How to check a misleading picture: follow the image and its claim

Start with the claim

A picture arrives with a confident caption. Before sharing it, Pulenaz writes down what the post actually claims: who or what is shown, where it happened and when. iJustine walks her through looking for those answers outside the post, rather than treating a convincing picture as an answer by itself.

For a lesson to watch, Aimee Hourigan’s ABC Education video explains how a genuine image can be reused in a misleading context. She suggests pausing, looking for evidence and checking sources elsewhere; the transcript also describes using an image search or a publication date to investigate context.

References: ABC Education

Claire Wardle’s First Draft presentation gives the search a useful shape: establish where the material came from, who supplied it, its date and location, and why it was shared. The First Draft page links the presentation and sets out those questions.

References: First Draft

Look closely, then find something to compare

In their walkthrough, iJustine and Pulenaz inspect a picture of a community-event poster. The shared version says the event is Sunday. Pulenaz notices that the day lettering looks less crisp than the rest of the poster; that gives her a detail to investigate, not proof that anyone changed it.

She searches for the event and finds an earlier poster on the organizer’s own page. The photograph, layout and other wording match, but that earlier poster says Saturday. The organizer’s current event notice also says Saturday. Now there is a concrete reason to treat the Sunday image as altered or at least unreliable for the date, and to check the organizer’s current notice before making plans. A fuzzy letter alone would not have settled it.

On a computer, Google’s image search lets you upload an image and may return similar images and pages where an image appears. Open promising results and check the page and date; the first matching thumbnail is a lead, not automatically the original.

References: Google Search Help

A real photograph can carry the wrong story

Next, iJustine shows Pulenaz a news photograph of a crowded market shared with the claim that the market is closed today. Searching the image leads them to a news report from the previous year, whose caption identifies the same market during a festival. The picture itself has not been changed in this exercise; the new caption has moved it to a different day and given it a different meaning.

They keep the two questions separate: the older report supports when and where that picture was taken; it does not by itself establish whether the market is open today. Pulenaz checks a current notice from the market before telling anyone what is happening. If she cannot find one, she leaves today’s closure unconfirmed rather than calling the photograph fake.

Even without a new caption, a photograph can leave important context outside the frame. Getty Education’s news-image exercise asks readers to compare foreground, background and camera position, then write captions explaining who, what, where and when.

References: Getty Education

Give a short video the same treatment

For a clip, pause on a distinctive frame, such as a sign or building, and search the image. If a longer version turns up, check who posted it and whether the surrounding footage changes what the excerpt appears to show. Compare the date and place with the claim in the post.

Pulenaz keeps a small note beside the link: “Claim: market closed today. Evidence: photo appears in last year’s report. Current closure: not established yet.” That is a useful result to share with a friend: it explains what she found and what still needs checking.

Sources and attribution

1. ABC Education

   Media Explained — Misinformation: ESCAPE misinformationPublished Jan 16, 2026 · Recorded Oct 30, 2026

2. First Draft

   Watch Claire Wardle detail verification as a process – with tools and tipsPublished May 17, 2016 · Recorded Oct 30, 2026

3. Google Search Help

   Search with an image on GooglePublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 30, 2026

4. Getty Education

   Newsworthy ImagesPublication date not listed · Recorded Oct 30, 2026