1984 vs. Reality
Barbara Contin- ITGS Project
Manipulating Truth to Rewrite History
How has technology allowed individuals and institutions to rewrite history to manipulate truth for the purpose of control?
The difference though is that once we have the power of the internet and social media, so do governments and institutions. This becomes a problem in totalitarian regimes and societies that seek to control their people. An example would be China, where the communist government has decreed internet censorship. With such, they are able to say what they wish in the news, and then later not be threatened by what is said in social media sites. If technology weren't as advanced as it is today, then the governments wouldn't have this amount of powers in their hands.
But the close to home example of an institution using technology to rewrite history with the purpose of control was when Rede Globo, a Brazilian news agency, misrepresented the events of the protests in Brazil, calling the protesters vandals and criminals, when actually only a small part of the millions of protesters took any violent act. In this manner, the government, along side Globo, thought that they would be able to keep the protests in control and minimilize the damage they would do to their political imagine. Thankfully, thanks to another type of technolgy- the internet- the protesters were able to show, through footage and news articles, that the protests where actually in the greater part, peaceful.
When institutions, alongside the government, use the power of social media to twist the truth, that is due to the power of technology.
Manipulating Truth, Losing Credibility
[...]
But the picture is a fake – a computer-generated amalgam of two different photographs, made one after the other. In one (unmanipulated) picture, that prominently features the standing man and child, the British soldier is not gesturing and is looking away from them. In the second image (also unmanipulated), the soldier is gesturing dramatically, but the man and child are much less visible. The conclusion is inescapable: Walski deliberately combined two of his good legitimate photographs to make one superb illegitimate one. The bogusness of the picture was discovered at the Courant, after an employee noticed what appeared to be a duplication of elements and people in the image's background."
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm
Photoshopped
Original
Neil Patrick Harris
Hardware and Software Used For Manipulation of the Truth
Photoshop
Autotune
Some artists who are famous and known for using autotune are: Ke$ha, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and The Black Eyes Peas.
Not to be completely diminishing, autotune can often be used as a tool for the artist (as was the case in the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks), but when its powers are abused in order to sell a voice that is not your own, this is when there is a manipulation of reality going on.
Playback and Lip Sync
Although many artists have submitted to the acts of playback, Britney Spears is one of the artist who is knows to have done this repeatedly.
This becomes a manipulation of the truth, specially after the audience has payed to see the actual artist performing in their concert.
Manipulation through Digital and Video Cameras
Manipulation Through Filming- TV SHOW Orphan Black
Manipulated Truth: Transmitted and Communicated to Society
Communicating lies to gain population's endorsement for war
President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor by a Spanish mine. When the Americans heard, they were outraged and supported the Spanish American War. Investigations post-war further proved the lie, but nowadays, the mine can't be found.
Hitler did something along the lines of McKinley. He told the Germans that Poland attacked Germany first and this way, gaining the support of the population when marching to war with Poland in 1939.
Similarly, George W. Bush lied about Saddam Hussein's possession of nuclear weapons in order to obtain the populations blessing to chime to war against Iraq.
All of these lies in order to gain support from the population were all a product of technology. With resources such as radio and television, world leaders can get the word out to the population and event forge attacks, as was done by Hitler, in order to make it look like something is real. In this way, they are able to go to war with other nations without lowering their percentage of support around the nation.