Verification Handbook: For Disinformation And Media Manipulation

  European Journalism Center
  English, German, Italian, Turkish, Arabic
  2023
  Civil Society, Media
  Published
  Before, During, After
  Verification
  Intermediate, Advanced
  https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3
  NOTE

This handbook builds on the foundations of the first edition of the Verification Handbook and the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting. Each offers fundamental skills for monitoring social media, verifying images, video and social media accounts, and using search engines to identify people, companies and other entities. Many of the chapters and case studies in this handbook are written with the assumption that readers possess the basic knowledge laid out in these previous publications, particularly the first handbook. If you are struggling to follow along, you should start with the first handbook.

Fundamentals

• Think like an adversary.
  • Each new feature of a platform or digital service can be exploited in some way.
  • It’s critical to put yourself in the shoes of someone looking to manipulate the environment for ideological, political, financial or other reasons.
  • When you look at digital content and messages, you should consider the motivations driving its creation and propagation.
  • It’s also essential to stay abreast of the latest techniques being used by bad actors, digital marketers and others whose livelihood relies on finding new ways to gain attention and earn revenue the digital environment.

• Focus on actors, content, behavior and networks.
  • The goal is to analyze the actors, content and behavior and how they are to document how they might be working in unison as a network.
  • By comparing and contrasting these four things with each other, you can begin to understand what you’re seeing.
  • A fundamental approach is to start with one piece of content or an entity such as a website and pivot on it to identify a larger network through behavior and other connections.
    • This can involve examining the flow of content and actors across platforms, and occasionally into different languages.

• Monitor and collect
  • The best way to identify media manipulation and disinformation is to look for it all the time.
  • Ongoing monitoring and tracking of known actors, topics and communities of interest is essential.
  • Keep and organize what you find, whether in spreadsheets, screenshot folders or by using paid tools like Hunchly.

• Be careful with attribution
  • It’s sometimes impossible to say exactly who’s behind a particular account, piece of content, or a larger information operation.
  • One reason is that actors with different motives can behave in similar ways, and produce or amplify the same kind of content.
  • Even the platforms themselves — which have far better access to data and more resources — make attribution mistakes.
  • The most successful and compelling evidence usually combines digital proof with information from inside sources — an ideal mix of online and traditional investigative work.
  • That’s becoming even more difficult as state actors and others evolve and find new ways to hide their fingerprints.
  • Attribution is difficult; getting it wrong will undermine all of the careful work that led up to it.Property "Synopsis" (as page type) with input value "NOTE</br></br>This handbook builds on the foundations of the first edition of the Verification Handbook and the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting. Each offers fundamental skills for monitoring social media, verifying images, video and social media accounts, and using search engines to identify people, companies and other entities.</br>Many of the chapters and case studies in this handbook are written with the assumption that readers possess the basic knowledge laid out in these previous publications, particularly the first handbook. If you are struggling to follow along, you should start with the first handbook.</br></br>Fundamentals</br></br>* Think like an adversary. </br>** Each new feature of a platform or digital service can be exploited in some way. </br>** It’s critical to put yourself in the shoes of someone looking to manipulate the environment for ideological, political, financial or other reasons. </br>** When you look at digital content and messages, you should consider the motivations driving its creation and propagation. </br>** It’s also essential to stay abreast of the latest techniques being used by bad actors, digital marketers and others whose livelihood relies on finding new ways to gain attention and earn revenue the digital environment.</br></br>* Focus on actors, content, behavior and networks. </br>** The goal is to analyze the actors, content and behavior and how they are to document how they might be working in unison as a network. </br>** By comparing and contrasting these four things with each other, you can begin to understand what you’re seeing. </br>** A fundamental approach is to start with one piece of content or an entity such as a website and pivot on it to identify a larger network through behavior and other connections. </br>*** This can involve examining the flow of content and actors across platforms, and occasionally into different languages.</br></br>* Monitor and collect</br>** The best way to identify media manipulation and disinformation is to look for it all the time. </br>** Ongoing monitoring and tracking of known actors, topics and communities of interest is essential.</br>** Keep and organize what you find, whether in spreadsheets, screenshot folders or by using paid tools like Hunchly.</br></br>* Be careful with attribution</br>** It’s sometimes impossible to say exactly who’s behind a particular account, piece of content, or a larger information operation. </br>** One reason is that actors with different motives can behave in similar ways, and produce or amplify the same kind of content.</br>** Even the platforms themselves — which have far better access to data and more resources — make attribution mistakes. </br>** The most successful and compelling evidence usually combines digital proof with information from inside sources — an ideal mix of online and traditional investigative work. </br>** That’s becoming even more difficult as state actors and others evolve and find new ways to hide their fingerprints. </br>** Attribution is difficult; getting it wrong will undermine all of the careful work that led up to it." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

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Created: 13 June 2023
Last edited: 14 August 2023

Verification Handbook: For Disinformation And Media Manipulation

Source

Quick Facts

Publishing Organisation:

European Journalism Center

Year:

2023

Languages:

English, German, Italian, Turkish, Arabic

Status:

Published

Covers Thematic

Verification Verification is an extra or final bit of proof that establishes something is true.</br>To verify something is to make sure it's correct or true, so verification is an action that establishes the truth of something.</br></br>Source: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/verification

Target audience

Civil Society Civil society is a target group in LINKS which comprises citizens, civil society organizations, educational institutions, vulnerable groups, social movement organizations

Media The term media refers to any means of distribution, dissemination or interpersonal, mass or group communication of works, documents, or written, visual, audio or audiovisual messages (such as radio, television, cinema, Internet, press, telecommunications, etc.)</br></br>Entities using multiple communication channels are often called Media

Audience experience level

Intermediate Those who currently use social media to communicate with the public and have developed a draft social media strategy, even if this is not thoroughly documented or communicated across the organisation</br></br>Source: https://www.fp7-emergent.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/20170529_D7.3_Guidelines_to_increase_the_benefit_of_social_media_EmerGent.pdf

Advanced Those who currently use social media to communicate with the public during all phases of an emergency and have developed a clear social media strategy, even if this is not thoroughly documented or communicated across the organisation</br></br>Source: https://www.fp7-emergent.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/20170529_D7.3_Guidelines_to_increase_the_benefit_of_social_media_EmerGent.pdf

Disaster Management Phase

Before Comprises 'Preparedness Phase' and 'Prevention Phase'</br></br>Preparedness action is carried out within the context of disaster risk management and aims to build the capacities needed to efficiently manage all types of emergencies and achieve orderly transitions from response to sustained recovery.</br></br>Source: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/preparedness</br></br>Prevention (i.e., disaster prevention) expresses the concept and intention to completely avoid potential adverse impacts of hazardous events.</br></br>Source: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/prevention

During Also referred to as "Response Phase"</br></br>Actions taken directly before, during or immediately after a disaster in order to save lives, reduce health impacts, ensure public safety and meet the basic subsistence needs of the people affected.</br></br>Annotation: Disaster response is predominantly focused on immediate and short-term needs and is sometimes called disaster relief. Effective, efficient and timely response relies on disaster risk-informed preparedness measures, including the development of the response capacities of individuals, communities, organizations, countries and the international community.</br></br>Source: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/response

After Also referred to as 'Recovery Phase'</br></br>The restoring or improving of livelihoods and health, as well as economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets, systems and activities, of a disaster-affected community or society, aligning with the principles of sustainable development and “build back better”, to avoid or reduce future disaster risk.</br></br>Source: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/recovery

Synopsis

NOTE

This handbook builds on the foundations of the first edition of the Verification Handbook and the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting. Each offers fundamental skills for monitoring social media, verifying images, video and social media accounts, and using search engines to identify people, companies and other entities. Many of the chapters and case studies in this handbook are written with the assumption that readers possess the basic knowledge laid out in these previous publications, particularly the first handbook. If you are struggling to follow along, you should start with the first handbook.

Fundamentals

• Think like an adversary.
  • Each new feature of a platform or digital service can be exploited in some way.
  • It’s critical to put yourself in the shoes of someone looking to manipulate the environment for ideological, political, financial or other reasons.
  • When you look at digital content and messages, you should consider the motivations driving its creation and propagation.
  • It’s also essential to stay abreast of the latest techniques being used by bad actors, digital marketers and others whose livelihood relies on finding new ways to gain attention and earn revenue the digital environment.

• Focus on actors, content, behavior and networks.
  • The goal is to analyze the actors, content and behavior and how they are to document how they might be working in unison as a network.
  • By comparing and contrasting these four things with each other, you can begin to understand what you’re seeing.
  • A fundamental approach is to start with one piece of content or an entity such as a website and pivot on it to identify a larger network through behavior and other connections.
    • This can involve examining the flow of content and actors across platforms, and occasionally into different languages.

• Monitor and collect
  • The best way to identify media manipulation and disinformation is to look for it all the time.
  • Ongoing monitoring and tracking of known actors, topics and communities of interest is essential.
  • Keep and organize what you find, whether in spreadsheets, screenshot folders or by using paid tools like Hunchly.

• Be careful with attribution
  • It’s sometimes impossible to say exactly who’s behind a particular account, piece of content, or a larger information operation.
  • One reason is that actors with different motives can behave in similar ways, and produce or amplify the same kind of content.
  • Even the platforms themselves — which have far better access to data and more resources — make attribution mistakes.
  • The most successful and compelling evidence usually combines digital proof with information from inside sources — an ideal mix of online and traditional investigative work.
  • That’s becoming even more difficult as state actors and others evolve and find new ways to hide their fingerprints.
  • Attribution is difficult; getting it wrong will undermine all of the careful work that led up to it.

Linked to

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