Checkdesk training begins in Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon
We’re extremely excited to announce that our Checkdesk training programme is firmly underway in four countries across the Middle East. Led by our regional partners (Welad El Balad Media Services - Egypt, 7iber – Jordan, Ma’an – Palestine, Annahar & SMEX – Lebanon), and in close cooperation with our research and training partner Birmingham City University, the training program aims to develop citizens’ journalistic skills in the way they consume and analyze media, to nurture verification and fact-checking best practice, and to introduce trainees to the Checkdesk platform. Over the coming 6 weeks,... Read The Rest →
Reporting breaking news online: Lessons from #BostonBombing
As we at Meedan followed the tragic and dramatic events as they unfolded today in Boston through both mainstream media (BBC, CBS Boston) and social media (Twitter) we noticed a couple of things that are worth recording: - If you Googled the name of the second suspect, which was first announced by the AP at 11:45 UTC then there was plenty of information to be found right away. Within 60 seconds of the name coming out, we could see where the 19 year old had gone to high school, that... Read The Rest →
On the Meedan Radar – April 2013
Journalism & Tech - Meedan-translated post from the Witness blog (shared last bulletin) now published: فيديو المواطن للصحفيين: التحقق http://meedan.org/ar/2013/03/citizen_video - Two good references on the amazing work carried out by British amateur newshound Elliot Higgins aka @Brown_Moses who has made some important findings using YouTube videos to research weapons proliferation in Syria: Guardian report: How Brown Moses exposed Syrian arms trafficking from his front room - BBC College of Journalism post on searching social media for news: It is a bit like playing the piano. On an average day... Read The Rest →
Meedan at #4MCairo conference, talking about Checkdesk and participatory journalism
Meedani Dina Hawary will today be at CFI’s 4M conference in Cairo to discuss the intersection of new media and journalism, in particular to present the work we’re doing on Checkdesk and approaches to participatory journalism. Below are the slides for Dina’s presentation, and the livestream (in Arabic) for those who want to follow. تْشِك دِسْك – الإعلام الاجتماعي إلى غرف الأخبار from Tom Trewinnard [View the story "4M Cairo 2013 - Day 1 | Journalism and new media : new working experiences, new tools, new ways of organizing" on... Read The Rest →
Checkdesk and Right to Information – Meedan at BCU & Stanford
One of the great benefits of working on topics as engaging as journalism, citizen media and verification is that we get to work with lots of excellent partners. One of our outstanding partners on the Checkdesk project is Birmingham City University – where I recently attended an excellent presentation given on Checkdesk by Noha Atef to her doctoral cohort. I was also invited to submit a post for the BCU Interactive Cultures blog, where one can read up on the department’s interesting approach to researching community, media and technology. Around... Read The Rest →
The Age of the Liveblog: A Guardian Case Study, and a Solution to a Problem
A report published this week by researchers Neil Thurman and Anna Walters from City University (London) has shed some much needed light on the increasing prevalence of live blogs as a publishing format for leading news outlets, answering important questions on why outlets use the format, why readers prefer to consume news via live blog, and how readers interact with live blogs. Based on a case study of live blogs at The Guardian — an outlet that seems to have mastered the art of live blogging and who have used... Read The Rest →
On the Meedan Radar – November 2012
- A new wave of Checkdesk-ian fervour swept the interwebs as intrepid journos set about debunking fake #Sandy pics. Top of the pile are Alexis Madrigal and the Atlantic, who wrote about their experience: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/10/if-you-cant-beat-em-subvert-em-countering-misinformation-on-a-viral-web/264366/ “We also drew heavily on our community, asking for help, and incorporating our networks into the search. People could see us thinking on their screens, and I think they saw that we were approaching this task fairly and with the pursuit of truth as a goal. I know that sounds high-minded, but you can’t do... Read The Rest →
Okki Dokki – Checkdesk Partner Meeting Dokki, Cairo
Once again typing away from the regular environs of the winged metallic tube – to be exact, these words come to you from seat 31A here on the Lufthansa brand transport experience, headed westward, my home direction. The past two weeks have been very good for Meedan. Most significantly and to the point of this post, we held our first partners meeting for Phase 2 of the Checkdesk project. From October 16-18, we brought the entire Meedan team (less Aaron, Andy, and Zainab it must be noted) together with an... Read The Rest →
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Checkdesk: how can newsrooms get closer to the truth, faster?
Meedan Director of Design Chris Blow reports from Zanzibar Last week, we were at the Africa News Innovation Challenge’s #TechCamp Zanzibar conference describing our latest project, Checkdesk, a tool for newsrooms. Checkdesk is designed for three activities: 1) collaborative bookmarking to bring media into the newsroom; 2) collaborative fact-checking that builds a relationship with readers; and 3) liveblogging which contextualises social media rapidly changing situations. Our question is: how can newsrooms get closer to the truth, faster? Our goal is to improve the relationship between journalists and readers and ultimately... Read The Rest →
Meedan named as finalist in Africa News Innovation Challenge, in partnership with Al-Masry Al-Youm
It’s with great excitement that Meedan can announce that we are among the finalists in the prestigious Africa News Innovation Challenge, in partnership with Al-Masry Al-Youm for Checkdesk: A digital newsroom where journalists and citizens work together. To decide our fate in the competition, we’ll be heading to TechCamp in Zanzibar to be grilled about our ideas by global leaders in the fields of technology, innovation and journalism. We’re honoured to be given the opportunity to refine our ideas both with the expert judges and with our fellow finalists, and for... Read The Rest →