The Importance of Verification The Importance of Verification in Social Newsgathering

Jochen SpangenbergInnovation Manager // Deutsche Welle & REVEAL Project jochen.spangenberg@dw.com // https://about.me/jospang

http://revealproject.eu/ & http://blogs.dw.de/innovation/

Twitter: @jospang & @RevealEU & @dw_innovation

Turin, 21 September 2015

So much information ...

Source: Mark Smiciklas (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The value of information from Social Networks

Source: Janis Krums, who took the photo in Jan 2009 on his iPhone and posted on TwitPic / shared via Twitter, from where it was picked up by numerous news outlets. See https://twitter.com/#!/jkrums/status/1121915133)

Source: Global Voices Online, 26 April 2015. Image by Kunda Dixit, editor of Nepali Times.

Source: Screenshot of Twitter search by Jochen Spangenberg during attack in Sousse, Tunisia, on 26 June 2015

The pitfalls...

Source: images circulating on Twitter, claiming to show crashed Germanwings flight 9525. Taken from BBC Trending‘s Twitter account. (The actual photo – unaltered – shows a plane crash from years earlier

Source (of first manipulation): unknown. Pretending to show hurricane Sandy approaching New York

Source: Alisha Hessler — alias Jasmine Tridevil — who claimed she had had a third breast implant, to get onto a reality TV show. The image circulated widely on Social Networks –before it was debunked that the third breast was a prosthesis.

The role of (serious) journalism

Use content from Social Networks for the benefit of reporting / storytelling to

• speed up the information gathering process

• obtain information that otherwise would be unavailable

• access a multitude of (directly involved) sources

• interact with and using audience / eyewitnesses, involving them and their content in the storytelling process

• improve the user experience

• ...

Get it first –Get it first –but first, get it right!

Next: on the importance Next: on the importance of verification

The media business / journalistic profession …

Source: Flickr, Terry Johnston , CC BY 2.0

”Getting it wrong once can be more powerful than be more powerful than

getting it right 1000 times“

The importance of verification

Source: BBC News website of 27 and 29 May 2012

So what to do?So what to do?

Verification of UGC / Eyewitness Media

- Media organisations

- Journalists

Sources: Screenshots of Suncalc, Google Maps & Translate, Tweetdeck, Followerwonk, Mentionmapp, Topsy, Storyful Pro, Jeffrey’s Exif Viewer, Panoramio, Pipl

The Big W’sThe Big W’s

What?

Source : Manipulated image shared by Facebook user Gregory Michael, apparently showing shark swimming in New Jersey waters after hurricane Sandy. Taken from Witness.org blog. http://blog.witness.org/2013/01/how-informacam-improves-verification-of-mobile-media-files/

Who?

Source: screenshots of

Sources: screenshots of Twitter Profiles

Source: screenshots of mentionmapp analysis

Source: screenshots offollowerwonk analysis

Source: screenshots ofwww.numberway.com(int‘l phone directory)

Where?

Source: Flickr, by sarflondondunc, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Source: Panoramio screenshotSource: Flickr, by Paul Stein, (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source: Flickr, by s1lang, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

When?

Source: YouTube metadata screenshotSource: Flickr, by Petr Dosek, (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Why?

Source : Screenshot of Twitter profiles of IDF and Al Qassam Brigades

Source: REVEAL / Linda Rath-Wiggins

The REVEAL approach

• Develop processes, algorithms and software components that aid in verification / debunking of content shared via Social Networks

Contributor

• Investigate the market and relevant issues (other tools and approaches, legal issues etc)

CC

C

ontributorontent

ontext Source: REVEAL / http://demo.truthnest.com/

Some final remarks

Contact with source (but there are exceptions)

Source: plenty.r. (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source protection / security of sources

Source: Dina Regine (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sourcing, crediting and getting permission

Source: Extract from a ZDF TV Programme / news report

Ethical aspects

Source: Jordi Mir, who filmed the execution of a French policeman during the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Video on YouTube here

Source: The Guardian, 15 August 2015. The story of FeidinSantana who filmed the shooting of Walter Scott by a policeman in North Charleston, US, on 4 April 2015

Thank you!

Contact

Jochen Spangenberg DW Innovation Berlin

Tel: +49 (0)30 4646 5604, +49 (0)172 261 2315jochen.spangenberg@dw.com

Twitter: @dw_innovation, @revealeu & @jospang

http://blogs.dw.de/innovation/ & http://revealproject.eu/