Manufactured Fictions In The Age Of Instagram
Fake News
Fake news is quite common these days especially with social media giving the people the ability to speak to the world, the recent coronavirus pandemic is a prime example of this as there was a lot of false information circulating social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. As these posts are marketed towards millions of people and start to gain some traction they will tend to go “viral”, throughout the pandemic the spread of false information got to a point where some social media platforms had to implement a fact checking policy on posts that revolve around the COVID-19 pandemic. Expanding on this topic of fake news and social media, social media in general features edited photos of peoples faces making them look different to what they actually look like in person, I used to date a “TikTok Influencer” and I know she used to spend hours editing videos and photos to ensure she matched a certain criteria and was consider “pretty” to other peoples standards. This is common throughout social media these days as everyone wants to fit in and be included, a good example of this would be how beauty standards have changed to an image of lip fillers and lots of make-up alongside photo-filters to mask impurities and/or flaws.
“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”
– Marshall McLuhan
The quote above from Marshall McLuhan saying “we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” rings true in todays society as we developed technologies like computers, smartphones and wearable tech that has been incorporated into our lives and changed the way we live – therefore shaping us as humans. I find it scary how fast technology has developed over the past decade or two and where it will be in the next 10 decades as well, the possibilities that we will have with technology in the future will be things that we dream about today thinking that it’s impossible or it can’t be done. Social media has also shaped the way we live and the way we communicate with each other as we are now able to contact people directly either through video chat, phone call or private message which wasn’t as accessible 20-30 years ago.
Tom Cruise Deep Fake
In our lecture this week we took a look into something a little off topic, at the start of the lecture we went over the Tom Cruise deep fake account that was creating videos of the renowned actor although it was never his action. These videos were created through a series of artificial intelligence and 3D modelling techniques to replicate Tom Cruise’s face and then using a lookalike to film the actions in the video. While I was watching this video I thought it really was Tom Cruise at first but then it started to display the errors in the deep fake that were noticeable, I found the overall idea of this extremely scary due to the fact that this is actually possible and could be used for dangerous purposes. These videos were posted through the social media platform TikTok where they started to gain a huge following although they were open about it being a Tom Cruise impersonator. I find it interesting how this technology will develop over the years along with many other industries but I’m also a little worried about our future as this technology could cause a lot of damage.[1]
We looked at an AI resource that is used by a lot of big name brands like the BBC, VICE, The Daily Mail, Forbes and The Washington Post alongside a handful of others. I have never come across this website before and it was interesting to know that something like this exists, artificial intelligence images can have their benefits though as their are a lot of laws to consider if you are publicly using their face, using AI images can bypass that as you can create differences to the facial structure without ruining its realism.[2]
I have included a link to the website here.
The Power Of Social Media
Social media is such a powerful tool for businesses in the modern world and I would agree that it is not something that can be overlooked if you’re trying to market yourself or a product. Although social media is good for this reason it also has a lot of negatives and down-sides like how easy it is to spread misinformation in addition to certain public figures having a huge influence on certain platforms, a good example of this would be Elon Musk on Twitter where he could post 1 tweet and manipulate the whole stock market due to having influence over his supporters and followers. Another good example is Donal Trump and his influence on the world when he was on social media, this got to a point where Jack Dorsey and Twitter had to ban Trump from Twitter and remove his account from the platform. Although I agree with Twitters decision I do this level of centralisation a bit worrying as that could happen to me or my business some day, I think these sort of events really spark my interest in decentralisation, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies due to giving power back to the people and giving them control of their life.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
We took a look at the image above that was taken by renowned photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, we wanted to discuss some of the meaning behind the image to try and figure out what the subject of the photograph actually way.
“Why is the staircase so “soft”? Camera shake? Like the angle though.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson is a renowned French photographer and photo-journalist whois considered to have pioneered the genre we know as street photography, initially starting his career as a painter Henri Cartier-Bresson quickly gained a passion for photography being an avid user of film and new technologies within the industry.[3] We initially discussed the idea of motion and for motion to be displayed within an object the rest of the image must be sharp and in focus whereas the image has some form of blur or camera shake throughout. This leads us to think that the cyclist passing through the image is not actually the main focus of this image, the first thing I notice in this image is the geometry of the scene, how the staircase folds round with the railing and the creative use of light and shadows. Due to this image being taken in the early stages of photography and camera production the technology available was nothing in comparison to what we have today which is why this image is still in monochrome and still has some for of graininess to it.
Citizen Journalism
I find it incredible how we have access to almost anything right at our fingertips, devices have seen massive enhancements over the past decade and technology is getting smaller and more powerful. What would previously take a lot of equipment, like recording a video for example, is now possible through an Apple iPhone. With the increase in social media usage around the world people have taken to social platforms that have a video format like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram allowing them to broadcast themselves to millions of people across the world. We also have the ability to stream live video to millions which would have costed a lot of money 10-20 years ago. This technology has gave people access to various recourses and has helped thousands create businesses, make a living through their mobile phone or managing a personal brand, some people around the world create content for YouTube using only their smartphone devices while some productions will have full scale production teams with a lot of expensive equipment.
References & Sources
- the Guardian. 2022. ‘I don’t want to upset people’: Tom Cruise deepfake creator speaks out | TikTok | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/mar/05/how-started-tom-cruise-deepfake-tiktok-videos. [Accessed 07 April 2022].
- Generated Photos | Unique, worry-free model photos. 2022. Generated Photos | Unique, worry-free model photos. [ONLINE] Available at: https://generated.photos. [Accessed 07 April 2022].
- Wikipedia. 2022. Henri Cartier-Bresson – Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson. [Accessed 07 April 2022].