Look at the two photographs. Perhaps they are actually stills taken from video footage. Whenever Royals like Prince William step out into the public realm, they are constantly being filmed and photographed, so it's safe to say that these images are real, no photoshop or other manipulation has been applied. In the first image, we see Prince William making a rather obscene hand-gesture, his facial expression could be interpreted as being annoyed or angry, shouting something at the reporters. The second picture shows the same gesture, captured at the same instant, but from a different angle. Now we can see that the gesture is actually not the obscene "giving - the - finger", but Prince William is probably making an enumeration, perhaps answering a question or explaining something to the reporters.
If you were a digital publisher and you had to choose between these two pictures, what would you do? Both are "real", no doctoring. Could you be accused of "fake news" if you published the first picture? The odds here are pretty obvious. The first picture would give you a lot of attention, people would see it and be outraged. They wouldn't even need to read the caption or anything, because the image is so clear and it's beyond any doubt that Prince William has been caught in a moment where he's "losing it", where he reacts in a totally inappropriate way. Doesn't it all make so much sense? The digital habitat and the battle for attention, for eyeballs in the ever accelerating on-line news cycles produces a dangerous dilemma. If you publish well-informed, balanced, differentiated articles, no-one is going to read them. Why not? Because it is the outrageous, the hyperbole, the thrill - that is getting all the attention. It is hard-wired into our brain and our nervous system. Human attention can be triggered by external or internal cues. External cues like sudden movements, loud noises (screams) or shocking images will always win over internal cues, like interest, curiosity or thirst for knowledge. This is designed for our immediate survival - but in can be exploited very easily. Even more so in the digital habitat, where may have learned that the "Digital Outrage Strategy" is a very profitable way to do business. For now, we can only hope that people will slowly learn to adapt and not get distracted with every new "shock" that is amplified by the on-line news media.
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AuthorThomas Behrens Visual Communication is not only taking part in the digital transformation - actively and passively - he will also reflect on it. Hence the blog. Archives
January 2021
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