English

Noun

fauxtography ‎(uncountable)

1. (chiefly Internet) Misleading presentation of images for propagandistic or otherwise ulterior purposes, involving staging, deceptive modification, and/or the addition or omission of significant context.
   • 2006, The New Atlantis, issues 12–14, page 146 (Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center):

     Also, fauxtography, coined by bloggers writing about the Israel–Lebanon conflict in summer 2006 to describe both the deceptive modification of pictures by newswire photojournalists and the intentional staging of tragic scenes for propagandistic photos in the media.

   • 2007 November 5, Aaron Peckham, Mo’ Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined, page 103 (Andrews McMeel Publishing; ISBN 0740768751, 9780740768750):

     Various bloggers have uncovered several cases of fauxtography in Reuters’ photo coverage of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict.

   • 2007 November 28, Cynthia Baron, Adobe Photoshop Forensics: Sleuths, Truths, and Fauxtography, main title (illustrated edition; Course Technology Printer; ISBN 1598634054, 9781598634051):

     Adobe Photoshop Forensics: Sleuths, Truths, and Fauxtography

   • 2008, David D. Perlmutter, Blogwars, page xiii (Oxford University Press; ISBN 0195305574, 9780195305579):

     Bloggers noted that when, in February 2005, California’s Barbara Boxer gave a speech on the floor of the Senate, she held in her hands notes that were a printout from BradDeLong.com, the eponymous blog by a professor of economics at UC, Berkeley. Conversely, mainstream photojournalism was shaken to its core by right-wing bloggers who pointed out errors, malfeasance, inconsistencies, miscaptions, and outright fakery in press “fauxtography” from the 2006 Israel–Lebanon war.

Related terms

• fauxtograph

References

• “fauxtography” listed in Mo’ Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined by Aaron Peckham (2007; Andrews McMeel Publishing; ISBN 0740768751, 9780740768750):
  fauxtography
  Staged, doctored, or misleadingly cropped or labelled photographs.