Thread on something interesting I recently learned. As most of you know, last night, I tweeted two videos a source gave me, claiming they were of Israeli airstrikes in Syria. They turned out not to be, so I deleted them and tweeted a correction, but there was an important lesson.
When a different source provided me with a video claiming that it was of Iranians firing back at the Israeli-held Golan Heights that same night, I was understandably wary and decided to try something new. I crowd-sourced the verification process.
Within minutes, I had IDs on the missiles in the video from people who understand more about weaponry than I do. I had someone explain to me how to find time stamps in the metadata of the video. I was finally able to verify with near-certainty that the video is genuine.
I’ve heard many journalists express frustration with the fact that, in the heat of the moment during a hectic news story, it’s very hard to verify videos and images sent by sources we often only speak to by phone, because they’re in regions that are impossible to access.
Reporters have a problem with admitting we don’t know all there is to know about everything we cover. We want to be right all the time. But we only have one mind each, and one mind can’t know everything needed to properly verify a video received in the midst of a chaotic event.
My point is that more journalists, especially freelancers who don’t have a crew of people to help verify material, should crowdsource verification. It’s okay not to know everything. By asking for help, we can better screen the often crucial information we put out into the world.
