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B.S. Detection for Journalists Craig Silverman & Mandy Jenkins @craigsilverman | @mjenkins ONA 2011 #bsona

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B.S. On Twitter/Facebook

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Verifying Social Media Info

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Step 1: Check the person's credibility <ul><ul><li>On Twitter, check when account was created . Be suspicious of brand new accounts. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>How frequent are updates? Is this a regularly used account? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Do they have a photo? Not always a dealbreaker, but it certainly helps. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Do they have friends/followers? Do they follow others? Any suspicious follows? </li></ul></ul>

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Step 1: Check the person's credibility <ul><ul><li>Do you see interactions between this account and others? No interaction may be a sign of a prop account. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Check their Klout score , it’s a quick, easy way to see their level of interaction. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Google the handle/name with “spam, scam, spammer” etc. to see if others have complained. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>See if you can find other accounts online with the info you have. Search the username, or use Identify in Firefox, HoverMe in Chrome. </li></ul></ul>

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Step 2: Follow up on the tip <ul><ul><li>Ask for a phone number and call the person. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Ask if they witnessed first-hand or heard about it. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Ask exactly what they witnessed, how they saw it and when. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Ask who else may have the same info. </li></ul></ul>

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Step 3: Check the credibility of the info <ul><ul><li>Check earlier tweets/updates: Anything leading up to the tip that makes sense? Do they indicate plans, location, etc.? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Do follow up tweets/updates (or collection thereof) make sense in context? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Does it read authentically? Misspellings, bad grammar, typos can also be a sign of a real person. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>If there’s an image attached, see if it has geolocation data or exif . </li></ul></ul>

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Step 4: Corroborate the story <ul><ul><li>Check scanner, police sources to verify. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Back it up on a Twitter search to see if other social accounts are reporting. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Ask followers if they can help verify (a.k.a. The 'Andy Carvin method'). </li></ul></ul>

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Step 5: Evaluate your options <ul><ul><li>How urgent is this information? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>How important is the tip to the overall story? Is there a story without it? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Is it worth the risk if it is wrong? </li></ul></ul>

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Sharks in the Streets! (Fake!) B.S. Images

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Photoshop Debunked by Reddit

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The East River is Flooding! (Nope) <ul><li>Scanned and tweeted photo from an older storm </li></ul>

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Flooded Stations! <ul><li>Actually from a 1996 water main break </li></ul>

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Verifying Images <ul><ul><li>Check exif info: regex.info/exif.cgi </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Check for edits to photos: errorlevelanalysis.com/ </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Reference locations against maps and existing images from the area. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Examine weather reports and shadows to confirm that the conditions shown fit with the claimed date and time. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Check clothes/buildings/language/license plates/vehicles etc. to see if they support what the image claims to be. </li></ul></ul>

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Verifying Images <ul><ul><li>Review the uploader’s history/location to see if he/she has shared credible content in the past or may be 'scraping' content from others. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Are there images before and after you can compare to? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Get them on the phone/Skype to talk about the image. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Beware of the amazing shot in a breaking news situation. </li></ul></ul>

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B.S. Web Info

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Verifying Web Info <ul><ul><li>Whois lookup on the domain. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Check Internet archive and overall history of the site/organization/person. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Check site's PageRank . </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Is clear and credible ownership/credit information offered? Footer information point to a real ownership entity? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Does site/page have life? (Comments, likes, tweets, recent content, links in & out...) </li></ul></ul>

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Verifying Web Info <ul><ul><li>Do blog and news searches to see if it/people/company has been talked about/covered already. Find the original source! </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Are people bookmarking it on Diigo or Delicious? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Use the phone, send some emails before you publish anything. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Check names. Do they have a personal history? Drawn from history or literature? </li></ul></ul><ul><li> </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Do the numbers add up? </li></ul></ul>

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Additional Reading <ul><ul><li>Best practices for social media verification </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Accuracy and accountability checklist for social media </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The journalist’s guide to gutless online verification </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The human algorithm </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>BBC processes for verifying social media content </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Meet Andy Carvin, verification machine </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The challenge of verifying crowdsourced information </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Resources to help journalists with accuracy and verification </li></ul></ul>