Beyonce Knowles is the first African-American women to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair since Tina Turner in 1993.
Radar magazine online is reporting that insiders claim Beyonce Knowles' image on the cover of Vanity Fair this month appears several shades lighter than the pop diva's natural skin tone. According to the article, "a high-level source at Vanity Fair is alleging that the mag digitally altered Beyoncé’s image to appear several shades lighter."
In reality we shouldn't be surprised by such relevations. Magazine covers are among the most digitally altered images in the media, next to advertising of course. In fact, magazine covers are a form of advertising. Beyonce can now join, if found to be true, a growing list of celebs who have had their likenesses darkened, straightened, thinned, or whitened. Technology has always been a part of the business of selling the celebrity to the American culture -- one that is seemingly obessed with the notion of the star.
Beyonce now gets to be in line behind women like Kate Winslet, Jaimie Lee Curtis, Oprah Winfrey, and Martha Stewart, all of who have had their images altered in recent years.
In terms of digital ethics, these sorts of infractions stand out as more noticeable, yet there are plenty of others manipulations of public perception that never seem to get a second glance.
What we haven't yet come to terms with are all the other questionable practices associated with a world gone mad with news about celebrities. The news busines used to live and die by the crude expression, "if it bleeds it leads." Today, this expression has become passe. In a celebrity-driven media culture, the buzz word is all "hype."