Pictures That Lie

For the Pictures that Lie assignment I chose to analyze the picture used by Harper's in 2005 that shows seven US marines above the title AWOL in America. I chose this picture because I think it is important how not only pictures themselves are altered, but also how these pictures can be used to misrepresent a title. The photo itself is clearly manipulated as one of the soldiers appears to be fading away. Obviously someone simply increased the transparency of this soldier in Photoshop. I beleive the photo was altered in this way to help draw attention to the title of the article, AWOL in America. The actual harm resulting from this photo was probably minimal, however, the use of an altered photo in order to sell a title better is a deep ethical violation more than anything else.

CLT Visit

Last Thursday we were given the opportunity to visit the Center for Learning Technologies in the library. This visit was both beneficial and enjoyable. We were shown all the different workstations in the main room where the newest PCs and Macs were ready for students to use. We also saw the video conference center that allows students and classes to communicate with people all over the world. We were shown the digital audio and video equipment that is used to create videos and sound effects for presentations. This equipment can help make projects for other classes easier and more affordable. I think that this school is very privileged to have such a technologically advanced center for its students and faculty members to utilize.

Jason Hardin Lecture

The lecture given by Mr. Hardin on Thursday regarding copyright laws was very informative and beneficial. I learned several things that I was previously unaware of and that possibly might have led to complications in the future regarding these copyright issues. The first point that was made was the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism. Copyright infringement is legally a crime whereas plagiarism is merely an academic and ethical violation. This is important because it draws a distinct line between these two wrongful activities. Another useful fact that I learned about copyright laws is that copyrights last for the length of the author’s life plus and additional seventy years. This is important because copyrighted properties can be inherited once the original author dies, which means that family, or whomever is chosen, can benefit from the work. A third important part of the lecture dealt with the higher education opportunity act of 2008. This act obligates universities to provide a network where student can download and upload materials legally. This is meant to keep students across the nation from downloading copyrighted materials over the Internet illegally. The final import aspect of the lecture was a brief guide through a website called creativecommons.org. This site allows the creator of any work to place one of several copyright licenses on their work. Overall I found this lecture to be educational and enjoyable.

Jason Hardin Lecture by Steven Targoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.