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.

 

 

Emergent.info – new verification platform

Two weeks ago, we mentioned Craig Silverman’s new position as a fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Now, he launched emergent.info, a “real-time rumor tracker”, which allows users to “view a list of rumors being tracked on the homepage, along with their current claim state (True, False, Unverified).” Users can check different news items and see how many sources support or falsify a specific claim. One example is: “Claim: White House fence-jumper made it inside the main floor”. Yesterday, the story was claimed “unverified”. In the meantime, the claim has been confirmed. Have a look and watch how the story unfolds.

Source: Emergent.info

#OccupyHongKong

Taking the current events into consideration, journalism students have started a Facebook page that claims to verify #OccupyHongKong rumors. The Facebook page also links to a Google form that eyewitnesses can use to submit an event.

Source: CNN

Weekly round-ups of hoaxes

Washington Post’s The Intersect promises weekly round-ups of “What was fake on the internet“. Here you can see some of the highlights, such as “Facebook is not charging a monthly fee” and “The iPhone 6 does not have a bending problem“.

Source: Washington Post

 Verification is key to qualitative journalism

Interesting read on how transparent verification methods can assure trust and credibility in journalism. Especially the idea of crowdsourced verification where the user cannot only comment but actually help to verify content on Social Networks seems to be appealing. Digital native US business site Quartz for example allows readers to “comment – even make corrections – right next to specific points in articles, and share those views with colleagues and friends.”

Source: Guardian