It's Not What It Looks Like

Avery Ovens 

ao138618@ohio.edu

averyovenss@gmail.com

Source:https://www.insider.com/kendall-jenner-denies-photoshop-edit-black-lives-matter-picture-2020-6

A picture was taken of Kendall Jenner with her hands in the air. Someone took that photo and photoshopped a mask on her face along with a Black Lives Matter poster between her hands making it look like she was holding it up. The picture went viral due to the shadow showing there was no poster making Kendall look like she edited it herself to make people believe she was protesting for the BLM movement. There was so much controversy around this that it got Kendall's attention. She tweeted that she did not post that picture and was not responsible for photoshopping it.

https://www.today.com/popculture/kendall-jenner-sets-record-straight-about-black-lives-matter-protest-t183768

Visual media such as attached images and video recordings have been such a savior to journalists helping to bring support and credibility to their claims. So many stories and arguments are able to be backed up with the help of a visual as proof that the information readers are receiving is trustworthy. But technology has advanced itself much further allowing visual media to be tampered with displaying something untrue. A certain type of this manipulated content is known as a deepfake.

A deepfake is an edit made on a photo or video that swaps the faces of people. This term uses multiple different techniques such as face swap, lip sync, facial reenactment, and motion transfer. These techniques all work together to make someone look like someone else doing or saying something they were not originally. It is so well detailed that it can be hard to tell if the content is real or deepfaked. Kendall Jenner was accused of photoshopping which is not a deepfake but a way of editing an image to portray something else which correlates to the point of a deepfake. 

https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/11/how-the-wall-street-journal-is-preparing-its-journalists-to-detect-deepfakes/

This type of manipulated content is something that is harder to detect because visual media, especially videos, have been seen as credible support until recently.  The public is aware of fake news as well as pictures being edited, but deepfaking has changed peoples perception and trust in videos. All manipulated content is based upon genuine pictures or videos so when it gets altered it is not necessarily fake, but it turns into disinformation based upon the edits made. Different ways of editing can change the way a story is portrayed; therefore, journalists are in charge of covering these manipulations so they can continue fulfilling their number one priority in helping to guide the public to be informed only on the truth. It is said to not believe everything you read on the internet, but now it should be said to not believe everything you see on the internet.

https://firstdraftnews.org/articles/how-journalists-can-responsibly-report-on-manipulated-pictures-and-video/