The manipulation of photography is as old as the medium itself. For photojournalism, adding or subtracting content has always been unethical, and sluggish burning or dodging in the darkroom has even been a problem. The difference today is that digital tools allow simple, extensive, and hassle-free manipulation. Digital platforms also make it possible to quickly disseminate modified images to an audience of millions.
In this new era, manipulating images and videos has become easier and easier and with the internet, fake news can spread like a wildfire so, with these two combined, the probability of stumbling upon a new, or article that has false information is higher.
Manipulated images can and will most likely lead to fake news and this is something we need to be careful about when reading something so we can avoid spreading misinformation.
It’s easy to be unknowingly drawn to an interesting picture that’s wrong. The growing stream of misleading imagery is coming less from traditional news outlets and more from the public sometimes referred to as user-generated content (UGC). In the past, almost all photographs of printed news and virtually all recordings of broadcast news were taken by professionals. More and more images are now coming from unverified sources.
The easiest way to verify an image is to find the original source. The path is not always easy and can take some time. Virtually instantaneous dissemination via the Internet creates a lack of time, acknowledged all on the panel.
STORYTELLME Junior Technician
