It is, of course, a play on the power of Photoshop software that can make anyone look glamorous. As Jesse Rosten, the man behind the video, states: “This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty.”

Rosten explains the inspiration for the short film on Twitter: “1 nite, I was watching an infomercial for some beauty product & noticed that the before and afters looked the same photo, only photoshoped [sic]. I laughed to myself. Then I made this video…”

So, if you ever find yourself wondering how she got so slim just after giving birth – now you know.

(Source: Vimeo)

ITV has apologised and blamed the inclusion of the footage on “human error”, claiming that “the events featured in Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA were genuine but it would appear that during the editing process the correct clip of the 1988 incident was not selected and other footage was mistakenly included in the film by producers”.

The programme has been pulled from ITV’s online video-on-demand service and the broadcaster says it will return when the correct footage has been edited in.

The footage was taken from the game Arma 2, a tactical shooter set in the fictional east European nation of Chernarus. Marek Spanel, the chief executive of Bohemia Interactive Studio, which was behind the game, said he considers this “a bizarre appreciation of the level of realism incorporated into our games”.

Footage similar to that used in ITV’s programme is on YouTube. Watch the clip, and see if you can spot what marks this out as a video game, and not real life.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

The former KGB agent sent former property developer Sergei Polonsky crashing to the floor after a debate on the economy took a turn for the absurd.

Lebedev said he had no regrets: “In a critical situation, there is no choice. I see no reason to be hit with the first shot. I neutralised him.”

While questioning Rupert Murdoch and son at yesterday’s Culture, Media and Sport committee hearing, Conservative MP Louise Mensch claimed that former News of the World editor Piers Morgan had “boasted” in his book The Insider about using phone hacking to “win scoop of the year”.

Morgan, who now works for CNN, challenged Mrs Mensch on the accusation, calling her a “coward” who was hiding behind the cloak of parliamentary privilege to make unfounded accusations.

Mrs Mensch refused to back down from her claim, saying that she felt “no need whatsoever to apologise”.

While editor of the Daily Mirror, Morgan oversaw the faking of photographs of British soldiers ‘abusing’ Iraqis being held in captivity, which led to him losing his position at the paper.

Watch the video below:

(Image taken by Flickr user pete riches, licensed under Creative Commons)

Watch the clip, which features the News of the World ship staffed with pirates being attacked by the Guardian‘s ship, below:

(Source: NMA)

Former BBC reporter Michael Cole has hit out at the corporation’s reliance on “gratuitous and usually utterly redundant” pieces to camera in its news coverage.

He even went so far as to claim that “future historians seeking coverage of what is going on now will search the BBC archives in vain for moving pictures of some events”.

His remarks are not unfounded. One edition of the BBC’s 10PM news bulletin contained just one minute of originally sourced footage, with the programme dominated by reporters performing pieces to camera.

“BBC TV news has lost sight of its original purpose: to let the pictures tell the story,” he says, before outlining the process that has invaded the way the BBC reports its news.

“Every BBC news show is the same: presenter outlines the story and introduces the reporter, in the field or, more frequently, in the studio. The reporter repeats what the presenter has just said. A few random shots are punched up as illustration and quickly dispensed with so we can return to the reporter who, with a furrow of the brow or slight shake of the head, delivers a summary of the three facts we have just heard.”

His damning conclusion: “This must give great pleasure to the mothers of some on-screen journalists, but it is not news.”

It reminds Media Digest of Charlie Brooker’s analysis of how to create a news package, which you can watch below:

(Source: Press Gazette)

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has admitted that the search company missed out on “the friends thing”, and is now playing catch-up to the social networking revolution inspired by the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal‘s D9 conference, Schmidt said he had “failed” to see the influence social networking would have on the internet.

Now Google finds itself in the position of chasing the pack, rather than leading it, with Schmidt announcing that Google products would begin to incorporate more social media elements. One example is its ‘+1′ service, which works in a similar way to Facebook’s ‘Like’ button.

It’s a lucrative market that Google is eager to muscle in on. Over 30 billion pieces of content are shared via Facebook’s ‘Like’ button each month, and more companies are seeing the benefits of broadcasting to a social network that boasts a global audience of 600 million people.

View the full interview from the conference below:

Photo taken by Flickr user jolieodell, licensed under Creative Commons.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

Across the pond, US journalist Howard Kurtz has raised an interesting point concerning the media’s reaction to the international air strikes in Libya – where is the scepticism from the press?

The CNN journalist used his Reliable Sources show to ask: “What happened to the media’s scepticism?

“The media get excited by war … and sometimes something is lost in that initial excitement. It reminds me of eight years ago, when Shock and Awe was rained down upon Baghdad and the media utterly failed to ask sceptical questions.

“What if there’s a long-term stalemate here? What if this goes on and on? What if there are American casualties? Do you stop this operation with Gaddafi still in power? These are the questions I think we need to be asking,” he said.

Overall, the UK press appears to find itself in a similar situation. There are some dissenting articles – an opinion piece by Andrew Murray in the Guardian takes umbrage at David Cameron’s decision to go to war as the country faces severe cuts across public services, while the Independent has reported on alleged fractures among the coalition of forces that are bombing Libya.

(Sources: Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Independent)

“Why would I have a subscription when I can read it for free online?” probably sums up most rose-tinted journalist-wannabes’ attitude to the industry.

(Source: Xtranormal)

Advertising agencies Densu London and BERN have collaborated on this vision of the future.

‘Media Surfaces: Incidental Media’ sees the firms donning their future specs and taking a look at how our web-connected lifestyles may infiltrate other areas of our lives.

Featuring clocks that keep you updated on what’s happening on Twitter and shop windows that masquerade as animation screens, it’s certainly interesting.

But do we really need to have our Twitter accounts shouting at us the moment we wake up? Most people can barely cope with Chris Evans that early…what do you think?