| On August 5, 2006, blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs wrote in his blog that one of the images by Adnan Hajj, a Reuters photographer, showed "blatant evidence of manipulation." The photograph depicted smoke rising over Beirut after an Israeli air strike. The smoke was altered using the "cloning" tool in AdobeRTM PhotoshopRTM to achieve a more dramatic effect. The purpose of this study is to compare mainstream media coverage of this incident with that of the blogosphere. Qualitative content analysis is used to describe the relationship. The study demonstrates that the blogosphere has potentially both set and built the agenda for the media coverage of the Reuters controversy in the mainstream media. Also, both media platforms covered the same themes, but described them from different angles. |
