History in the Photoshop era.
“…if they are evidence, don’t we have to know that the evidence is reliable, that it can be trusted?”?”
I thought this question was interesting because I felt it was something that as a student and a historian I shouldnt be asking. Truthfully I don’t think any intelligent person who reads the news should have to ask this question. The only reason I think the author is asking it is because he doesn’t know if he can trust them anymore.
Since their invention photos have been a reliable source from which we can gather information because until now it has been much harder to alter them or create falsified pictures. With Photoshop and digital photos anyone with a computer and spare time can make a photo to fool the world. The Iranian missiles isn’t the first time this has happened and won’t be the last. All of this relates to the question of whether or not the digital age is good for history or is going to destroy it. At least we still have historians and just average people who can fact check everything that the internet spits out so this kind of stuff never becomes fact.