Fact Checking climate change/science stories

Presentation on fact checking

1. FACT CHECKING AS CLIMATE REPORTING TOOL By Joseph Elunya  

2. The term “fact-checking” can mean two different things in journalism. Traditionally, fact-checkers were employed by newsrooms to proofread and verify factual claims made by reporters in their articles.   This genre of fact-checking evaluates the solidity of the reporting, double-checks facts and figures, and serves as an overall round of quality control for a news outlet’s content before publication.  

3. “Ex-post” fact checking seeks to make politicians and other public figures accountable for the truthfulness of their statements. Fact-checkers in this line of work seek primary and reputable sources that can confirm or negate claims made to the public.   “Ex post” fact checking concentrates primarily (but not exclusively) on political ads, campaign speeches and party manifestos.  

4. Ex-post fact checking consists of publishing an evidence-based analysis of the accuracy of a political claim, news report, or other public text . Both scholars and journalists are concerned with the decline of internal fact-checking resources and routines in the face of accelerated publishing cycles and the economic crisis faced by news organizations.  

5. Rationale for fact checking Fact-checkers verify that all the facts and claims in a story to ensure they are accurate and represented fairly   Fact -checkers also look for holes in stories. They research sources to make sure they don’t have their own conflicts of interest and what they’re providing can be relied upon.  

6. They read very closely on a sentence level to make sure the research and reporting haven’t been framed in a way that makes for good copy but doesn’t represent what exactly the reporter found. This involves what is often described as reporting in reverse.   At its core, journalism is the conveying of information. It has the ability to shape people’s beliefs and opinions. It can open a reader’s mind to experiences half a world away, build a person’s legacy or destroy a reputation. One article can start a worldwide revolution; so it’s important to get the facts straight.

7. Even a post on Twitter or Facebook should be backed up by a reliable source. If a fact can’t be verified, no matter how much it’s trending online, leave it out of the story. A good journalist fact-checks everything

8. How to Spot and Help Stop Climate Misinformation For the first time in its history, the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has named the spread of climate misinformation as an obstruction to climate action. A recent report by advocacy group Stop Funding Heat found that climate misinformation-false information that’s ​​spread either by mistake or with the intent to mislead gets viewed up to 1.36 million times every day on Facebook alone. And the problem appears to be getting worse on nearly every social platform.

9. T ips on recognizing climate misinformation First things first: Know that climate misinformation is shape-shifting A decade ago, spreaders of climate misinformation were more likely to outright deny climate change, intentionally rejecting the science of global warming altogether. Today, that’s not usually the case .

10. Climate misinformation can also take the form of green washed promises for example, publicly set net-zero targets that give the appearance of dealing with climate change but, when scrutinized, show that these companies have taken negligible steps to reduce fossil fuel production, the single-greatest contributor to planet-warming emissions

11. Misinformation tactics. One of the most effective ways to counter climate misinformation is to understand the five primary techniques used to spread it in order to be able to “pre-bunk” misinformation- 1. False expertise: Presenting an unqualified person or institution as a source of credible information. 2. Logical fallacies: Arguments where the conclusions don’t logically follow from the premises (available evidence) .

12. 2. Impossible expectations: Demanding unrealistic standards of proof before acting on the science. 3. Conspiracy theories: Proposing that a secret plan exists to implement a nefarious scheme, such as hiding a truth. 4. Cherry -picking data: Carefully selecting data that appear to confirm one position while ignoring other data that contradicts that position

13. General ways to check it Vet the source. Look at who’s doing the talking. If it's a news story, then go back to its original site. Does the publication have signs of legitimacy, like an “about” page and clear contact information? Do other trusted news sources refer to it? And if you’re reading commentary from an individual’s social media account or blog, question their climate expertise. A simple Google search for the author is a good start. The general rule of thumb is that having published scientific research on a topic is the gold standard of expertise.

14. If unsure Check their claim against fact-checking sites like Climate Feedback or  Snopes . You can do the same for images using  tineye . Develop a mixed-news diet. Take the time to see how various trusted news outlets are reporting on the same issue. Consuming climate information from a variety of sources means that misinformation is more likely to be drowned out. Check links. It’s now second nature to highlight a statistic in a story by linking out to its source. But don’t just assume the link itself is all the proof you need that something is a fact. Click through to find out.

15. Stop the actual spread of misinformation Pause before you share. Break the habit of reflexively sharing without properly vetting. Much misinformation is unintentionally spread, but that doesn’t make its effects less harmful. Debunk with a “a truth sandwich” If you’re going to correct climate misinformation, start by clearly stating the truth. Then quickly address the falsehood and fact-check it. Finally , restate the correct information. This avoids giving the misinformation too much space and makes the reader’s final takeaway the right one.

16. DEBUNKING “ A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” Mark Twain But what is a Fact? A fact is a statement that can be verified. A statement of opinion is not a fact. Fact-checkers work with content that is written; they do not research new material. Fact-checkers read the document in question and identify and extract all content in need of fact checking

17. Disinformation The term “ disinformation ” represents the manipulation of facts or the publication of out-of-date, inaccurate and unverified information, the intention of their creators being to confuse the recipient and influence their opinion. It is thus deliberately created and at the same time disseminated knowledge, the aim of which is to influence the public opinion of citizens Misinformation ” or in other words, rumors. Even in these cases, it is false information, but disseminated exclusively unintentionally.

18. Tools for fact checking 1-Climate feedback Climate Feedback is a web-based content annotation tool that allows scientists to annotate articles to provide additional context and draw attention to inaccuracies. The process results in a credibility score https:// climatefeedback.org /  

19. Google Reverse Image Search https:// images.google.com / Google’s  search by image  feature is currently available for desktops and not your iPad or mobile phone. Thus, if a friend has sent you a forwarded image on WhatsApp or Facebook that you’d like to verify, you’ll have to first  transfer  the photograph to a desktop and then perform a reverse image search. Too much work, right? With Reverse Photos, you can perform reverse image searches on Android and iPhone in few easy steps. Just click the “Upload Image” button and choose an image from the photo gallery of your mobile phone. Next, click the “Show Matching Images” button and it will send your photo into Google’s image database and show visually similar photos.

20. photo into Google’s image database and show visually similar photos. How to do Reverse Image Search on your Mobile Phone Google Reverse Image Search helps you quickly discover visually similar images from around the web. Upload a photograph from your desktop to Google Images and it will show you related images used on other websites and also different sizes of the same photo almost instantly.

21. What Is a Reverse Image Search used for? Journalists can use the reverse search option to find the original source of an image or to know the approximate date when a picture was  first published  on the Internet. Photographers can use ‘search by image’ feature to know about other websites that are  using their photographs  without permission. Propaganda campaigns are rampant during the Ukraine and Russian conflict. Open-source intelligence OSINT enthusiasts and practitioners on Twitter and Reddit are using reverse image search to verify the source and authenticity of viral photos as they may be used to spread disinformation.

22. Image Search & Privacy Reverse Search is useful for verifying the source of  photographs ,  WhatsApp images , screenshots and Internet memes. Tinder and Facebook users have used Search by Image  to research profile pictures of their potential dates, travellers use it for finding  location of photos  while matrimonial sites use reverse search to detect fake uploads

23. Tineye TinEye is a reverse image search engine developed and offered by Idée, Inc., a company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. TinEye allows users to search not using keywords but with images. How to use TinEye Using  TinEye , you can search by image or perform what we call a reverse image search. You can do that by uploading an image or searching by URL. You can also simply drag and drop your images to start your search. TinEye constantly crawls the web and adds images to its index. Today, the TinEye index is over  55.7 billion images .

24. Twitter Trails Twitter Trails is a web-based tool that uses an algorithm to analyze the spread of a story and how users react to the story. The tool measures the spread of the story and the skepticism expressed by users http:// twittertrails.com / Exifdata Exifdata is a web-based tool that provides information about the source, timestamp, creation and modification information http:// exifdata.com / Forensically Image Verification Tool Forensically is a web-based collection of tools that can be used for "digital image forensics." Some functionalities include magnifying functions, clone detection, error level analysis, noise analysis, level sweep, and many more.

25. Fotoforensics HackerFactor is a web-based verification tool that provides information about the source, timestamp, creation, and modification information of images https:// fotoforensics.com /   Image Verification Assistant   Image Verification Assistant helps you to analyse the veracity of online media https://mever.iti.gr/forensics/

26. Verifying videos Videos are one of the hardest materials to fact-check. Unlike texts and photos, you cannot search for a video by pasting or uploading it to a verification site to see if it’s true or trending, at least not yet. In addition, fake videos are becoming easier to create and more difficult to detect as the information technology revolution continues. So journalists and citizens globally have a new responsibility to quickly gather, verify and ascertain the authenticity of viral videos. Verifying videos on social media may seem difficult. But with the right approach, it is entirely possible. Here are some tips to help you get the job done: 

27. The right mindset – First, a healthy level of skepticism is needed to investigate the backstory of the video in question. This is backed by high determination to familiarise oneself with the tools that can help establish facts about a video.  Before going on to use the tools, see if there’s anything else you can use to debunk or confirm the viral video. Is there anything in the video that seems obviously doctored? Has it been reported on traditional media? Is it similar to something which had been reported before? Also check if the details of the video change depending on the sharer. something different from another platform? Sometimes the backstories for fake videos are frequently tailored to cater to different audiences.

28. Use tools like the  YouTube Dataviewer  created by  Amnesty International  or  InVid  which you can download as a plugin or browser extension. The YouTube data viewer is for YouTube videos exclusively but InVid allows you to paste a link from other social media platforms to get more information about a video’s origins. InVid can also give you keyframes which you can use to image search and find out whether the video has been published before. Many videos that go viral are simply decontextualized meaning , they had already been shared before and may exist on of the video from your mobile device. You can then upload it to a reverse image search service to see if it has been published elsewhere before.  TinEye  and  Google  are just two of many tools you can use for this.

29. Another way to go about verifying the authenticity of  a video is to download it and check out its metadata. Metadata is basically like recordkeeping information about the data in question. Some examples of basic metadata include author, date created, date modified, file size. Most social media platforms strip this information off media once someone uploads it, but if you have the source material, you might find clues about the video’s origin

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