THE NZ Herald's story on the tourism promotional video showing a campervan apparently on the wrong side of the road in New Zealand is an excellent example of the public's expectation of the truth.
The video, commissioned by Tourism New Zealand, shows a campervan driving on the right lane in a South Island location. Created by an American team, it's called "New Zealand - the Ultimate Road Trip". It's supposed to be promoting the country.
We frequently see car ads with cars in the right lane, but there is always the disclaimer, filmed under overseas conditions.
The error has been put down to the designer flipping the film "for artistic reasons", meaning the campervan was really on the left lane, but the image has been flipped.
This highlights the concept of truth versus artistic licence, and why, even with all the trickery a designer has to hand, the public still are ingrained to treat photos and film as the truth.
Stories try to get as close to the truth as they can, but they are open to interpretation, other opinions, other sides, and updates. But a photo is meant to be complete within itself. What you see is the complete story - or is it.
Designers see the artistry. Their job is to produce the best-looking image possible. The photo journalist captures the truth of a moment.
Now, there is this oft-remarked notion of where journalists sit on the "trust" ranking, but when it comes to filming and photos for media, the public has huge trust in images. It's a trust we can't betray.
We'll remove defects in the image, such as a dust spot on the lens. That's fair enough. But we won't remove "defects" that simply make an image look better. Magazines exploit the public's ingrained tendency to believe photos by altering their models with Photoshop. It's a lie, but accepted in the industry.
But in a newspaper, you may well look better without that dandruff on your shoulder, but don't ask us to Photoshop it out. In the end, trust in the media photo - and buy a better shampoo.