multimedia storytelling class in digital journalism. verifying social media content.

1. Week 6: Content Verification

2. Why fact-checking isn’t what it
used to be anymore

3. There was a simpler world of facts
before

4. Today It’s more complicated.
New pressures of journalism:
Real-time
Constant updates
Social media
Smartphones (access and cameras)

5. But one thing hasn’t changed…

6. And that’s the standard.
TRUE OR FALSE.
ACCURATE OR INNACURATE.
And your responsibility

7. So today is more complicated…
And more complicated for you.
You’ll find yourself in jobs where
you’ll be expected to do the
impossible.
Ex: live-blogging

8. The tension in today’s journalism is
NEED FOR SPEED
Vs
ACCURACY AND VERIFICATION
And YOU will be asked to make
judgment calls.

9. There is one rule and lots of
guidelines.
The rule:
Being first is not as important as
being accurate.

10. What else counts aside from being first?
Following up with photos, videos and in-depth
analysis
Real-time and speed can mean that the first-
to-break isn’t necessarily the one who’ll be
remembered
What else?

11. The guidelines:
• It’s still about verification, just as always, but
it’s about speedy verification
• Knowing the What, and When and How to
verify information
• Knowing the best tools to be the most
efficient
Ex: we talked about how to source and verify on
Twitter. What were some of the guidelines?
Every medium has its parameters.

12. Parameters:
find the earliest example of the information
posted to social media
check the source's social history to see how
long they've been registered on the platform
and how they have been using it
comparing UGC information with official
reports
Why do I call these parameters?

13. Often it won’t be black and white. It won’t be a
right or wrong decision, it’ll be a judgment call.
Examples: Hurricane Sandy
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive
/2012/10/sorting-the-real-sandy-photos-from-
the-fakes/264243/

14. Some tools for PEOPLE
• WHOIS
Finds the registered users of a domain name and
details the date of registration, location and contact
details of the registrant or assignee.
• Spokeo
A people search engine that can find individuals by
name, email, phone or username. Results are
merged into a profile showing gender and age,
contact details, occupation, education, marital
status, family background, economic profile and
photos.
• Hoverme, Klout, AllAreaCodes

15. Tools for PLACES
• Google Maps
An online map providing high resolution aerial or
satellite imagery covering much of the Earth,
except for areas around the poles. Includes a
number of viewing options such as terrain,
weather information and a 360 degree street
level view.
• Panoramio
Photo-sharing website carrying millions of geo-
located images uploaded on to a Google Maps
layer.

16. Some tools for IMAGES
• TinEye
A reverse image search engine that connects images to
their creators by allowing users to find out where an image
originated, how it is used, whether modified versions exist
and if there are higher resolution copies.
• Google Search by Image
By uploading or entering an image’s URL users can find
content such as related or similar images, websites and
other pages using the specific image.
• Foto Forensics
This website uses error level analysis (ELA) to indicate parts
of an image that may have been altered. It highlights where
alterations may have been made.

17. It will always be a judgment call.
But it will be your judgment,
because that’s how digital, real-
time, social-driven newsrooms
work today.

18. Case study: The Boston Marathon
timeline on April 18th, 2013
• speculation on Twitter and Reddit that a
missing Brown student, Sunil Tripathi, was one
of the bombers.
• People compared photos they could find of
him to the surveillance photos released by the
FBI.
• It was a leading theory on the subreddit
devoted to investigating the bombing that
Tripathi was one of the terrorists responsible

19. • an official on the police scanner said, "Last name:
Mulugeta, M-U-L-U-G-E-T-A, M as in Mike,
Mulugeta.”
• Tripathi’s name is never mentioned
• Greg Hughes, had been following the Tripathi
speculation, tweeted, "BPD has identified the
names: Suspect 1: Mike Mulugeta. Suspect 2:
Sunil Tripathi."
• Gets retweeted intensely
• Much celebration across social media that new
media was able to get to the truth before old
media

20. • Within a few hours NBC had confirmed that
two Chechnyan brothers were the primary
suspects in the case. Their names and stories
came out quickly.
• People realized the error about Tripathi,
apologies were made.
• Tripathi’s body was found a week later

21. Questions about Boston
• When did a subreddit amateur detective’s
work become a national story?
• What went wrong?
• What would you have done differently?

22. Case study: Julie Gayet pregnant
• January 16th Julie Gayet goes on Europe 1 radio
te deny that she is 4 months pregnant
• French media publish the rumor
• The rumor has gone viral on social media
• former Tory MP Louise Mensch tweets: ‘French
blogger tweeting source says Gayet 4 months
pregnant; Valerie evidently not First Lady any
more.’
• French blog le Réel posts a tweet suggesting the
rumor saying his source is journalist from M6
What is the blog Le Réel?

24. What are the potential consequences of
this kind of rumor?
For the subjects?
And the journalists replaying it?
Also: it seems crazy…why did this rumor
catch on at all?

25. Be aware of what we wish were true.
You’ve heard of self-fulfilling wishes: this
mechanism gets amplified on social media
and in newsrooms. When we want
something to be true, we tend to look for
evidence to confirm that wish and you can
usually find anything online if you look
hard enough.