I’m pleased to be involved in the Verification Handbook, a new project to help journalists and aid providers sort fact from fake.
The handbook is a project of the European Journalism Centre and is edited by Craig Silverman, with whom I’ve collaborated before in accuracy workshops.
I wrote Chapter 2, “Verification Fundamentals: Rules to Live By.” Other chapter authors, in addition to Craig, are Rina Tsubaki of EJC, Claire Wardle and Malachy Browne of Storyful, Trushar Barot of BBC News, Mathew Ingram of GigaOm, Patrick Meier of the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Sarah Knight of the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
I can’t think of anything more important to journalism than verification and I’m pleased to see that this project is geared for aid providers and others who deal with information from the public. The promotional materials explain:
While it primarily targets journalists and aid providers, the handbook can be used by anyone. It’s advice and guidance are valuable whether you are a news journalist, citizen reporter, relief responder, volunteer, journalism school student, emergency communication specialist, or an academic researching social media.
A press release from EJC says the handbook will be published online Jan. 28 (or 28 Jan., as they say in Europe), with a print edition available later. You can register now to be notified when the book is released.
I’m honored to be part of this project and pleased that EJC is providing a helpful resource for verification. In the meantime, I suggest that you follow the Verification Junkie blog by Josh Stearns and Craig’s Regret the Error blog or check these posts from my blog:
Resources to help journalists with accuracy and verification
How to verify information from tweets: Check it out
My version of Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist
Tips on verifying facts and ensuring accuracy
Verification doesn’t threaten narrative journalism
Confessions of a teenage fact checker
A funny aside: Those of us who worked on the project received an email last week with a link to the promotional site, telling us they would unveil the site today. But, as this series of weekend tweets shows, if you put it online, it’s launched:
How to verify online content. By @cward1e @stevebuttry @CraigSilverman etc Out Jan 2014 http://t.co/P4boMJ4R5s ht @wildflyingpanda #digital
— marc blank-settle (@MarcSettle) November 2, 2013
@MarcSettle @cward1e @stevebuttry @wildflyingpanda clever you for finding it, that site doesn’t actually launch until next week!
— Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) November 2, 2013
@CraigSilverman @MarcSettle @cward1e @wildflyingpanda Hey, it launches when someone can find it.
— Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry) November 3, 2013
@stevebuttry @MarcSettle @cward1e @wildflyingpanda True!
— Craig Silverman (@CraigSilverman) November 3, 2013
LOL RT @stevebuttry: @CraigSilverman@MarcSettle@cward1e@wildflyingpanda Hey, it launches when someone can find it.
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) November 3, 2013
Anyway, promotion has launched and the handbook will launch Jan. 28 (unless it soft-launches a little early).
[…] European Journalism Centre is producing the Verification Handbook (for which I wrote a chapter), edited by Craig Silverman, who has addressed these issues […]
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