Every week, we provide interesting links from around the web that discuss issues regarding the verification processes of content from social media. Here is our list for this week.

 

 

UGC made easy

The new Guardian app allows users to directly submit their User Generated Content. Apart from all the changes the Guardian implemented concerning corporate identity and usability the (in my opinion) most interesting feature is the integration of the Guardian Witness platform in the app. It signifies a change in news apps going from consumption only to consumption and reporting. Here’s an article by Journalism.co.uk, and what the Guardian have to say about it.

Sources: Journalism.co.uk and The Guardian

 

First ever elephant selfie

It is good to see that LaTabe the elephant has been correctly credited by the BBC for her contribution to this article. Verified content or too good to be true? Almost always an interesting question. In this case I take it easy and just assume the BBC has checked the story thoroughly before publication.

Source: BBC

 

Another tool for image verification

Finnish start-up company Scoopshot allows media organisations and marketers to search for user generated images without having to fear copyright infringements. They have an interesting approach towards image verification. By uploading images directly from users’ mobile devices to Scoopshot servers, they “remove any possibility of image manipulation,” says Petri Rahja, chief executive of Scoopshot. The image is also checked on location, EXIF data and resolution. Sounds good but how does it really work? Here’s more on Scoopshot’s ‘authenticity factor’ and some more insights via the Scoopshot blog.

Sources: Journalism.co.uk and Scoopshot blog

 

Assembling and analyzing multi-perspective video timelines

The Rashomon Project is developing an open source toolkit that facilitates the assembly and public review of video timelines. In these video timelines multiple video and photo perspectives of an event can be time-aligned and displayed simultaneously. This should give the public a better insight in event reporting with UGC than is currently possible.

Source: The Rashomon Project