Linda From Maine wrote:
I've been doing that for a long time
Goes with being alert to "fake news" and misleading headlines.
It's all part of attempting to maintain critical thinking skills. Question, verify... etc.
Distrust but verify?
This is my approach, too. Even well-meaning people without any intent to deceive have preferences, beliefs and (mis)understandings that color how they present and what they present on any given topic visually, orally, or in writing. Malintent amplifies this.
A photograph is a thing, but it is not the thing photographed. That seems obvious, but the implications are perhaps a little more subtle. Because it is not the thing, at most it can only be a representation of the thing. Unless the thing photographed is a two-dimensional object, there are guaranteed to be significant differences between the photograph and the thing.
Sometimes we try to make the representation of the thing as accurate to one particular view if the thing as possible. If we misrepresent how we captured or modified the image or whether the scene the image represents was real, that is a lie. But since the image is not the scene, the image itself cannot be a lie, any more than a chair is a lie.
On the other hand, the
implications of an image can be a lie, especially if the image is presented as an accurate representation of reality. And since filters, distortion, shutter speed, editing, etc. can significantly change or manipulate the resulting image, it’s best to be skeptical of whether any image accurately represents what someone on the scene would have seen. Many news organizations (laying aside tabloids) try to provide accurate representations of reality in written word, imagery, and video. But even theirs are colored by belief and the need to make money.
So I return to the first point: distrust but verify. As with anything, if a person or organization has a long history of accuracy, you can likely trust the next thing they put out. Otherwise, maybe not.
And if the purpose of an image is to create a beautiful, interesting, or compelling image, I trust it to be exactly that regardless of provenance, because the image is its own thing.