Fake viral images have become a hallmark of the Internet. But if we look back through history, it's possible to find fake images spreading in a viral fashion even in the late 19th century, when photos circulated via picture postcards or in magazines. So the phenomenon is older than most people might assume. The images in this gallery are arranged in descending chronological order, starting with the present and going all the way back to the 1860s.
Type of Material:
Collection
Recommended Uses:
Can be used to teach critical thinking and visual literacy skills Good tool to support a unit on fact-checking
Ask students to take the hoax photo test. Have each student explore a "genre" of hoaxes, and explain their process to the rest of the class.
Technical Requirements:
The website works across browsers.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Discern hoaxes/false or faked information Explain how images are edited to present misleading or false information
Target Student Population:
High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, Communications studies majors, Photography and other visual arts majors, Library and information professional majors
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Basic ICT and visual literacy
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The website is well organized and is inclusive of both famous and obscure images. There is a Hoax Photo Archive that organizes the images in categories such as advertising, humor, celebrities, politics, etc. The site provides resources that address how fake images may be generated by listing various techniques of fakery. This virtual museum shows and explains hoaxes from history and the present. The information appears to be accurate and contextualized. The collection is both deep and broad, so that instructor have much to draw upon and use in a variety of ways. Website links work, and the site provides citations for most of the images included.
Concerns:
Few few citations back up the assertions.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The images and other sources are used to teach information and media literacy, which align with ICT literacy standards. The clusters of resources illustrate the related concepts. The source "genres" and explanations can inspire educators to create informative and engaging learning activities across several academic domains. The explanations are well done and enable one to learn efficiently. The skills gained can be applied to academic and daily life. For instance, the content can be used to support learning modules on the history of fake news, and photojournalism.
Concerns:
The examples do not identify prerequisite knowledge.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The website is fun, engaging, and informative. The photo hoax test is interactive and motivating. The website's appearance is lively and simple to navigate. The viewer could find him/herself spending hours browsing the site because it is so compelling and interesting.
Concerns:
The website does not appear to be ADA-compliant, and images do not have alt-text.
Creative Commons:
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