Here, we provide interesting links from around the web that discuss issues regarding the verification processes of content from social media: What tools, services and initiatives are there? Who is doing what? What’s the state of affairs regarding eyewitness media and related issues? Here is our list for this week.

How to deal with user generated videos

On April 4, 2015, a police officer killed Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, USA. On the platform Bellingcat, you can now retrace where exactly the shooting took place by using a video that helps geoloacate the location of the shooting. Police abuses caught on video by users can help determine the exact development. How to archive these videos is explained by a guest in Amy Goodman’s and Juan González’ daily news show DemocracyNow.

Source: Bellingcat, DemocracyNow!

Ever thought of Twitter bios changing?

Ever wondered how many times a twitter user has changed their bio information? That could actually be an important clue during a verification process for journalists. Not only looking at tweets but also looking at the evolution of one’s Twitter bio can determine the relevance of a user. One tool you can use for that is called bioischanged.com. They claim that “You can receive a notification when someone’s bio or profile picture is changed.”

Source: Bioischanged

How do newspaper websites use eyewitness media?

This article discusses a study, presented at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia and funded by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, which takes a closer look at eight websites (including the Guardian, the New York Times and Times of India) and how they deal with user generated content. The research includes case studies based on several interviews. One interesting finding: there are multiple examples of how news sites seem to publish multimedia content without the permission of users.

Source: Medium

Twitter Masterclass: focus on verification, curation and content discovery

Also at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia: quite a few sessions that focused on verification, like this one:

Source: YouTube (video produced and supplied by International Journalism Festival)