Actually the manipulation of pictures goes back a long time. It isn’t new or shocking. Before digital cameras, one could retouch photographys (e.g. the famous story of how the Communists would “delete” pictures of those who fell out of favor, and inset the new “fearless leader” into heroic events he never participated in). Before that, paintings and drawing (e.g. the famous story of King Henry VIII who was furious when an arranged marriage involved a foreign princess who didn’t look at all like her picture).
It may be an interesting subject, but it is hardly a “new and now pervasive phenominon” as the original posting suggested.