Montage — The next generation of war reporting
An unemployed British finance worker and stay-at-home dad is an unlikely character to become one of the world’s experts on weapons and the Syrian conflict. But that’s precisely the story of Eliot Higgins, known online by the pseudonym “Brown Moses.”
In early 2012, Eliot began blogging about the Syrian Civil War, using YouTube videos to investigate information about specific attacks, allegations of chemical weapon use, and troop movements. He monitored hundreds of YouTube channels to find images of weapons or patterns in troop moments, which he used to report on the sources of arms in the Syrian conflict. Eliot’s work has been cited by dozens of mainstream news outlets, who describe him as a “pioneer” for using public, open-source data, to uncover what was happening on the ground in conflict zones from Syria to Crimea.
Eliot inspired us. It should be easier for individuals and organizations to analyze publicly available video and data to discover what’s happening in conflict zones. In the case of the Syrian conflict, there are more hours of footage online than there have been hours of actual conflict — five years and counting. Hidden in that footage are untold stories, evidence of war crimes, and human rights violations — information the world needs to know. How can journalists and human rights groups find the information they need to accurately report what’s happening?
That’s why we created Montage, a soon to be open-source tool that makes it easier for journalists and human rights organizations to report on conflicts around the world.
Montage allows users to search YouTube content based on location and time. People can search for videos of a specific event, tag those videos to identify people, places, or things, and collaboratively analyze that information to find out the truth behind the footage.
For the past year, The Carter Center, a nonprofit founded by former President Jimmy Carter to advance human rights, has been using Montage to analyze video footage from the Syrian conflict.
For example, The Carter Center’s excellent interactive map of the Syrian conflict uses data from Montage to track the evolution of the conflict, providing journalists and humanitarian first responders with crucial information in real time. The Center has also used Montage to produce maps that track the efficacy of Russian airstrikes, the resurgence of the Assad government, and ISIS troop movements. And that’s just the beginning of how Montage can be used.
Part of Jigsaw’s mission as an incubator is to find the best, long-term home for the products we develop so they can have the biggest impact possible. That’s why today we’re announcing the handover of Montage to Storyful, the leading organization for verifying social video for news and media. Storyful is the ideal partner to scale the work of Montage with the community, using video data to tell important stories and sharing those stories with the world.
Ever considered a second career as an investigative journalist? Try Montage today and tag your insights with #montage.
- Justin Kosslyn, Product Manager at Jigsaw & Yasmin Green, Head of Research and Development at Jigsaw
