Chapter 2: The power of visual communication 2/15

Authenticity issues do not only interest data in terms of numbers and statements, but also visual materials, such as pictures and videos. Here below a list of fake sourcing applied on visual materials:

• Propaganda images (to convey a specific narrative or message, often used in political or marketing contexts).
• Crisis actors (photos of actors, not real victims, posing in events that did not actually occur).
• Misleading captions (genuine photos shared with false or misleading captions to create a different impression of the event).
• Out-of-Context images (real photos taken from different times or places and presented as evidence for current events).
• Digitally altered photographs, such as incomplete photographs (where the physical context isn’t clear or was cut off the frame).
• Computer-generated imagery (CGI): Images entirely created using computer graphics that can be mistaken for real photos.
• Artistic renderings: Illustrations or digital art presented as real photographs.

For more information attend the course Fact-checking and verification and Disinformation campaigns: Case studies.