Fraud, Lies & Photoshop

In photojournalism, when is it appropriate to use PhotoShop? When is it not appropriate? Does altering the photograph mean altering the truth?

Adobe Photoshop is a powerful tool that can alter the images that have been previously developed at a particular time and place. The program's dynamics is endless considering one can manipulate an image in any way they please. Photoshop can be used in a variety of ways and people have now mastered the "craft" of Photoshop enabling them to let their imagination run freely. Users of the program can easily bend the truth of a photo/image so precisely, that they can influence the viewers to believe that what they see. Viewers then become mislead and the truth of the photo is questioned.

Journalism, in particular Photojouralism, is capturing a moment at one snap of a picture. It is defined as a dicipline of collecting, analysing, verifying, and presenting the news regarding current events, trends, issues, and people (according to Wikipedia.com). So when you incorporate photo, the news should be more precise and exact because you capture a moment while it is occurring. People should not be changing the photo whatsoever because that would imply modifying the truth.

Some may argue that there is no negative way in using Photoshop, but there is no doubt that the truth is influenced when alterations occur on an image. Adobe Photoshop can also have a positive affect on images too, in that it can improve the quality for the viewers. Photoshop can be used to make a picture brighter, sharper, and detailed, so there are some positive ways to use the Photoshop program. It is certainly appropriate to use it if the photo/image comes out different than you intended to and all you want to do is make the picture more detailed and enhanced. I believe if the focus of the pictures (i.e. person, buildings, surroundings, objects) is being changed, then that is going to far, but what i'm basically trying to say, is that Adobe Photoshop should be only used to enhance pictures in photojournalism.