually they will get sick, most of the time it’s no big deal and all you need to do is ride it out. We know how diseases like the common cold are spread and what we can do to prevent ourselves from getting sick. But even with these precautions, people still get very sick each year.

One virus that has been in the news recently is known as The 2019 Novel Coronavirus or simply just the coronavirus, it is part of the corona family which houses other viruses such as the common cold, or influenza.

The outbreak started in a town that has been identified as Wuhan, China. Wuhan has since been quarantined, but not before hundreds of people fled the village and surrounding towns.

This virus is spread through airborne particles and is very contagious, it is passed from person-to-person. But unlike influenza, the coronavirus currently has no vaccine.

In the US, there are 5 states with confirmed cases of the coronavirus. According to the CDC, there have also been 29 countries with confirmed cases of the virus. China has reported 28,000 confirmed cases with more than 560 coronavirus deaths, according to The Washington Post.

There are more viruses that belong in the coronavirus family, such as the common cold, which was mentioned earlier, and the viruses that caused the global outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

It is believed that this virus spread to humans from animals, like the MERS and SARS viruses did but they are still unsure about what the specific cause of this outbreak was and when they will be able to find a cure.

People are being warned not to travel to China and returning travelers are being tested and detained for 14 days to check for the virus.

The best way to avoid getting sick is to avoid anybody who has been diagnosed with the virus, and your wash hands frequently while avoiding any unnecessary trips into crowded areas.

The Official Online Newspaper of the Highland Park Scots