Seeing no longer believing: the manipulation of online images
Online images are not always what they seem, especially on social media


Date:
October 21, 2020
Source:
Queensland University of Technology
Summary:
A peace sign from Martin Luther King, Jr, becomes a rude gesture;
dolphins in Venice's Grand Canal - manipulated or mis-used images
posted as truth. Researchers say image editing software is so common
and easy to use, it has the power to re-imagine history. Even the
White House is doing it and deadline-driven journalists lack the
tools to tell the difference, especially when images come from
social media.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A peace sign from Martin Luther King, Jr, becomes a rude gesture;
President Donald Trump's inauguration crowd scenes inflated; dolphins in Venice's Grand Canal; and crocodiles on the streets of flooded Townsville
-- all manipulated images posted as truth.


========================================================================== Image editing software is so ubiquitous and easy to use, according to researchers from QUT's Digital Media Research Centre, it has the power
to re- imagine history.

And, they say, deadline-driven journalists lack the tools to tell the difference, especially when the images come through from social media.

Their study, Visual mis/disinformation in journalism and public
communications, has been published in Journalism Practice. It was driven
by the increased prevalence of fake news and how social media platforms
and news organisations are struggling to identify and combat visual mis/disinformation presented to their audiences.

"When Donald Trump's staff posted an image to his official Facebook
page in 2019, journalists were able to spot the photoshopped edits to
the president's skin and physique because an unedited version exists on
the White House's official Flickr feed," said lead author Dr T.J. Thomson.

"But what about when unedited versions aren't available online and
journalists can't rely on simple reverse-image searches to verify whether
an image is real or has been manipulated?


========================================================================== "When it is possible to alter past and present images, by methods
like cloning, splicing, cropping, re-touching or re-sampling, we face
the danger of a re- written history -- a very Orwellian scenario."
Examples highlighted in the report include photos shared by news outlets
last year of crocodiles on Townsville streets during a flood which were
later shown to be images of alligators in Florida from 2014. It also
quotes a Reuters employee on their discovery that a harrowing video
shared during Cyclone Idai, which devastated parts of Africa in 2019,
had been shot in Libya five years earlier.

An image of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's reaction to the US Senate's
passing of the civil rights bill in 1964, was manipulated to make it
appear that he was flipping the bird to the camera. This edited version
was shared widely on Twitter, Reddit, and white supremacist website The
Daily Stormer.

Dr Thomson, Associate Professor Daniel Angus, Dr Paula Dootson, Dr Edward Hurcombe, and Adam Smith have mapped journalists' current social media verification techniques and suggest which tools are most effective for
which circumstances.

"Detection of false images is made harder by the number of visuals created daily -- in excess of 3.2 billion photos and 720,000 hours of video --
along with the speed at which they are produced, published, and shared,"
said Dr Thomson.



========================================================================== "Other considerations include the digital and visual literacy of those
who see them. Yet being able to detect fraudulent edits masquerading as
reality is critically important.

"While journalists who create visual media are not immune to ethical
breaches, the practice of incorporating more user-generated and
crowd-sourced visual content into news reports is growing. Verification on social media will have to increase commensurately if we wish to improve
trust in institutions and strengthen our democracy." Dr Thomson said
a recent quantitative study performed by the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) found a very low usage of social media verification
tools in newsrooms.

"The ICFJ surveyed over 2,700 journalists and newsroom managers in more
than 130 countries and found only 11% of those surveyed used social
media verification tools," he said.

"The lack of user-friendly forensic tools available and low levels of
digital media literacy, combined, are chief barriers to those seeking to
stem the tide of visual mis/disinformation online." Associate Professor
Angus said the study demonstrated an urgent need for better tools,
developed with journalists, to provide greater clarity around the
provenance and authenticity of images and other media.

"Despite knowing little about the provenance and veracity of the visual
content they encounter, journalists have to quickly determine whether
to re-publish or amplify this content," he said.

"The many examples of misattributed, doctored, and faked imagery
attest to the importance of accuracy, transparency, and trust in the
arena of public discourse. People generally vote and make decisions
based on information they receive via friends and family, politicians, organisations, and journalists." The researchers cite current manual
detection strategies -- using a reverse image search, examining image
metadata, examining light and shadows; and using image editing software --
but say more tools need to be developed, including more advanced machine learning methods, to verify visuals on social media.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_flHHn1280&feature=emb_logo

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Queensland_University_of_Technology. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. T.J. Thomson, Daniel Angus, Paula Dootson, Edward Hurcombe,
Adam Smith.

Visual Mis/disinformation in Journalism and Public Communications:
Current Verification Practices, Challenges, and Future
Opportunities.

Journalism Practice, 2020; 1 DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2020.1832139 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201021112337.htm

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