This document discusses strategies for verifying information from social media during emergencies. It provides a case study of verifying reports of a shooting at a Philadelphia fireworks show and how a reporter handled the situation. Methods of verification discussed include contacting Twitter users, reviewing scanner audio or camera footage, and seeking official or social corroboration. The document also discusses using Google Images and Google Earth to verify the location of events and check if images match the reported location. Finally, it analyzes the credibility of different social media platforms and factors that influence perceptions of credibility like the reputation of the information source.

2.  How to verify & when to publish
-- Case study of Philadelphia firework show
 Verification skills further discussed
-- Employment of Google image & Google earth
 Credibility of social media

3. When cops and twitter tell different stories
Fireworks show in Philadelphia marred by ashooting?
Police: no shooting Twitter: heard gunshots

4. On-site “gunshot” video from readers
About 7
seconds into
the video,
there are some
loud pops
which sound
like “gunshots”

5. Skepticism
1. Could it have just been a nearby firecracker that alarmed
the crowd?
2. Why had no camera phone pictures of medics
surrounding a victim emerged?
3. Could it have started with a small amount of confused
people and spread from there?

6. Let’s see how Phil daily reporter handled the whole thing
1.Contact tweeter users 2.Scanner or cam review

7. Let’s see how Phil daily finally reported the news

8. Evaluating credibility
2. Ask: Was the source in a position to know what he claims to know? Much
social media misinformation comes from sources who are mistaken, not
outright liars.
－－Determine if he witnessed the event firsthand or is passing along
hearsay. Does this person live nearby or know the people involved?
－－Consider whether the source made assumptions. Did he really see fire
or just smoke?
－－Think critically about whether the source could have missed something
important. Was she driving by (less reliable) or standing at the scene?
1. Consider the social history of the source.
3. Seek official corroboration. Do police, firefighters,
traffic cameras or any other official sources of
information back up the claim?
4. Seek social corroboration. Are other social
network users posting similar, independent reports
from the same location?

9. Emergency News Breaks
★ Todays networked world, people also intentionally
spread fake information and rumors
★ In a disaster, whether its cause is natural or human,
the risks of inaccuracy are amplified. It can literally
be a matter of life and death
★ Its hard to arrive in the scene at the first time
★ Journalists and humanitarian and emergency works
must become adept at using social media and other
sources to gather, triangelate and verify the oftern
conflicting information ermerging during a disaster.

10. The essence of verification
• Resourcefulness,persistence,skepticsim and skill
• Sources’s knowledge , reliability and honesty
• Documentation

11. Case study:Small plane lands in the expressway
★ Use TweetDeck to monitor
update

12. Verifying Images: Google Images

13. Verifying Images: Google Images

14. Verifying location using:Google Earth
★ An explosion reported in Sultanahmet Square, Istanbul
★ Eyewitness images soon surfaced on social media
★ Use Google earth to search the landscape of the Square and compare
with the image
★ The landscape does not match
★ The burning building is next a highway

15. Verifying location using:Google Earth
★ A search across social networks for “Fire” And “Istanbul”
★ More images appear ★ Image provide first clue-A subway named Gulsuyu

16. Verifying location using:Google Earth
★ A search across social networks for “Fire” And
“Istanbul”
★ More images appear
★ Get the latitude and longitude
★ Type the location in Google earth

17. Verifying location using:Google Earth
★ The building is 17 Km from the reported site of
the explosion

18. Credibility of social media
Do you trust social media?

19. According to a recent study by AP-NORC
(Center for Public Affairs Research) and
The American Press Institute, different
platforms have different credibility.
It shows that social sites like LinkedIn and
Twitter, have more credible and
trustworthy content than those sites like
Facebook and Snapchat. it turns out that
where that post is distributed, and how it is
distributed play a key part in whether
people believe the content is true.

20. From the survey, 86% of respondents said they got their
news from Facebook, but only 15% trust what they read on
the platform.
Conclusion: Although most of
people chose social media as
their sources of news, few of
them would trust that news.

21. Factors which
influence
the credibility of
social media

22. In the same study, 66% took the information
publisher into consideration when judging
whether the information shared on Facebook
was credible or not, which means the reputation
of the person who shared the messages is a key
external factor.

23. Criteria of credibility of social media
Accuracy – Getting facts and information right
Timeliness – Having information and facts that are either new or
up-to-date
Clarity – Presenting the facts and information in a clear and
objective manner

24. Be careful!
From the study of in the
academic journal Journalism
Studies, we can see audiences
rated interviews, stake-outs and
press conference as
considerably more credible than
social media sources.

25. From their survey, if you can add a verification information in
your news reports when you use social media sources,
perceptions of credibility would be increased. Without the
statement, respondents rated the journalist’s practices a 3.51.
With the statement, average ratings increased to 3.85.
But even if including verification information, people still found
social media sources less reliable than others.

26. Conclusion:
Social media are more
appropriate to be a
way to collect news
clues, rather than
platforms to find
evidences because of
its low credibility.

27. How to verify
● Verifying sources – speak to them and cross reference answers with
social data
● Verifying sources – look at social media history across platforms
● Use Whois tools to verify websites
● Use online tools to examine evolution of images (including TinEye,
Google Images)
● Question edited footage of video
● …...

28. Reference
● http://www.poynter.org/2011/how-to-verify-and-when-to-publish-
news-accounts-posted-on-social-media/138495/
● http://media.sohu.com/20160315/n440483321.shtml
● https://firstdraftnews.com/resource/how-to-verify-images-like-a-
pro-with-google-earth/

29. thank you!