Fact-Checking Social Media In An Era Of Manipulated Photos, Videos

Christian Bryant explains the effect manipulated images and videos have on news literacy, with suggestions on how to weed out the fakes.

This week is National News Literacy Week, meaning it's a week to make sure the news consumers read, watch, and hear is actually keeping us informed.  

Every year more Americans say they’re getting their news from social media. Unfortunately, verifying what’s real and what’s made up on social media is often kind of a DIY situation, and that gets especially tricky in an age when it’s so easy to manipulate images and video.  

For example, news literacy on social media might mean knowing whether that viral image of a shark swimming down the interstate after a big hurricane is real or just a recycled Photoshop creation from years ago.