Don't get fooled again: Best Practices for Online Verification gatehouse
- 1. Don’t Get Fooled Again: Best Practices for Online Verification June 13, 2013 Call: 888-398-2342 Access code: 585-200-4058
- 2. 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
- 3. 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
- 4. Seen this?
- 7. 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.
- 8. VERIFYING SOCIAL MEDIA With thanks to Mandy Jenkins (@mjenkins, ZombieJournalism.com)
- 12. 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
- 13. Check Outside Social Media •Google the handle/name with “spam, scam, spammer,” etc. to see if others have complained
- 14. Check Outside Social Media •See if you can find other accounts online with the info you have •Search the username
- 15. 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?
- 16. Law of Incorrect Tweets The initial, mistaken information will be retweeted more than any subsequent correction
- 18. That Means … Work to get it right, and don’t rush to be wrong
- 19. 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.
- 20. “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
- 21. VERIFYING PHOTOS & VIDEO
- 22. Street Shark!
- 26. 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
- 29. 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
- 34. 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
- 37. 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
- 38. 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 ...
- 39. 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
- 40. 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?
- 41. Which One Is Real?
- 42. 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
- 43. Domain name from Whois
- 44. Which One Is Real?
- 45. TYPES OF FAKES
- 46. Real Image, Wrong Event
- 49. Composite of Real Images
- 50. Actually from Iowa ...
- 52. Fictional Presented as Factual
- 56. Fake Accounts or Facebook Pages
- 57. Fake Websites
- 58. The Debunker Toolkit • Snopes.com • Google Image Search/TinEye.com • Whois search • EXIF reader • Whendidyoujointwitter.com • Archive.org/web/web.php
- 59. 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
- 60. 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