The Power of a Single Photo

It seems like with today’s media it only takes a single blurry, pixelated image to completely ruin a person’s career and life. We’ve seen it over and over on the news. Photos of the darker side of people’s lives working their way to the internet in the hands of the news agencies in no time. All it takes is a one moment of bad judgement and a guy with a camera.

A fairly recent example would be the swimmer Michael Phelps who gained a celebrity status for his swimming prowess and most notably for his success at the 2008 Summer Olympics. During mid-August Phelps was all over the news, and it didn’t stop there. The media buzz over Phelps was only fueled by the fact that he had won 8 gold medals, breaking the previous record for the amount of gold medals won by an individual participating in the Olympics, and by the fact that he had broken multiple records in the events he participated in. Phelps wound up even more magazines, news interview and even ended up on Saturday Night Live. When people heard the name Michael Phelps they would instantly think olympian swimmer. All it took was a simple photo that found its way to the internet. On January 2, 2009 a photo of Michael Phelps using a bong, a long cylindrical device used to smoke marijuana, wound up on a British news website. In no time this picture made its way to every major American news agency. Within a week the name Michael Phelps went from ‘olympic swimmer’ to ‘olympic swimmer who smoked pot’. This doesn’t change the fact that Phelps is a determined athlete who puts effort into his work, but with today’s media a single photo can completely redefine someone in the eyes of millions.

A more extreme case would be with the torture photos of Abu Ghraib that shocked America. Pfc. Lynddie England was seen smiling and putting her thumbs up next to the naked, abused prisoners. Once the photos were on the internet her life was ruined. She was dishonorably discharged from the army and served 3 years in prison. There were certainly more officers involved in the whole fiasco, but just because England’s face was in most of the original photos that were leaked, she received a large amount of media flak. In interviews with England she has said that her public life is basically nonexistent after the scandal. In one case when she applied for a job at a restaurant the other employees threatened to quit if she was hired.

Image via Wikipedia

All it takes is one racy 20 year old photo to derail a political candidate’s campaign and ruin a career. In a society where people are judged by their negative actions infinitely more than their positive actions, one image taken at just the right (or wrong, rather) moment can change things completely. Whether it’s an image of someone doing drugs, getting arrested or visiting a strip club, if it’s anyone relatively important the media hounds will be on it.