Teaching students to be (wonderfully) abnormal

Teaching students to be (wonderfully) abnormal

@CraigSilvermanEditor, Regret the Error, Poynter

Editor, Verification Handbook

Who was fooled?

Lebanon Video Resurfaces in Syria

Source:http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/121109/fake-syria-videos-images

“In short, rumors arise and spread when people are uncertain and anxious about a topic of personal relevance and when the rumor

seems credible given the sensibilities of the people involved in the spread,”

— “Rumor Mills: The Social Impact of Rumor and Legend.”

New: Networks

Source: Statistica, http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

New: Abundance

• 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube ever minute.

• More than 500 million tweets sent per day.• More than 55 million Instagram photos

uploaded per day.

“Journalism is a discipline of verification”

— The Elements of Journalism

So…

Let’s teach this discipline!

A good editor is “able to look at a page without using your brain. Put another way, you need to

be able to look at words in a way that goes against everything your brain would naturally

do when it looks at words.” — Yuka Igarashi, managing editor of Granta

Mindset

• Assume it’s not true.• Skeptical.• Investigator.• Separate emotion and motivation from work.

Verification Toolkit

• VerificationHandbook.com• Skype/Phone• Reverse image search• EXIF reader• Google Maps/Earth• Who.is• Spokeo, Pipl.com,WebMii.com• Twitter Advanced Search• YouTube Data Viewer• Izitru

Resources

• VerificationHandbook.com• Coming soon: six free videos on verification,

more case studies.• Citizen Evidence• Bellingcat• Regret the Error

Discussion

• Complete our survey: – http://bitly.com/verificationsurvey

• What are you teaching now related to verification and fact-checking? What works?

• What can we create to help you teach the discipline of verification?