1. The Importance of VerificationThe Importance of Verification
in Social Newsgathering
Jochen Spangenberg
Innovation 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

2. So much information ...
Source: Mark Smiciklas (CC BY-NC 2.0)

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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
• ...

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

7. Next: on the importanceNext: on the importance
of verification

8. The media business / journalistic profession …
Source: Flickr, Terry Johnston , CC BY 2.0

9. ”Getting it wrong once can
be more powerful thanbe more powerful than
getting it right 1000 times“

10. The importance of verification
Source: BBC News website of 27 and 29 May 2012

11. So what to do?So what to do?

12. 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

13. The Big W’sThe Big W’s

14. 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/

15. Who?
Source: screenshots of
Sources: screenshots of Twitter Profiles
Source: screenshots of mentionmapp analysis
Source: screenshots of
followerwonk analysis
Source: screenshots of
www.numberway.com
(int‘l phone directory)

16. 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)

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

18. Why?
Source : Screenshot of Twitter profiles of IDF and Al Qassam Brigades

19. Source: REVEAL / Linda Rath-Wiggins

20. 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)
C
C
C
ontributor
ontent
ontext Source: REVEAL / http://demo.truthnest.com/

21. Some final remarks

22. Contact with source (but there are exceptions)
Source: plenty.r. (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

23. Source protection / security of sources
Source: Dina Regine (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

24. Sourcing, crediting and getting permission
Source: Extract from a ZDF TV Programme / news report

25. 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 Feidin
Santana who filmed the shooting of Walter Scott by a policeman
in North Charleston, US, on 4 April 2015

26. Thank you!
Contact
Jochen Spangenberg
DW Innovation Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 4646 5604, +49 (0)172 261 2315
jochen.spangenberg@dw.com
Twitter: @dw_innovation, @revealeu & @jospang
http://blogs.dw.de/innovation/ & http://revealproject.eu/