Goal of the project
The term 'fake news' is an expression commonly used to describe a news item published in the media that is based on falsehood or manipulation, which is the result of deliberate disinformation activities calculated to achieve political or financial gain, or in the form of shaping the desired social perception of specific phenomena. Although examples of effective disinformation campaigns have been known since ancient times, it is only the rise of internet technology and social media that has given the term 'fake news' its contemporary connotations, linked to the lightning speed with which such information can be created, reproduced and assimilated by the public. An important element of 'fake news' is the co-occurrence of a graphic element, e.g. in the form of a digitally modified photograph (e.g. the addition of weapons to protesters who in the original photograph are only holding banners) or a photograph presented in a context different from the original (a riot from a different time and place presented as an illustration of ongoing peaceful protests). The proposed project aims to explore the problem of manipulation with photographic material, particularly in the case of reportage images often present in press reports. The innovation of the project is to address the problem of distinguishing the type of content presented in photographs that most contributes to the evaluation of a photograph as genuine or manipulative. The main pragmatic consequence of establishing this will be to be able to identify which type of photos have the greatest persuasive power and therefore also carry the greatest risk of becoming part of a manipulation or disinformation campaign.