A Pic Of An Impala And Cheetahs Went Viral On The Back Of A FAKE Story. Here’s The Real One.

Alison Buttigieg, a wildlife photographer, clicked a picture of a mother cheetah teaching her cubs how to kill an impala. The picture soon went viral but with a false story attached to it. The story alleged that the impala sacrificed itself so that her babies could have a better chance of escaping the cheetahs. Moreover, it claimed that after clicking this series of pictures, the photographer went into depression.

Neither of these claims is true and Alison has spoken out against them. Here’s what she said in her Facebook post

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A highlight of my photography career has turned into a nightmare. My Stranglehold photo went viral in a huge way with a completely ridiculous fake story accompanying it, and implications I fell into depression after I took it (seriously who comes up with this crap?!?) – not to mention the gross copyright violations. Sensationalism at its best – complete fiction so that people get more likes on their page. The photo with the fake story has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on various social media. I am getting inundated by hundreds and hundreds of messages asking me whether I am the “depressed photographer”. I have been tagged in LinkedIn with the fake story – that’s going to do wonders for my career. What a vile world we live in, full of stupid gullible people spreading #fakenews like crazy.

 

In order to set the record straight, she posted the real story behind the picture series.The impala had no intention of sacrificing itself but was in fact paralysed with fear.

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“I wanted the viewer to sympathise with the impala, and at the same time witness with me the disturbing nature of this unusual kill.”

While Alison wanted to try and convey such complex emotions through these pictures, the fake caption attached to it completely distorted that objective. Instead, what the user saw was a cliched story of sacrifice. Moreover, she was branded a “depressed photographer” which understandably hurt her career prospects.

Alison’s story is a vivid example of how the promulgation of fake news, distorted facts and inflated claims could prove detrimental to one’s career. There’s a simple but important lesson to be learnt from all of this.

Do not trust everything you read and hear at first instance. Think about where it’s coming from or who is saying it. A little bit of critical thinking will do wonders for the human civilisation.

News Source: Alison Buttigieg’s Blog, Facebook

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