Pyramids and the Milky Way?
No, not really.
How do you know the image you are viewing is a real photograph and not a computer-generated image?
YOU DON’T.
Never fear, the attribution angel is here!
@PicPedant takes images found online—often from reblogging sites like BuzzFeed and Tumblr— finds the original author and attributes them.
Through the process of finding the original source, he often discovers that the photographs are actually paintings, drawings or Photoshop mashups.
Librarian Jessamyn West explains about how @PicPedant’s work matters in her blog post “Why sourcing photos matters – how misattribution is amplified on the web.”
…as more and more people just presume the search engine and the “hive mind” approach to this sort of thing results in the correct answer, it’s good to have handy counterexamples to explain why we still need human eyeballs even as “everything” is on the web.
http://www.librarian.net/tag/picpedant/
What does that mean for you?
Look and think critically about the images you see online. If that castle on top of a floating rock looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Attribution is important, including creative commons licensed images. Take the time to find the original and give the artist credit.
If you fake it, say it! If you copy it, attribute it! @PicPedant is watching you.
More information
Exposed Interview: Paulo Ordoveza of @PicPedant
http://exposeddc.com/2014/01/28/exposed-interview-paulo-ordoveza-picpedant/
Why sourcing photos matters – how misattribution is amplified on the web
http://www.librarian.net/tag/picpedant/
Article: [citation needed] by jessamyn west in Computers in Libraries. Find the current article through the library’s subscription to Academic Search Complete (citation below).
west, j. (2014). Practical Technology. [citation needed]. Computers In Libraries, 34(4), 25-26.
