ABSTRACT
Since time immemorial, mankind has used pictorial representations of information for the dissemination and assimilation of knowledge. And among all pictorial representations, nothing conveys more verisimilitude, and is thus more inherently believable, than photographs and videos. As a medium of information, photographs and videos have a distinctive epistemic status. This is revealed by the fact that we are inclined to trust the visual evidence they provide, and that the kind of authority they have over our perception is surpassed only by first hand real-time observation of actual world events.
