There’s a simple truth on Twitter and in journalism: climate worries, pro and con, can bring an onslaught of fake images hawked worldwide by British tabloid wire services
A new site called “Is Twitter Wrong?“ is listing fake images. BuzzFeed has also built a list of nine fake images, as well as a quiz you can take to test your skills at spotting fakes. Similarly, The Atlantic has started sorting out the fake photos from the real ones.
Earlier today, journalist Andrew Katz tweeted this observation: ”Half of Twitter is debunking #norwayglacierphotos posted by the other half. Second half should vet images so everyone can focus on news.”
How do you avoid getting fooled? Step one is to not retweet or repost any image you see circulating online. Verify it, or don’t spread it. Those are your choices.
Here are some photo verification resources to help you out:
At some point, I ran across the photo. I don't remember where I saw
it. But then soon after that, I was looking at various tricky pictures
on Mighty Optical Illusions -- images that contained hidden images
like this: http://www.moillusions.com/
I thought the guy who ran that site might find this picture
interesting so I emailed the link to him. He did like it and posted
it: http://www.moillusions.com/
That was the full extent of my "discovery".
2. I was surprised when he posted this with my name associated with it
since all I had done was see a photo on a website somewhere and send
the link to him. I don't know why he gave me any credit and I
certainly don't understand why it propagated so widely attached to my
name.
3. I always assumed that this was just one of those natural phenomenon
that looked sort of like something (like animals in clouds or a face
in a pizza). It didn't look fake to me, but I am no expert. I just
thought it was a cool picture, especially since global warming and
glaciers were in the news and this natural phenomenon seemed to
illustrate what was going on.
I'd prefer not to be included in your NYT op-ed. As I said, I didn't
discover anything except that I saw a picture on a website somewhere
and sent the link to Mighty Optical Illusions. It is crazy that my
name was associated with it. And I guess I'd prefer to not propagate
the link between my name and that photo any more. If Mike Nolan took
the picture and the Sun printed it, then the photo should be
associated with them, not me. Or it should be associated with Mighty
Optical Illusions.
And I have no idea if it was photoshopped. Some of the photo looks
odd, but then again, look through the images on Mighty Optical
Illusion and you'll see some things that look like the photo was
altered, but it wasn't (like this:
http://www.moillusions.com/
http://www.moillusions.com/
this: http://www.moillusions.com/
).
Earlier today, journalist Andrew Katz tweeted this observation: ”Half of Twitter is debunking #norwayglacierphotos posted by the other half. Second half should vet images so everyone can focus on news.”
How do you avoid getting fooled? Step one is to not retweet or repost any image you see circulating online. Verify it, or don’t spread it. Those are your choices.
Here are some photo verification resources to help you out:
- Check out this piece on how to verify information from social media in real-time; it includes this advice about photo verification from Storyful:
Often we are alerted to videos that are duplicated and reposted. Finding the original source is the first step in our verification process and it can require several techniques. Image technology allows us to find the first instance of video thumbnails and images. Examining data embedded within the image provides more information. And by identifying keywords to run through search engines, we often find the first upload of a video or image.
- Here’s a presentation someone recently gave that includes an entire section about photo and video verification. (It’s based in part on a previous presentation he did with Mandy Jenkins):
- Here are two quick guides to verification from the BBC’s User-Generated Content Hub and the folks at Storyful. Storyful’s @StoryfulPro Twitter account features tweets that confirm and debunk information.
- Earlier, I wrote a piece about three ways to tell if an image has been manipulated.
At some point, I ran across the photo. I don't remember where I saw
it. But then soon after that, I was looking at various tricky pictures
on Mighty Optical Illusions -- images that contained hidden images
like this: http://www.moillusions.com/
I thought the guy who ran that site might find this picture
interesting so I emailed the link to him. He did like it and posted
it: http://www.moillusions.com/
That was the full extent of my "discovery".
2. I was surprised when he posted this with my name associated with it
since all I had done was see a photo on a website somewhere and send
the link to him. I don't know why he gave me any credit and I
certainly don't understand why it propagated so widely attached to my
name.
3. I always assumed that this was just one of those natural phenomenon
that looked sort of like something (like animals in clouds or a face
in a pizza). It didn't look fake to me, but I am no expert. I just
thought it was a cool picture, especially since global warming and
glaciers were in the news and this natural phenomenon seemed to
illustrate what was going on.
I'd prefer not to be included in your NYT op-ed. As I said, I didn't
discover anything except that I saw a picture on a website somewhere
and sent the link to Mighty Optical Illusions. It is crazy that my
name was associated with it. And I guess I'd prefer to not propagate
the link between my name and that photo any more. If Mike Nolan took
the picture and the Sun printed it, then the photo should be
associated with them, not me. Or it should be associated with Mighty
Optical Illusions.
And I have no idea if it was photoshopped. Some of the photo looks
odd, but then again, look through the images on Mighty Optical
Illusion and you'll see some things that look like the photo was
altered, but it wasn't (like this:
http://www.moillusions.com/
http://www.moillusions.com/
this: http://www.moillusions.com/
).