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Verification of UGC / Eyewitness Media: Verification of UGC / Eyewitness Media: Challenges & Approaches
Jochen SpangenbergInnovation Manager // Deutsche Welle & REVEAL Project
https://about.me/jospang
http://blogs.dw.de/innovation/ & http://revealproject.eu/ [email protected]
Twitter: @RevealEU & @jospang & @dw_innovation
London, 16 July 2015
Note: this is a slightly adapted version of the presentation held at news:rewiredNote: this is a slightly adapted version of the presentation held at news:rewiredon 16 July 2015 in LondonIt is made available to participants and others interested in the topic verificationof eyewitness media (or UGC, as it is often called, too)
Copyright notice: Copyrights, trademarks, logos etc remain with respectivecopyright holders. Usage of logos, images, screenshots etc in this presentationis for non-commercial demonstration purposes only. Respective rules for usageapply.
Sources of all images: see http://revealproject.eu/for respective copyright holders
Finding out how journalists deal with eyewitness media: issues, challenges, wishes, concerns (extracts of selected interviews on www.revealproject.eu)
Reality check
Verification of UGC / eyewitness media
• can be laborious• can be laborious
• can be time-consuming
• requires particular (new) skill sets
• Does not (yet) follow industry-wide rules / practices
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: images circulating on Twitter, claiming to show crashed Germanwings flight 9525
Source (of first manipulation): unknown
Dealing with (Verification of) UGC / Eyewitness Med ia
Media organisations: be a facilitator
Journalists:
- value of established (and useful) journalistic practices / skills ...
- knowledge of useful tools (usage, benefits / shortcomings) ...
Sources: Screenshots of Suncalc, Google Maps & Translate, Tweetdeck, Followerwonk, Mentionmapp, Topsy, Storyful Pro, Jeffrey’s Exif Viewer, Panoramio, Pipl
• Is it really what it’s supposed to be?
• Is it “too good to be true”?
Source: http://istwitterwrong.tumblr.com/post/34563249044/is-that-really-a-picture-of-hurricane-sandy
Source: http://www.thomaspeschak.com/kayak-great-white-sharks-/
Source: screenshot of a Source: screenshot of a Google Reverse Image Search
Source: screenshot of a Tineye image search
Source: screenshot of a Wolfram Alpha weather check for New Jersey on 29 Oct 2012 (supposed date of photo with shark in New Jersey)http://www.wolframalpha.com/
Source: screenshot of an Exif data check performed with Jeffrey‘s Exif Viewer. http://regex.info/exif.cgi
What?
Source : Witness.org blog. http://blog.witness.org/2013/01/how-informacam-improves-verification-of-mobile-media-files/
Who?
Source: screenshots of
Sources: screenshots of Twitter ProfilesSource: screenshots of mentionmapp analysis
followerwonk analysis
Where?
Source: Panoramio screenshot
Source: Flickr, by sarflondondunc, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Source: Panoramio screenshot
Source: Flickr, by Paul Stein, (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Flickr, by s1lang, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The REVEAL approach
• Can we teach (develop) algorithms that can distinguish truths from lies / facts from manipulations (assuming that there is such a thing called ”truth“)?
ContributorCC
C
ontributorontent
ontext
The REVEAL approach
R&D dealing with, among others
Contributor• Who contributed what?
• What did they do in the past?
• Who follows him/her? With whom do they interact? How? What’s their reputation? Tustworthiness?
• How long did social accounts exist? What can be derived from it?
• Links to profile pages, affiliates, contact data?
• ...
The REVEAL approach
R&D dealing with, among others
Content• Image analysis (checks, similarity search, manipulations, comparisons)
• Text analysis (stylometry, accuracy, comparisons)
• (Rudimentary video analysis > not in focus)
• ...
The REVEAL approach
R&D dealing with, among others
Context• Who says what how about the same / related topic, and what is being
said how?
• Who are the people contributing? What did they do previously? How did they act/react? Can patterns be detected?
• How can information be connected sensibly and beneficially with other resources. (E.g.: correlate Social Media activities with information from disaster management / relief agencies / natural catastrophe centres etc)
• ...
Work on 41 functionalities (we call them modalities)
Exemplary modality
Geospatial, social and topical context information (developed by IT Innovation)Source: REVEAL / IT Innovation
Our business
Source: Flickr, Terry Johnston , CC BY 2.0
”Getting it wrong once can be more powerful than getting it right 1000 times“
Useful resources (selection)• Bellingcat – collaborative investigations, initiated by Eliot Higgins
• Verification Junkie – directory of verification tools by Josh Sterns
• Eyewitness Media Hub – legal, ethical and logistic issues (Claire Wardle, Sam Dubberley, Jenni Sargent, Pete Brown)
• Research Clinic by Paul Myers – collection of research links and articles
• Citizen Evidence Lab – by Amnesty International, guidelines for verifying footage in videos
• Emergent – collaborative debunking (no longer in full operation) , by Craig Silverman
• Reported.ly’s Malachy Browne’s “pocket guide on verifying details of a video” and other useful guidelines
• Storyful (paid verification service) and Storyful Open Newsroom (collaborative verification platform)
• Craig Silverman’s Regret the Error on Poynter
• Work of Meedan (i.e. Checkdesk) / Tom Trewinnnard et al.
• Witness Blog & website – fighting for human rights / against human rights abuse
• Authenticating Open Source Video – a Witness tipsheet
• Link tips for Social Media research, by Konrad Weber
• Correctiv case study on downing of flight MH17
• WAN-INFRA article by Julie Posetti and Craig Silverman on newsroom / verification issues
• Resources of the BBC Academy, such as this contribution by Trushar Barot and this one by Alex Murray
• ....
Thank you!
Contact
Jochen Spangenberg DW Innovation Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 4646 5604, +49 (0)172 261 2315https://about.me/jospang
[email protected]: @jospang, @revealeu, @dw_innovation
http://blogs.dw.de/innovation/ & http://revealproject.eu/