Cameraphones are everywhere, and because of this, we have come to expect nearly every event to be filmed or photographed. We have become accustomed to seeing imagery of anything notable that happens. This has created an expectation that all notable events will be visually documented. When no imagery exists, we doubt the existence of an event. There is an entire generation of adults who came of age in the cameraphone era who will express doubt with the phrase “pics, or it didn’t happen.”
As more of our experience is recorded, shared, and cataloged, it will become even more important to have visual documentation to describe or prove the existence of an event. As our method of description becomes more photographic, having access to the images becomes more essential.
Our reliance on images as “proof” of an event has a downside in the age of convincing visual forgeries. We’re moving far beyond the traditional “Photoshopping” of images and into a world of convincing video fakes. This will make the provenance of a piece of media even more important--from a standpoint of trust.
Pics-or-it-didn’t-happen drives an increase in the importance and velocity of image distribution. To meet these expectations, DAM systems must be substantially better at gathering imagery from many sources, allowing accurate content and rights tagging, and making the media available for real-time distribution. It’s one of our primary objectives in the upcoming version of our digital asset management software.