Dennis Dunleavy

Explicit and Implicit Bias: Pictures and Trust

 

 

There are several forms of favorable and unfavorable bias affecting public perception of the media in terms of digital manipulation. Here's a chart illustrating the possibilities of explicit and implicit bias in attitudes toward photojournalism.

 

Related articles

Bias and Photo Manipulation: Can you tell when a picture is a fake?

Implicit Bias and Why It Matters to the Field of Political Methodology

Imperfect Cognitions on Implicit Bias

Is There Anything We Can Do to Correct for the Fact That We're All a Little Bit Prejudiced?

Author Interview: Tony Northrup's "Stunning Digital Photography"

Once in a while, while looking around for interesting books about the subjects I teach, I find something that stands out. During a recent Amazon book search on digital photography books, Tony Northrup's DSLR Book: How to Create Stunning Digital Photography, caught my attention. The book, published in 2011, has met with great success and remains a top seller on Amazon. Tony worked on the text, design and photography for the book with his wife Chelsea Knowles. Turned out to be a great collaboration. 

 

Big Picture: What inspired you to write the book? 

Tony Northrup:  So many things! I love writing educational books--in fact, this was my 31st how-to book. Photography has been my passion for about 15 years, and I'd been shooting professionally for most of that time doing wildlife and travel stock photography and portrait and commercial photography. So, it seemed like a natural combination of my loves. 

I actually started writing this book after having a conversation with my partner (and now wife), Chelsea, about the future of learning. I imagined technology that combined the self-paced learning of educational books, the richness of video, and the teacher and peer support of a classroom environment. Then, I realized that with color ereaders/tablets and broadband Internet, I could make it happen right now.

But it would be far too expensive, time-consuming, and risky for any existing publisher to take on the project. So, Chelsea and I started Mason Press together and spent the next two years travelling to 15 countries to take original example pictures and videos for the book. And we're still working on it--we're constantly adding new content to it and giving the updates to our readers for free.

Big Picture: There are so many digital photo books on the market, why this one? 

Tony Northrup: There's no other book like this, about photography or any other topic. It currently has 3.5+ hours of video integrated into the book--short segments designed to support and clarify the written text. Free lifetime updates that I release every month or two, so the book gets better with time and stays up-to-date as photography trends emerge. We also have a virtual classroom environment on Facebook where readers can get peer and teacher support, for those times when you just want to raise your hand and ask a question.

Also, as an author I'm known for my easy-to-understand and practical style. In other words, no BS.

Big Picture: Who did you write the book for, what audience? 

Tony Northrup: Anyone who wants to take better pictures, from absolute beginners to professionals. 

Big Picture: Was it challenging to write? 

Tony Northrup: It was by far the hardest book I've ever written. Most photography books use stock photography taken by other photographers, but I insisted on Chelsea and I taking every photo in the book ourselves. After all, if you can't take a picture, how can you teach someone else to take it? So, we traveled around the world, seeking out the most amazing locations to best illustrate photographic concepts.

The video was the biggest challenge, though. While I had writing and photography experience, videography is an entirely different animal. We didn't have the budget for a film and production crew, so we had to learn how to record, produce, and publish video.

It's quite possibly the most complex book ever published... But I love a challenge. :)

What was your favorite part of the process of working on it? 

Definitely travelling the world with Chelsea.

We love travel, especially with a purpose.

Big Picture: How is the book doing so far? 

Tony Northrup: Better than anyone could have hoped! It's the top-rated photography book in the world. The ebook is the top selling photography book in the world. The paperback book is rising fast--there are still many gatekeepers that hold back small publishers such as Mason Press--but we're usually among the top 5 photography books on Amazon.

Thank You Tony for the time in preparing this post.