It’s taken me awhile to post this item on my blog for reasons which I hope will become apparent to readers.
On Friday morning, 30 September 2011 on Daybreak, the early morning ITV news magazine, I listened to a news item about the influence of digital images on young people. The news item reported the emphasis being placed by Government on the need to educate children in schools about the uses made of air brushing and other digital tools to enhance and manipulate images of celebrities. The report showed a teacher discussing with a class of young children, “before and after” images of Brittany Spears in a bikini. I was immediately struck by two thoughts:
Firstly - it’s about time! Have those in power only just realised the impact of this kind of thing on the learning of children and, lets be honest, many adults too? Its not new and, no doubt, has been going on since the advent of print media. In and of itself, manipulating and changing images is not a problem. There are, for example, lots of perfectly valid reasons for changing images; and we all want photographs to show us at our best don’t we? Brittany Spears is no exception! What matters though, is whether viewers are aware that images can be changed, and know of the use to which the changed images are being put. This is particularly important when the purpose is to influence opinion, attitude or behaviour, hide the truth or misrepresent people or events. Maybe its time for images such as those that appear in the glossy magazines to come with warning labels, just like we do with food!
Secondly - I felt justified in the programme of teaching I began more than 5 years ago with pupils in a special school to deal with issues of reliability and validity when using the Internet and other media. I used before and after images of celebrities to develop pupils awareness and understanding of ways in which they can be manipulated or mislead and their skills in using computer software to change images in a variety of ways. I felt this was especially important given the increasing importance of multimedia computers and other digital devices in pupils present and future lives. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the work and I was congratulated by a number of teachers within my own and other schools for the innovative work I was doing. Brilliant? Well … not entirely! As teachers, we can never assume that others will place the same value on our work as we do. Despite my success with this work, I was threatened by my employers with disciplinary action for using inappropriate images with pupils. The two images specified in the threat were those I reproduce here. Both had appeared on the Internet and in well known magazines at the time and one was similar to those images of Brittany Spears used in the news item on Daybreak.
The threat was eventually withdrawn but not before I experienced significant stress and anxiety about my future and status as a teacher. It was this that was a significant factor in my decision in 2010 to resign from the job I loved doing and the kids I loved teaching.
