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Journalists also need new tools. We can’t always vet every fact. We rely on certain trusted sources, news services such as the Associated Press or Reuters. Still, even those superbly professional fact-gatherers sometimes have trouble verifying information. Social media can help — people can upload video from their cellphones of events as they happen. But we’re learning that social media can be tools of deception as well as truth.
So here’s an offbeat proposal: Just as the provenance of a work of art is established by art historians and auction houses, we need technological tools that will help confirm the provenance of facts.
The idea is simple: An art buyer should want to know that the painting attributed to, say, Leonardo da Vinci was in fact created by him. So specialists seek to reconstruct the chain of ownership, documenting how a work passed among collectors and galleries over the centuries. Scholars can’t always establish direct links back to the artist (and such uncertainty appears to cloud the recent purchase of Leonardo’s “Salvator Mundi” for $450 million). But the exercise is essential for the proper functioning of art markets.
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