Illusion, Misconception, Rumor

Although images sometimes work their way into the news, sometimes images themselves also create the news. By now, it's an old issue, but a few weeks back, there were disturbing rumors of a certain image provided by Google Maps that displayed a corpse on the side of the road. The rumors seemed to be confirmed when the said image came to the surface:
The picture was very convincing and fit the speculations extremely well; Google was harassed for a short while about displaying this on their site, and as it gained popularity it caused more and more controversy...that is, enough controversy for the aforementioned "dead person" to recognize herself and assure the public that this was merely a photograph taken while she was playing with her friends, fell down, and feigned death because she thought it would be funny. A picture taken at a terribly inconvenient time causing so much public outcry is nonetheless a powerful concept to grasp.