Emerging Journalistic Verification Practices Concerning Social Media

Brandtzæg, Petter Bae; Lüders, Marika; Spangenberg, Jochen; Rath-Wiggins, Linda; Følstad, Asbjørn

doi:10.1080/17512786.2015.1020331

Cited by 163 publications

(126 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In journalism research, interviews have been employed in studies on participatory journalism (Domingo and Le Cam 2014;Zeller and Hermida 2015) and news-story verification (Shapiro et al 2013;Brandtzaeg et al 2015;Aitamurto 2016). The interviews conducted for this study were face-to-face, in informal settings where each participant worked.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Journalism, the pressures of verification and notions of post-truth in civil society

Martin

2017

CCS Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

‘Post-truth’ was not a new concept when it was selected as the international word of the year (2016) by Oxford Dictionaries. In the context of communications research, scholars were discussing journalism in the ‘post-factual’ age some thirty years ago (Ettema 1987). In the digital era, journalistic practice itself has changed; stories are generated by a multiplicity of actors in a participative and interactive way. This paper contemplates the nature of journalists’ information practices in the 21st century and relates these to the roles of information and social media in civil society. The methodology draws on the findings of pilot research studies investigating journalists’ information practices in the digital realm (Martin 2014; 2015) and investigates the pressures of verification. The author posits that that we are ostensibly living in a ‘post-truth’ society largely due to the impact of changes in the news milieu in the digital age. With so many diverse voices in the mix, it is increasingly difficult for citizens to separate fact from fiction; journalists thus have a role as verifiers. It is crucial for information consumers (citizenry) to have the requisite skills and knowledge to critically evaluate media content and deal with information and communication overload.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…vii-ix). Similarly, Brandtzaeg et al (2015) finds that verification of social media content and sources is complex, due to the amount of user-generated content and real-time information flow, coupled with a variety of source forms and content modalities.…”

Section: Pressure To Verify In the 24/7 News Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Journalism, the pressures of verification and notions of post-truth in civil society

Martin

2017

CCS Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Surveys and interview studies have documented that sourcing and verifying UGC have become an important part of the journalistic profession (e.g., Brandtzaeg, Lüders, Spangenberg, Rath-Wiggins, & Følstad, 2015;Heravi & Harrower, 2016). However, UGC is a double-edged sword for journalists: On one hand, it gives journalists the opportunity to diversify their news reporting and offer new perspectives (Matthews, 2013;Wardle & Dubberley, 2014).…”

Section: Verification and Ugcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies mainly conducted qualitative interviews (e.g., Brandtzaeg et al, 2015;Wardle & Dubberley, 2014;Zeller & Hermida, 2015) or standardized surveys with journalists (e.g., Heravi & Harrower, 2016). Some scholars have also analyzed UGC used in the media or focused on UGC verification in news organizations (e.g., Bruno, 2011;Wardle & Dubberley, 2014).…”

Section: Verification and Ugcmentioning

confidence: 99%

How journalists verify user-generated content during terrorist crises. Analyzing Twitter communication during the Brussels attacks

Rauchfleisch

Artho

Metag

et al. 2017

Social Media + Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social media, and Twitter in particular, have become important sources for journalists in times of crises. User-generated content (UGC) can provide journalists with on-site information and material they otherwise would not have access to. But how they source and verify UGC has not yet been systematically analyzed. This study analyzes sourcing and verification practices on Twitter during the Brussels attacks in March 2016. Based on quantitative content analysis, we identified (1) the journalists and news organizations sourcing during the attacks, (2) classified different forms of sourcing and verification requests, and (3) analyzed the sourced UGC. Results show that sourcing on Twitter has become a global phenomenon. During the first hours of the attack, journalists rely on UGC. Their sourcing and verification practices vary widely and often lack basic verification procedures, which leads to a discussion about the ethical implications of sourcing practices.

show abstract

“…Traditional journalistic methods and practices continue to be valued, but there is also a desire for specialized verification tools that speed up the process and apply those methods and practices at scale (Brandtzaeg et al, 2016). This suggests that although traditional approaches to verification will persist in the newsroom, the automation of certain aspects of the process will be used to complement them when information from social media is being dealt with.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building the ‘Truthmeter’: Training algorithms to help journalists assess the credibility of social media sources

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social media is now used as an information source in many different contexts. For professional journalists, the use of social media for news production creates new challenges for the verification process. This article describes the development and evaluation of the ‘Truthmeter’ – a tool that automatically scores the journalistic credibility of social media contributors in order to inform overall credibility assessments. The Truthmeter was evaluated using a three-stage process that used both qualitative and quantitative methods, consisting of (1) obtaining a ground truth, (2) building a description of existing practices and (3) calibration, modification and testing. As a result of the evaluation process, which could be generalized and applied in other contexts, the Truthmeter produced credibility scores that were closely aligned with those of trainee journalists. Substantively, the evaluation also highlighted the importance of ‘relational’ credibility assessments, where credibility may be attributed based on networked connections to other credible contributors.

show abstract

Emerging Journalistic Verification Practices Concerning Social Media

Cited by 163 publications

References 18 publications

Journalism, the pressures of verification and notions of post-truth in civil society

Journalism, the pressures of verification and notions of post-truth in civil society

How journalists verify user-generated content during terrorist crises. Analyzing Twitter communication during the Brussels attacks

Building the ‘Truthmeter’: Training algorithms to help journalists assess the credibility of social media sources

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About