Week 6: Content Verification

Why fact-checking isn’t what itused to be anymore

There was a simpler world of factsbefore

Today It’s more complicated.

New pressures of journalism:

Real-time

Constant updates

Social media

Smartphones (access and cameras)

But one thing hasn’t changed…

And that’s the standard.

TRUE OR FALSE.

ACCURATE OR INNACURATE.

And your responsibility

So today is more complicated…

And more complicated for you.

You’ll find yourself in jobs whereyou’ll be expected to do the

impossible.

Ex: live-blogging

The tension in today’s journalism is

NEED FOR SPEED

Vs

ACCURACY AND VERIFICATION

And YOU will be asked to makejudgment calls.

There is one rule and lots of guidelines.

The rule:

Being first is not as important as being accurate.

What else counts aside from being first?

Following up with photos, videos and in-depthanalysis

Real-time and speed can mean that the first-to-break isn’t necessarily the one who’ll beremembered

What else?

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 mostefficient

Ex: we talked about how to source and verify on Twitter. What were some of the guidelines?

Every medium has its parameters.

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 platformand how they have been using it

comparing UGC information with official reports

Why do I call these parameters?

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/

Some tools for PEOPLE

• WHOISFinds the registered users of a domain name and details the date of registration, location and contact details of the registrant or assignee.

• SpokeoA 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

Tools for PLACES

• Google MapsAn 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 streetlevel view.

• PanoramioPhoto-sharing website carrying millions of geo-located images uploaded on to a Google Mapslayer.

Some tools for IMAGES

• TinEyeA 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 ImageBy 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 ForensicsThis 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.

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.

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 subredditdevoted to investigating the bombing that Tripathi was one of the terrorists responsible

• 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 Tripathispeculation, 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 oldmedia

• Within a few hours NBC had confirmed thattwo Chechnyan brothers were the primarysuspects 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

Questions about Boston

• When did a subreddit amateur detective’swork become a national story?

• What went wrong?

• What would you have done differently?

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 monthspregnant; Valerie evidently not First Lady anymore.’

• French blog le Réel posts a tweet suggesting the rumor saying his source is journalist from M6

What is the blog Le Réel?

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 rumorcatch on at all?

Be aware of what we wish were true.

You’ve heard of self-fulfilling wishes: thismechanism gets amplified on social media

and in newsrooms. When we wantsomething 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.