Visual literacy as a defense against fake news

The excess of photographic images in the different media and their fraudulent use in spreading fake news can distort reality so that we are not able to differentiate manipulated images from those that haven't been retouched. We propose a methodology to detect false content in the image, through the analysis from a selection of a false photographic documents classified as viral. These visual documents were shown to two subject groups, a first group with high visual education, and a second group with a lower visual literacy degree, in order to determine whether there are differences. The results show that there is a correlation between visual education and the detection of manipulated or retouched photographic images, concluding that visual literacy and knowledge is a fundamental tool for the defense against manipulated photographic content, as well as an indispensable element to develop a set of skills that allows greater effectiveness in its detection and location.