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What can a photo’s metadata actually prove?

An image file may carry a date, camera information, or a caption alongside its pixels. Those details can be useful clues, but some can be changed or removed as a file is edited and shared.

4–5 min

Questions you could explore

  • Which metadata fields are descriptions someone can edit?
  • What would you need beyond a file's metadata to establish its history?

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Media and information

What makes a historical source primary?

A diary and a history book stand in different relationships to the past, but neither is automatically beyond question. What counts as a primary source also depends on what you are trying to find out.

3–5 min

What makes a historical source primary?

Media and information3–5 minA diary and a history book stand in different relationships to the past, but neither is automatically beyond question. What counts as a primary source also depends on what you are trying to find out.

Media and information

Following a web claim back to its source

Five webpages repeating the same claim may lead back to one original report. Lateral reading looks beyond an unfamiliar page to investigate its publisher; following links upstream helps reveal where the evidence began.

8–10 min

Following a web claim back to its source

Media and information8–10 minFive webpages repeating the same claim may lead back to one original report. Lateral reading looks beyond an unfamiliar page to investigate its publisher; following links upstream helps reveal where the evidence began.

Media and information

Correcting a paper or retracting its findings

When a published paper contains an error, the question is whether its findings remain usable after a correction or whether readers should stop relying on them. Correction and retraction notices explain different kinds of problem.

4–5 min

Correcting a paper or retracting its findings

Media and information4–5 minWhen a published paper contains an error, the question is whether its findings remain usable after a correction or whether readers should stop relying on them. Correction and retraction notices explain different kinds of problem.

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