#5 in a series of background briefs

The logic of TTG
Widely accepted assumptions and principles underlying TTG

(Tap or click on boxes to open and close)

  • A bit like a mathematical proof, TTG is built on a set of widely accepted assumptions (listed below) that support a logical conclusion (that is, the Trust Test and the TTG label).

    No attempt is made here to assemble the assumptions in a progressive order (“If A, then B; if B, then C”) the way mathematical proofs are typically constructed, but the assumptions should still help build the case and support the conclusion.

    • 1. The future of photography

  • 1A. Photography will continue to matter, hugely, around the world

    ____________

    • Over the past couple of decades photography has become the world’s most universal language (see #201-303).

    • Photography is bigger than ever and continues to grow (more photographs are taken every year than the previous year, and that trend shows no sign of slowing).

  • 1B. It will continue to become easier to create images that look like undoctored photographs but are not

    ____________

    This has been a reality since the invention of photography and has only accelerated in the age of digital manipulation and AIFI (see #7 here).

    Even on a basic smartphone, photographers can now perform with the swipe of a finger undetectable manipulations that 20th-century masters of the darkroom couldn’t perform in several days.

  • 1C. The public will trust “images that look like photographs” less in the future than in the past

    ____________

    This is because of #1B (above).

    Assumption #1C is the simplest way to explain why there will be a place for “a universal standard” like TTG in the future when there was no need for it in the past.

  • 1D. It will always be the case that people trust some photographs more than others

    ____________

    • Most people will always trust their own photos more than they will trust, for example, preposterous photos posted anonymously on the Internet

    • Once it is established that “viewers trust some photos more than others” there’s a place for identifying which photos are more likely to be trustworthy (that’s TTG’s role)

    For more on this, see #310-311.

  • 1E. Viewers will not be able to reliably find out “just by looking” what they want to know about the believability of “images that look like photographs”

    ____________

    For viewers, photography isn’t just about “how the photo looks” anymore.

    There is no longer any reliable connection between a photograph’s appearance and its trustworthiness. In the age of AI and digital manipulation, there are created every day millions of images that look like trustworthy photographs but are not.

    Scrutinizing each image will not help: not one of the 9 characteristics of trusted photographs can be reliably assessed “just by looking.”

  • 1F. Viewers cannot expect photographers to tell them when a convincing-looking image is not an undoctored photograph

    ____________

    This approach has been proposed many times over the past four decades, but it has proven to be unrealistic.

    • 2. Future needs

  • 2A. A means of identifying trustworthy photographs will benefit the larger culture, as photographs are increasingly used as a form of international communication

    ____________

    Photography is now our most-universal language (see #301-303) — but the effectiveness of any language is limited if the audience doesn’t know when they can believe the message.

  • 2B. A means of identifying trustworthy photographs will benefit viewers who want to know which impressive photographs they see are undoctored

    ____________

    (This is the case regardless of the subject of the photo: it need not be a “news” photograph for viewers to be curious.)

    {This brief} explains why “viewers want to know”: trustworthiness, difficulty, and meaning.

  • 2C. A means of identifying trustworthy photographs will benefit providers who are minding their reputation

    ____________

    A photograph’s impact often depends on its credibility: even the most visually compelling photograph loses impact if viewers don’t believe their eyes.

    As spelled out in this brief, the reasoning is simple for tending to credibility:
    1. You see something remarkable
    2. You tell others about what you saw
    3. You want them to believe you.
    _____________

    This brief has more information for image providers; see also the guide to publishing TTG photographs.

    • 3. Future responses

  • 3A. The most-widely trusted photographs will continue to share the same characteristics

    ____________

    Any standard that aims to optimize trustworthiness (like TTG does) will likely incorporate all 9 characteristics of the most-trusted photographs in the world.

    It is rare to find news photographs in trusted news settings that do not fully meet all 9 requirements as spelled out in the Trust Test.

  • 3B. Photography will always be tied to “light”

    ____________

    Most definitions of photography will always be somehow “light”-related (the word “photo” is from the Greek word for “light”).

    That’s why any photo-manipulation discussion is likely to acknowledge the role of light — and why TTG uses the behavior of “light” to draw the line on photo manipulation.

  • 3C. Trusted providers will continue to share similar standards

    ____________

    While there are no specific “industry standard” specifications for things like saturation or sharpening, the degree of variation regarding such actions between respected information providers is generally fairly small.

    Through rinairs, TTG will always incorporate the standards of the most-trusted providers, whoever they are at any given time.

  • 3D. Billions of smartphones will continue to reflect a consensus about “doctoring” photographs

    ____________

    The largest smartphone manufacturers will not program as defaults any actions (in a device’s away-facing camera) that would be regarded as “doctoring” by users who just want to “take a photo to show what something looks like.”

    How TTG transfers this into the list of Allowable Changes    .