Blind Trust in Media

Claudia Bauman

Clbauman2@gmail.com

 

 

The phrase “I’ll believe it when I see it with my own eyes” really is hard to stand by nowadays. In today’s world it’s hard to believe photos and even video footage as deep fakes, video clips being taken out of context and doctored photographs can be wildly misleading. Videos simply shot at different angles can show a different side of the story even if it is of the same event.

What is seen first is often instantly taken as what is true and everything after is trying to persuade your opinion. Today people don’t take the time to do background checks and to verify what we are consuming. Most wouldn’t trust a stranger with something like their credit card or their children but many instantly trust whatever a stranger posts on the internet.

Quartz released a video explaining how some German students created a program so they can turn their face into anyone else’s and thus make them say anything they want. This technology is being justified as being a tool for foreign films to be dubbed over so it looks more realistic. As this would be a wonderful tool for such things, it would easily take advantage of and the damage it can do would be vast.

Picture source: Dylan Byers CNN Money

We also often see real videos and photos being take but the content of these is set up. Someone can easily create a stage that speaks one message to the audience when in fact it is fake. Several years ago, ABC News was reporting on a crime scene in front of yellow caution tape saying they couldn’t get any closer. Later on, the photo above was released showing that the whole scene was fake, and they set it up them selves in a random field. These stories can catch a lot of people’s attention at first but the truth always finds away of coming out and does more damage in the long run.

Fake videos and images create distrust within different audiences when they come out and rightfully so. It can influence people not to take these sites seriously anymore but then the same pattern repeats of them blindly trusting other news outlets. People need to start taking accountability and start trying to recognize fake images when they see them. This is why we are seeing studies and guides coming out trying to teach the public on how to identify these such as the one from Skyline College. News outlets and other media platforms will only keep creating fake news if the consumers continue to buy it. Its up to us to educate ourselves and to keep up to date as technology gets better.