A touch of Mordor…
Dark, ominous clouds hover over the nuclear power plant’s two cooling towers. ZDF shows this recording to illustrate its current contribution “Blackout without nuclear power?”. Did the broadcaster intervene here through image processing to make the situation more harmful to the environment? At least several viewers on social media raise the charge.
“And the groundhog says hello every day: no dear ZDF, still no black smoke coming from nuclear power plants,” comments one user. Still others speak of “manipulative framing”. Or to formulate polemically: “Radiation colors clouds black. general knowledge.”
The photo is shown by ZDF with and without writing – here with the line “Blackout without nuclear power?”
Photo: ZDF
As early as February, ZDF had the glowing water vapor coming from the nuclear power plant’s cooling towers, darkened by image processing and received a lot of criticism for it.
The edited ZDF photo from February 2022
Photo: Julian Roepcke/Twitter
At the time, the broadcaster referred to a so-called “dimming level” that was chosen to make writing easier to read. However, this was positioned incorrectly. An explanation that didn’t convince everyone: some viewers pointed out that a “darkening layer” would have looked different. Also, even with a different and deeper placement, the darkening shape would not match the writing.
How was that time?
ZDF responded to a question from BILD: “The image in question is clearly a photomontage, as is common with thumbnails used to advertise shows on YouTube and other platforms. The aforementioned ZDFheute live stream addressed the question of whether there is a risk of a blackout without electricity from gas and nuclear power. In the context of this live broadcast, the term blackout highlighted represented concerns about grid stability and power supply during a dismal doldrums – combined with the question of whether energy nuclear power can protect us from that.”
Dark Calamity – The term describes the simultaneous occurrence of darkness and a lull in the wind. According to its own information, ZDF wanted to illustrate this phenomenon by coloring the clouds.
Readability didn’t play a role this time. The letters would be readable even without the coloring. In addition, the photo is also shown without writing.
E: With similar text/image combinations on the wind energy theme, clouds were not colored black.
Meanwhile, ZDF has changed the thumbnail of the current contribution. The dark clouds dissipated. It seems almost idyllic now. A touch of Shire…
Bright steam, clear skies: this is how ZDF now illustrates the contribution
Photo: ZDF