The dissection of news photos and the context that they are presented in was scrutinized Tuesday night, when the founder of Bag New Notes, Michael Shaw gave a presentation to student as a part of Comm Week.

Shaw has a background in clinical psychology and uses his education and knowledge about how people think to analyze the character and character styles of pictures and how they are shown to the public.

"Today, large sectors of government, for the executive branch to the military manage substantial public affairs operations, mediating what we can and can't see," said Shaw during his lecture.

Shaw first became interested in the different ways that people are portrayed in the news during the 2004 presidential campaign. Biased news sources used the power of images to spin the election in favor of the incumbent while painting a different picture of the opponent.

"Because pictures today are so carefully crafted, so much of that imagery seems so un-spun." said Shaw. "Most of us are bombarded by persuasive imagery while not exactly schooled in visual literacy a lot of this messaging skips right past the messaging filter and goes directly into our heads."

The hour long lecture followed by a question answer session gave the audience an inside view of photos that were sold to the masses as one thing, but in reality the images were completely different. Taking a photo out of context has cost more than one person a political career. The agenda of the publication that is putting out the image seemed to be what is pushed on the consumer more than anything else.

"I learned how misleading a news photo can be," said Lindsey Klompenberg a photo comm major.  "If I ever become a news photographer I will be very careful of the angle of my photos and what shots I take."

Some of the images scrutinized were not even news images. Photoshopped pictures, such as Obama's face being pasted onto the body of a chimpanzee were discussed about what the underlying message was. These photos may only be made for fun, but photo-shopped images, such as this one have ended up on national news.

When discussing the image of Obama Shaw said, "This is besides all of the edgy imagery produced by the traditional media itself given the competitive demands of the 24/7 gossip and gotcha news culture. News has a tendency to dwell on the political brawls at the expense of substance and the fact that an increasing number of media players do not even subscribe to a fair and a balanced media agenda anymore."

Another issue of discussion was cropping a picture. A famous picture of Obama down in the gulf during the oil spill was cropped to make him look alone and sad on a beach, while in actuality he was listening to a woman who was standing next to him. By removing the woman the integrity and meaning of the photo was changed.

"I learned how to look at a picture and to not interpret it the way the news portrays it," said communications major Liana Munoz. "I know the difference between forming my own opinion and doing what the news tells me to do."

The analysis of news images was an interesting commentary on the news industry today. Photographers are under so much pressure to capture "the shot." The image can be a viral phenomenon and be seen throughout the world, before a new image takes its place. The undercurrent of messages that accompany these images is what Bag News Notes takes pride in dissecting.

The website posts at least two images a day that they select from a mass of pictures that have been submitted or collected. These are then commented on and put up online where others can look at the images and see if they agree with the commentary.

Shaw admitted at the end of his lecture that he was one sided and maybe looked at a picture a little too closely. He looks at the pictures and holds journalists accountable for their images and emphasized to the audience that they should do the same.