Don’t Get Fooled Again: Best Practices for Online Verification

June 13, 2013Call: 888-398-2342Access code: 585-200-4058

About me• Editor of Regret the Error blog and Adjunct Faculty at

Poynter. Covering and researching media errors and verification since 2004.

• Director of Content for content curation and creation platform Spundge.

• Previously: Managing editor of PBS MediaShift, editorial director of OpenFile, columnist for Columbia Journalism Review, The Globe And Mail, Toronto Star, BusinessJournalism.org

Today’s Agenda

• The principles of verification• Learn how to:

– Verify social media content– Verify photos and video– Evaluate a Web page’s credibility

• Review the types of online fakes• Build a debunker toolkit

Seen this?

How About This?

Principles of Verification•Develop human sources — and talk to them•Consult multiple, credible sources•Be skeptical

– Is something too good to be true?•Communicate and collaborate•Stay up to date with search and research methods•Breaking news breeds chaos. Restraint is key.

VERIFYING SOCIAL MEDIA

With thanks to Mandy Jenkins (@mjenkins, ZombieJournalism.com)

Evaluate the Account & Person

• On Twitter, check when account was created– Be suspicious of brand-new accounts

• Analyze the network– Friends, followers, conversations, retweets– What do they usually tweet/post about?– Where do they say they are? – How does it compare?

• Evaluate tweets before and after• Check their Klout score

Check Outside Social Media•Google the handle/name with “spam, scam, spammer,” etc. to see if others have complained

Check Outside Social Media•See if you can find other accounts online with the info you have

•Search the username

Contact, Check Other Sources

•DM them, get on the phone, Skype•Get details and additional corroboration from people, images, etc.•Are others reporting this incident or event?•If so, what sourcing are they using?

Law of Incorrect Tweets

The initial, mistaken information will be retweeted more than any subsequent correction

That Means …

Work to get it right, and don’t rush to be wrong

Marathon Bombing Lessons

• Confusion reigns, and is played out in real-time on Twitter and elsewhere.

• Anyone can (and will) make mistakes.• Find sources on the ground. See who else has

them. Multiple sources.• There is glory in restraint.

“I think this is where we can provide clarity versus confusion, and just hold a bit. Because I

think it’ll be more clear soon. No local orgs reporting it independently is odd to me.”

— Stephanie Clary, BreakingNews

VERIFYING PHOTOS & VIDEO

Street Shark!

Verifying Photos & Video

•Check exif info: regex.info/exif.cgi •Check history of photo: TinEye, Google Images•Reference locations against maps and existing images from the area

Verifying Photos & Video

• Check – Clothes, buildings, language, license plates,

vehicles, etc. – Do they support the image?

•Examine weather reports, shadows to confirm conditions shown fit date and time

Verifying Photos & Video

•Review the uploader’s history/location – See if he/she has shared credible content in the past or

may be scraping from others

•Are there images before and after you can compare to?•Get the uploader on the phone or Skype to talk about the image•Beware of the amazing shot in a breaking news situation

VERIFYING WEB PAGES

Verifying Web Pages

•Use Whois lookup on the domain•Check Internet archive and overall history of the site, organization or person•Check site's PageRank

Verifying Web Pages

•Isclear and credible ownership/credit information offered?

– Does the footer information point to a real ownership entity?

• Does the site/page have life? – Comments, likes, tweets, recent content, links in &

out ...

Verifying Web Pages

•Do blog and news searches to see if it/people/company has been talked about/covered already

– Find the original source•Are people bookmarking it on Diigo or Delicious?•Use the phone, send some emails before you publish anything

Verifying Web Pages

• Check names– Does the person have a personal history? – Is it a name drawn from history or literature?

• Do the numbers add up?

Which One Is Real?

Clues

•URL: opinion-nytimes.com, not NYTimes.com •Slightly different page layout•Whois: Registered in March•Shared on Twitter by Twitter account @nytkeIler (with an uppercase “i” that appeared to be an “l”) NOT verified

Domain name from Whois

Which One Is Real?

TYPES OF FAKES

Real Image, Wrong Event

Composite of Real Images

Actually from Iowa ...

Fictional Presented as Factual

Totally Unbelievable

Fake Accounts or Facebook Pages

Fake Websites

The Debunker Toolkit

• Snopes.com• Google Image Search/TinEye.com• Whois search• EXIF reader• Whendidyoujointwitter.com• Archive.org/web/web.php

Remember

•Photos and other forms of information are easily manipulated and altered•Fake news spreads the same as real news•Big news brings out the fakers — an confusion for all•Be skeptical about what you see and read and hear

Remember

•Check the source and the content•Investigate the network, the history of a SM account•Use human sources, always seek contact•Use tools, but not only tools•Don’t rush to be wrong. Value restraint

Thank You! Questions?