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/ jochen.spangenberg@dw.com

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.

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Source: Georg Mittenecker (CC BY-SA 2.5)

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)

Wishful thinking …

Source: Scientology „e-meter“. Image by Salimfadhley. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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

ButBut

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

So what to do?So what to do?

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

How?How?

• 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

The Big W’sThe Big W’s

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)

When?

Source: YouTube metadata screenshot

Source: Flickr, by Petr Dosek, (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Why?

Source : Screenshot of Twitter profiles of IDF and Al Qassam Brigades

Source: REVEAL / Linda Rath-Wiggins

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)

• ...

User-driven GUI/interface development

Source: REVEAL

Functionalities

Source: REVEAL / http://demo.truthnest.com/

Work on 41 functionalities (we call them modalities)

Exemplary modality

Geospatial, social and topical context information (developed by IT Innovation)Source: REVEAL / IT Innovation

Some final remarks

Direct contact with source (but there are exceptions)

Source: plenty.r. (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source protection / security of sources

Source: Dina Regine (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Crediting, sourcing and getting permission

Source: Extract from a ZDF TV Programme / news report

Ethical aspects

Source: Jordi Mir, on YouTube here

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

Useful resources

Source: http://revealproject.eu/

Useful resources

Source: screenshots of respective publications (all available online)

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

• ....

Useful resources / great case studies & advice

https://medium.com/1st-draft

Thank you!

Contact

Jochen Spangenberg DW Innovation Berlin

Tel: +49 (0)30 4646 5604, +49 (0)172 261 2315https://about.me/jospang

jochen.spangenberg@dw.comTwitter: @jospang, @revealeu, @dw_innovation

http://blogs.dw.de/innovation/ & http://revealproject.eu/