Social & Verification at #IJF19: 9 panels that I won’t miss

I’m heading to Perugia for the 2019 International Journalism Festival. It’s the only journalism conference that I have been attending for most of the last 6 years – not least because of all the swag. This is what I am looking forward to when it comes to social verification, OSINT and investigating the social media sphere.

This year’s programme is, as usual, jammed with good events. The EJC team, Valerio Bassan and Francesco Zaffarano have compiled comprehensive lists of what to do if you are interested in different themes in journalism, business and product, or social media and engagement in general.

Of course my take would be about which events on disinformation and misinformation I want to follow, with a mix of social platforms, verification and open source intelligence techniques (OSINT).

Here are the ones I will try not to miss:

Thursday

• Social media platforms _ In conversation with WhatsApp
  Fergus Bell and Carl Woog will be speaking about the platform, its features and future (they recently announced new privacy settings for groups). I have heard both talking before, not only in Perugia, and I am sure it won’t be a boring one.
• Verification _ The video verification toolkit: the journalist as a data worker
  I am a fan of Tom Trewinnard’s work on verification and his newsletter ‘The Checklist’ with Wafaa Heikal. I know that this panel is designed to be part of a series, but I won’t be in Perugia for the first one, so I will have to catch up on YouTube.

The view around Perugia is decent, I should admit. Photo taken last year

• OSINT _ Track changes: how to use open-source information to identify and monitor environmental issues
  If you follow OSINT investigations Bellingcat’s Nick Waters needs no introduction. If not his recent investigation on Yemen should be enough to make you interested. The workshop held by him and Wim Zwijnenburg, another Bellingcat contributor and project leader on Humanitarian Disarmament at the Dutch peace organization PAX, covers environmental issues, something we should report more on.
• Verification_ Technology and automation in the fight against misinformation
  Perugia spoils you with big panels with big publishers alongside smaller ones. This one offers insight on what Reuters and Deutsche Welle are doing when it comes to automating practices to engage with misinformation and disinformation. Representatives from Facebook and the EU Disinfo Lab (another good round-up newsletter!) will give other good pointers.

Friday

Previous keynote speakers in Perugia have always been very interesting. For example here you can see Emily Bell in 2013

• Witness vs. forensics: the future of data-driven investigative reporting. #ijf19talk by Julia Angwin
  Keynote speech by Julia Angwin. This will be a good chance to familiarise yourself with Markup, her new exciting enterprise and to hear what she thinks will happen next in investigative journalism.
• Verification_ Beyond fake news: what’s next for tackling online misinformation
  I have heard James Ball in Perugia multiple times. I am looking forward to hear his take on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to misinformation and disinformation.

Saturday

• Verification_ Prepare, don’t panic: dealing with deepfakes and other synthetic media
  The IJF often offers access to great experts on a topic. This is the case for this event, hosted by Sam Gregory, program director at WITNESS (check their media lab). If I have to recommend one thing that Gregory wrote, it is this thread ahead of his #EmTechDigital talk.
• Investigating online_ Inside the mind of a hacker: why all journalists need to care about digital security
  I can’t stress enough how important is to protect yourself when investigating online. When a journalist enters online communities he or she should be aware how to engage with them safely: same goes for sources and when working with the lesser-populated areas of the web. Joseph Cox helped me to realise that last year and I have high expectations for this panel. Essential reading: The Motherboard Guide to Not Getting Hacked.

Little plug: I interviewed Joseph Cox last year in Perugia. Please ignore me and listen to his answers

• Verification_ Quiztime: Julia Bayer and Tillman Wagner will talk about the Verif!cation Quiz Bot, or simply Quiztime, a collective of verification masters that offer anyone on Twitter a great sounding board for your skills. Read more about the quiztime here. Disclaimer: I have had a lot of conversations online and IRL with Julia Bayer and Jochen Spangenberg and I recently had the chance to spend some time in Deutsche Welle’s offices in Berlin and Bonn. You should check out what DW Innovation does.

These are just some of my highlights, still plenty of events I have not included for time reasons— I will properly study the programme and the list of speakers on the flight. Have I missed something huge? Any other good recommendations I should link to? Please feel free to drop them on Twitter.

Most of my calendar will be on verification and automation like SAM does. By the way, if you are interested to know what we are and do come and grab me anytime!

To conclude: netiquette

This is slightly unrelated, but recently Dr. Christine Cheng from London King’s College, posted a thread aimed at young academics attending discipline-wide conferences. I think that all of these rules could be useful for any young journalist going to Perugia.

Caveat: I will be in Perugia only from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, so apologies to the other great events/speakers I was not able to include.
Tip: most events from this year’s festival are streamed online and can be seen on the online archive. Arrivederci!