More and more newspapers and news channels are using photographs to support their news articles and stories. Some believe that photographs are not a reliable source of news while other consider photographs to be irrefutable. Discuss both the views and your opinion.

Pictures can be used to validate one's claim. Proponents believe photographs are not trusted sources of information as there are limits to having photos in the newspapers and the sources may be old. Whereas, opponents beg to differ this notion because these pieces of information capture specific events and actions proving the claim to be true. In my opinion, photographs are not reliable sources we should depend on. Certainly, photos alone do not paint the whole scenario of the event that occurred. To exemplify, one needs to wear a mask during this Covid-19 pandemic. However, reporters can capture citizens that are not wearing their masks, claiming that they are not abiding the rules. In fact, these citizens are exercising, hence the misunderstanding. Thus, it is evident that a picture is only a frame of that period, only showing the object's presence and behaviour, resulting in a plausible inaccurate depiction. Yet, it can be used as evidence for viewers to see. For instance, images do not have language boundaries. Ultimately, a person from a different background can easily understand news when stories are supported by visual information rather than trying to understand the local text. One has to admit that the vast majority of photos published in newspapers are genuine, providing solid evidence to claim what is true instead of reading chunky paragraphs. Hence, it is true that one should not do away with such vital evidence, serving it as clear data to all. Furthermore, researches show that images are the first ones to attract every reader's attention, followed by headers of articles. But, others argue that images are not valid sources of news as they can be edited. In this age of Photoshop and multimedia, there is no way we can assure the authenticity of images we come across on the internet and in newspapers. Indeed, there have been many examples where pictures that look original, were manipulated to taint the reputation of renown celebrities. Moreover, pictorials may not have any relation to the articles as some photos used are outdated. To sum up, although photos are indispensable as they kindle the interest among the readers and facilitate easy comprehension of the news story, I feel that it does not convey the correct news to readers. Instead, showing a full video of the scene, from beginning to the end, is much more reliable. Since newspapers are unable to embed videos, with the aid of technology where many can access with their mobile phones, firms can print QR codes for viewers to scan and watch the videos. In this case, it prevents them from misunderstanding the article and spreading false rumours. Therefore, making news more reliable instead of putting up pictures.