Slides by Mark Frankel, for a social media newsgathering and verification workshop held at news:rewired 'in focus' on 21 October.

1. Social Newsgathering
From open to closed networks

2. 1. Are you looking at the original version?
2. Do you know who captured the content?
3. Do you know where they captured the content?
4. Do you know when they captured the content?
5. Do you know why they captured the content?

3. If you can answer then you might avoid this…

4. No public API >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Join a group/befriend
Blocked or unavailable >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Think private chat

5. Remember this? BBM and the 2011 London Riots
Users swapped a pin to share messages as
often as they liked and at the touch of a
button sent a broadcast (or "ping") to
everyone on their contact list.
Thousands of tweets then emerged with
#BBM alongside #LondonRiots

6. "All I know is that the BlackBerry was enough
to give me enough information, or tell me at
the time, of what was going on, where to stay
wary of and what sort of things were
targeted."
"The main thing about the phone that
everybody was gassed [excited] about was
BBM – that was the main feature. It's just
become the normal way to communicate …
Everyone has BlackBerry for BBM period –
BlackBerry is not a status phone; it is the
cheapest way to communicate. It's the best
social networking phone out there.''

7. When the Umbrella Revolution took place in Hong Kong, certain phrases were censored on
many social media platforms just a few hours later. Instagram hashtags such as "#hongkong",
"#umbrellarevolution" and "#occupycentral" as well as a few more Chinese ones were also
censored in China immediately. Instagram was completely blocked by China's Great Firewall on
the weekend following the protests.

8. The Firechat app allows smartphone users
to talk to one another "off-the-grid", in the
absence of a mobile signal or access to the
internet. By making use of Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi, messages are spread in a daisy chain
fashion, jumping from one user to the next.
The system is particularly effective when
large numbers of people are congregated
together - like at a music festival, or a
political protest.
FireChat: 6 million+ users
You can be 200 feet apart and send/receive
data without web access

9. The more sinister…

13. Think about
tone..
…And make sure you don’t all try to join
or make contact at the same time!

14. Yik Yak is a news source for local
communities. Users post everything
from traffic alerts and college news to
event announcements on their local
feed. Worth keeping an eye on “peek”.

16. Around 50 percent of content on
our BBC News live online blog was
from WhatsApp contributions

17. • WhatsApp allows us to communicate directly with people. We
can follow up images and check the details of the content we've
been sent with the person who sent it.
• We can be waiting several hours for people to access their
emails and reply to us, or for phone lines to be reconnected
following a natural disaster.
• A quick response means we can use the material straight away.
• On WhatsApp we can see via the phone code where people are
from, we can then approach them and ask them about a
specific event in their country.
Fast approaching one billion active users worldwide

18. BUT!!! Beware of UGC laundering
Geotagged as from Yemen
During period of Saudi
Airstrikes on Twitter..
But actually from the
Infamous
‘Highway of Death’
In first Gulf War

19. How did it happen? Andy Carvin of Reported.ly explains…
“It ends up in this process by which someone takes the photo that they want to share,
maliciously or maybe in pure ignorance…and circulates it through their friends on
WhatsApp or any of the other [private messaging apps].
Then someone in that network thinks ‘oh this is a great photo so I’m going to
remove it from the closed network and upload it to a public network like Twitter.’”
Then, if that user has geotagging enabled on their phone, the image’s metadata will
trick geolocation tools into thinking the photo was taken at a completely different
time and place from where it originated.

20. 1. Is geolocation data sufficient?
2. Check private/anonymous groups.
3. Are you following the right conversations, befriending the right groups?
4. But take care not to be tricked or duped?
5. Use your natural journalist’s scepticism. What do you know already about the story?
Check your sources.

21. @markfrankel29