Contextual Misrepresentation in Photojournalism

World News Daily Report is not the first website to misuse photos with fake news headlines and won’t be the last website either. It is easy for a website to seemingly get away with fake journalism tactics like if their stories go unreported. But, if people who value the quality of journalism continue to expose websites like the World News Daily Report, we can restore the damage.

One example of contextual misrepresentation on the World News Daily Report is from the picture below.

It was easier for the World News Daily Report to get away with using this picture for their bogus headline because it originally came from the Danish Microsoft News website. The language barrier makes it easier for a photo to be snagged from a website for a quick headline.

Even with the outrageous headline about Denmark legalizing bestiality during the quarantine, the article still has over 1000 shares on Facebook according to World Daily News. The article itself is questionable overall because there are no references to what interviews the quotes from Denmark Health Minister Magnus Heunicke.

The original picture came from the Danish Microsoft News website called “MSN Nyheder.” The article was published on March 22 and the headline of the article translates to “Heunicke: We are trying to provide greater test capacity” in regards to testing for COVID-19 in Denmark.

The caption translates to "Health Minister Magnus Heunicke is ready to enter into agreements with Danish manufacturers of reagents, among other things, he told TV2 on Sunday evening."

The article talks about how Denmark is working to increase COVID-19 testing with the help of working with larger companies. Heunicke announced that an increase in testing is necessary in order due to the economic demands currently placed on the world market. Heunicke confirmed that one of the companies being contacting is PentaBase. The last current number of people tested in Denmark is 12,351 according to the article.

World News Daily Report will continue to post these false headlines for clocks, but if people can spot these traps from afar, they won’t be able to succeed.