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Visual Media & Multimedia Literacy Guide

This guide provides tools and information to help students evaluate and interpret visual media and multimedia (i.e., images, videos, artwork, photography, etc.) in their coursework and research.

Google Reverse Image Search

Images get circulated and reposted everywhere on the internet. It sometimes can be a challenge to locate where the image was originally posted and this often poses a lot of problems for photographers and artists when their original work is shared and not properly attributed. Doing a reverse image search can prove helpful when trying to locate the original source of an online image.

Steps for Locating the Original Source of an Image Using Google:

  • Step 1: Click on the camera icon by the Google search engine to get started with an image search.

  • Step 2: Either drag the image to the search box, or, upload the image and click the search button. 

Once you search the image, it will show you "All" results first.

 

  • Step 3: Select "Exact Matches". "Exact Matches" will show you what websites have the exact image being searched for.

For each match in the results list, pay attention to the date when the image was posted. In this list of results, exact dates aren't given. You can select the "About the Image" tab (to the right of the "Exact Matches" tab) to see exact posting dates.