As outlined in the previous chapter, in many instances, people may try to be helpful by reposting images they have seen elsewhere. This happens frequently to news organizations - images are sent in by well-meaning members of the public to help report a story. Just by asking the sender to confirm if it’s his image or not can save a lot of time in the verification process. While tracking down the source of an image begins with the person who uploaded it, it often ends with a different person – the one who actually captured the image. As referenced in an earlier chapter, an important step is to use a service like Google Reverse Image Search3 or TinEye4. Paste the image URL or a copy of the image into either and they will scan the web to see if there are any matches. If several links to the same image pop up, click on “view other sizes” to investigate further. Usually, the image with the highest resolution/size should take you to the original source. (On Google Images, the resolution for each image result is listed just next to the image itself.) You can then check it against the image you have and see if the source appears authentic. Quite often on a breaking news event, there will be no images of specific people that you want to illustrate the story with (particularly if they involve ordinary members of the public). Alternatively, you might want to confirm that an image you have of someone is actually them and not someone else with the same name. I’ve found Pipl.com to be particularly helpful here as it allows you to cross-reference names, usernames, email address and phone numbers against online profiles of people. For international searches, WebMii is an additional resource that can help. LinkedIn is also proving to be a great way of verifying individuals and often provides additional leads for being able to track them down (through companies/organizations they are currently or previously associated with). 2. Corroborate the location, date and approximate time the image was taken There are some useful journalistic and technical ways of establishing information such as date, location and other important details. One core way of gathering this information is when you speak to the creator/uploader of the image. These five questions continue to stand the test of time: • Who are they? • Where are they? • When did they get there? • What can they see (and what does their photo show)? • Why are they there? One important aspect to note here: If the image is from a dangerous location, always check 37