#journalismfest

At the International Journalism Festival 2014 in Perugia The Verification Handbook was presented to the attendees. This book is a great new resource for journalists as well as aid responders.The book has been published by the European Journalism Centre and written by 22 verification experts from media outlets and non-profit organisations.

This handbook provides simple step-by-step guidelines in regards to using user-generated content (UGC) during emergencies and. The steps can also be used in an every day newsroom situation for verifying any content that you find and are considering reporting on, and essential for freelancers.

It "prescribes best practice advice on how to verify and use this information provided by the crowd, as well as actionable advice to facilitate disaster preparedness in newsrooms."

When crises occur social media networks are constantly flooded with updates, pictures and videos from persons witnessing the event. This has been seen time and again, especially since the Arab Spring. Reporting the right information can aid relief efforts massively in areas where natural disasters have occurred. Unfortunately sharing some user-generated content can also be very dangerous for the individuals who have participated.

What is covered?

The book is set over 10 chapters covering:

When emergency news breaks

Verification fundamentals: Rules to live by

Verifying user-generated content

Verifying images

Verifying video

Putting the human crowd to work

Adding the computer crowd to the human crowd

Preparing for disaster coverage

Creating a verification process and checklist(s)

Verification tools

The presentation can be watched below where some of the authors of the chapters presented their work and many interesting questions were put forward by the audience.

As social media has become the go to method of sharing and finding new information instant verification is becoming a greater necessity. Often it has been seen that a false, incorrect or misleading image has been posted that has been shared by newsrooms. Sometimes the reasoning behind it is just because others are doing.

This short book is a great read and the more verification that is done by journalists the better.