The issue of “fake news” has taken center stage in the world of journalism over the past 12-24 months, with an increasing number of unvetted and untrustworthy news sources spreading stories that have no basis in reality. Most of this fake news spreads through social media, and is caused by readers taking these dubious sources at face value.

For nearly half a century, The Columbia Journalism Review has been the standard-bearer for journalistic ethics around the world, though a publication which reaches over twenty thousand readers in the industry each issue, with many more reading online.

Our objective was to highlight the problem as The Columbia Journalism Review saw it, and position the publication as a champion of trustworthy reporting in the age of fake news.

We chose to shoot the campaign using a photojournalistic style of photography, with a high-contrast, black and white treatment, which gives the visuals the impression of being real-world reportage. This gives the campaign an immediacy that shows the situation as it stands, in the real world. We see everyday people in their daily routines, in places where they might usually be reading something on their phone, but they’re holding newspapers with fake news sources as mastheads. In this way, we’re showing that these dubious news channels are being treated as being on par with reputable, fact-checked journalism, which has led to the current climate we find ourselves in.