Does the Photo Fit the Truth?
America has faced immigration issues for several years. When the Trump administration issued a “zero tolerance” policy on undocumented immigrants, this inherently affected thousands of families who attempted to cross the border illegally and were ultimately separated from their children and family members (Lauricella, 2018). There was one incident in particular that sparked an important conversation when John Moore, an award-winning photographer, captured an intimate photograph of a crying child and her mother beside a U.S. border agent (Lauricella, 2018).
The photo that Moore captured impacted many people and even had Time magazine feature this photo of the wailing child, except this time, Trump was photoshopping opposite of her with a caption that read, “Welcome to America” (Lauricella, 2018). When the Trump administration saw Time’s cover, they reported it as “fake news” because the child and her mother were not separated after all (Lauricella, 2018).
LeBlanc (n.d.) claims that “the phrase fake news means different things to different people.” In her article, she mentions five types of fake news, according to The Telegraph:
- Commercially driven sensational content
- Nation-state sponsored misinformation
- Highly partisan news sites
- Social media “bots”
- Satire and parody sites
Relating this to Time’s cover, it seems as though they are partaking in nation-state sponsored misinformation by creating content to influence public opinion (Titcomb, 2017). Time magazine has a large following and media presence, and with the delivery of news as sensitive as this, they should have reported the entire context behind the image before publishing a story with their own opinion of the events in mind. Situations such as these remind us how important it is to fact-check our news sources before believing everything we read.
Although Moore’s photo served to educate the public on the immigration issues that occur in America today, Time magazine failed to fully educate themselves on the entire context of what happened that night with the mother and her child. Time then issued an updated and corrected version of their story and made clear that the child was not taken away from her mother by the border agents (Lauricella, 2018).
As a photojournalist, Moore’s job is to inform and report what is happening globally with raw and honest images (Lauricella, 2018). Some of these photographs may open the door for controversy. It seems that the primary intention of Moore’s photograph is to spark international concern and bring light to the realities that occur at the U.S border. Although this particular mother and her child were not separated, other families are not always as lucky. It is vital to draw upon immigration issues; however, media outlets must be careful and considerate in sharing news and ensure that what they are reporting is factual.
References
Carson, J. (2017, November 14). Fake news: What exactly is it — and how can you spot it? Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/fake-news-exactly-has-really-had-influence/
Lauricella, S. (2018). Does the photo fit the news? The ethics of powerful images in the immigration debate. Media Ethics, 30(1). https://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/210-fall-2018-vol/3999232-does-the-photo-fit-the-news
LeBlanc, C. (n.d.). What is “fake news”? In Fake news and what to do about it. Pressbooks. https://fakenews.pressbooks.com/chapter/what-is-fake-news/
