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02 December 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs
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Prof Koos Albertyn handing over a donation of eleven microscopes to Anzell Spelding, a teacher at Luckhoff Combined School.
With a donation of microscopes, the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently contributed to better quality education for a group of 60 learners in the Life Sciences class at the Luckhoff Combined School.

Anzell Spelding, a teacher at the school – with a newly built science laboratory but little equipment – contacted the department a while ago to enquire whether they have any microscopes available to donate. As the department recently acquired a new set of microscopes for undergraduate teaching in the field of Microbiology, ten fully functional microscopes and two other microscopes (for parts) were donated to motivate the learners to choose science as a career.

“This donation puts scientific instruments in the hands of children at an early age, opening their eyes to the possibility of careers in science. Exposing learners to science at an early age can spark enthusiasm and a love of learning that might otherwise never appear,” said Koos Albertyn, Professor in the UFS Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology.

“These microscopes will enable learners to look at specimens at a microscopic level and therefore access the wonders of natural science at the tiniest and most fascinating level,” he added. 

News Archive

Photo manipulation in journalism: evil, crutch or lifebuoy?
2017-09-04

Description: Albe Grobbelaar Tags: Photo manipulation, Albe Grobbelaar, Albe, OJ Simpson, journalism, Department of Communication Science, Communication Science  

Albe Grobbelaar, veteran journalist and lecturer in the
Department of Communication Science at the UFS.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin


Since the 1800s the manipulation of photographs has been common practice, and who can forget the OJ Simpson Time magazine cover in 1994? Albe Grobbelaar, lecturer in the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State (UFS), asked in a special lecture on 18 August 2017 whether “Photo manipulation in Journalism” was an evil habit, a crutch or a lifebuoy.

“As a journalist I have always been interested in photography. And the principle of photo manipulation or tampering with photos, as we call it, is something that has interested me ever since,” Grobbelaar said. Photo manipulation is an area that has garnered many academic interest and is not a new trend but a practice that started in the 1830s when photos came into popular use. “It is not always done with ulterior motives, artists played with photographs to get unique effects.” Photo manipulation is not only to create fake news, but is sometimes used to convey novelty and create shock to news readers. 

Different viewpoints for different circumstances
He talked about the spectrum of viewpoints on photo manipulation. Some conservative journalism schools say photos should never be retouched while other feel it is fine to tamper with pictures. “What I tried to convey in the lecture was that one should consider different circumstances differently,” Grobbelaar said. As a journalist he believes that news photos should never be manipulated.

He mentioned the example of the mugshot of OJ Simpson that the Los Angeles Police Department released to the media. “Newsweek and Time both used the photo on their front pages, but Time deliberately darkened the picture so that OJ, a black man, would appear more sinister,” Grobbelaar said. It is, however, common practice in the fashion industry to retouch images that are used in fashion magazines. 

Use own judgment to validate photos
In the age of social media it has become easy to manipulate photos and which has been labelled fake news. “I would advise people to use their own judgment when validating the authenticity of photos,” Grobbelaar said. It is important to verify whether they are from a reliable news outlet.

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