A visual verification tax comes due

"The visual documentation available today - such as eyewitness images, satellite imagery, drone footage and other sensor data - offers journalists unprecedented amounts of material to craft stories from. However, this abundance comes part and parcel with the social platforms that are disseminating much of this visual material. These platforms systematically strip contextual information from images and videos. By design, the platforms leave out precisely the contextual details that are crucial for journalists who need to assess the credibility of the material."

"Newsrooms that invested in "visual investigations" teams over the past decade understood this. A characterizing feature of these teams is how they often hire specialists from outside of journalism entirely - such as architects, human rights investigators, satellite experts or forensic analysts - to develop new practices that stay in step with an increasingly visually saturated and fragmented media landscape. They triangulate objects and people across sources, geolocate footage, and offer transparent chains of evidence."

"This is in line with how several journalism scholars describe visual verification in general as being improvised, done ad hoc, and only belatedly codified through efforts such as the Verification Handbook series. As we enter 2026, AI-generated, photorealistic imagery has become trivial to produce, while decontextualized "cheap fakes" continue to circulate across platforms with increasing velocity."

In 2026, an abundance of eyewitness images, satellite imagery, drone footage and sensor data gives journalists unprecedented material for reporting. Social platforms systematically strip contextual metadata from visual content, removing critical details needed to assess credibility. Visual investigations teams hire specialists such as architects, human rights investigators, satellite experts and forensic analysts to triangulate objects, geolocate footage and produce transparent chains of evidence. Most newsrooms have not built that competence, leaving visual verification improvised and ad hoc. AI-generated photorealistic imagery and rapidly circulating decontextualized 'cheap fakes' make verification more difficult. Newsrooms must invest in visual verification capabilities now or face corrections, credibility loss, and missed opportunities.

Read at Nieman Lab