MAY’S PHOTOSHOP FAKERY.
Altered image displayed on party website
OTTAWA • In an era of “fake news” controversies, photoshopping a reusable metal straw and a reusable cup into the hand of Green party Leader Elizabeth May would not be the greatest idea.
But that’s what the Green party did and then prominently displayed it on the party website.
Such fakery in the middle of an election raises issues of how such misinformation is used, say experts in the “fake news” phenomenon.
“It would probably be good practice for official political parties to avoid photoshopping images,” said Britt Paris, a researcher for the Data & Society Research Institute who focuses on visual propaganda and disinformation. “But it’s almost a moot point when photoshopping can be performed by anyone and that manipulated image can then be shared or retweeted by an official political party, an operative … or even just a celebrity.”
The Green party admitting using Photoshop to add a reusable cup and metal straw in the photo.
Spokeswoman Rosie Emery told the Post that May had been holding a reusable cup in the original photo, but that Photoshop was used to add in a different cup that displayed the Green party logo. She was unable to provide the Post with a copy of the original photo.
A version of the original, unedited photo has been used by media outlets, including iPolitics. It is cropped in such a way that it doesn’t show the cup May was holding, but it does show there was no metal straw in the original photo. Emery said she doesn’t know why the straw was added, but she doesn’t think it was to make a statement about May’s environmental values.
“She is a person … who walks her talk in every way. She really does. That’s one of the things I admire about her,” Emery said.
The Green party’s environmental platform, released last spring, doesn’t explicitly mention plastics. But the party’s Vision Green policy does say that Canada must ban single-use plastic items. In June, the Liberal government announced a plan to move toward a ban on some single-use plastics, such as straws, bags and cutlery, by 2021.
Emery said May was not involved in the decision to alter the image, which appears on the homepage of the party’s website. “All I know is that the original was photoshopped to put in a cup that had the Green party logo,” she said.
Asked if the party has altered other images, Emery said, “I think photos are often touched up to make colour nicer and design nicer, but I’m not aware that anybody’s photoshopping for particular statements or anything like that.” Emery said the photo was likely taken in Victoria earlier this year.
Paris said these kind of images may be problematic, but they rarely have much influence on the way people think, especially in such a divisive political climate. People are used to seeing manipulated images of political figures, whether by bad actors or sympathetic ones, and it’s the job of the press to confirm or debunk them.
“Those who heard that the Green party manipulated an image in bad faith and already believed the Green party was an evil organization would see that image as evidence. Those who support the Green party would write it off as a harmless PR attempt,” said Paris.
Gordon Pennycook, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Regina who has studied the “fake news” phenomenon, said it matters how the photo was used for it to be classified as deceptive.
“If it was a campaign photo posted on the party’s Facebook page? I would call that deceptive. Such a picture is ostensibly a genuine reflection of an event, unlike a political advertisement, or at least people would take it to be so,” said Pennycook.
“Of course, keeping in mind that the deception is silly and unimportant in this case. It perhaps says something about politics that the potential negative optics of using a plastic straw is viewed as worse than the potential negative optics of photoshopping a straw which, in my view, is plainly worse,” said Pennycook.
Elizabeth Dubois, a professor at the University of Ottawa who studies digital media and media manipulation, said it’s crucial that people are “paying very close attention to what is showing up on our screens,” given how much misinformation now exists on the internet.
“When we see examples of content missing important information, or being photoshopped, that does need to be taken seriously,” said Dubois, although she said she wasn’t too concerned about the Green party’s photoshop job especially since she believes that May “walks the walk” on climate issues.