Google to hold University Verification Workshops against misinformation

Google News Initiative (GNI) has announced to host free University Verification Workshops from May 24 to June 9, 2021, for students, journalists, and fact-checkers.

GNI is a Google program aiming to help journalism flourish in the digital age by empowering and elevating quality journalism and empowering news organizations to leverage technology for newsroom innovation.

As per Google, the University Verification Workshops will focus on verification principles, including the misinformation landscape, geolocation, examining sources, and fact-checking ethics.

The workshops will be managed jointly with partners across Asia, featuring certified GNI trainers and open-source investigation specialist Eoghan Sweeney who prepared the workshop materials.

Eoghan Sweeney is a Berlin-based digital media consultant who has helped establish and develop verification and fact-checking operations for media companies, including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

The University Verification Workshops is part of the APAC Trusted Media Summit, an annual year-long conference that brings together journalists, academics, and NGOs associated with fact-checking and fighting misinformation across the Asia Pacific.

In its fourth year, the event is co-hosted by First Draft, the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, and GNI. Additionally, various boot camps and workshops will be held throughout the year.

According to Google, the sessions of the University Verification Workshops will be held on the following dates at 6:00 PM Manila time:

• May 24, 2021: Online info 101 – The anatomy of false information online, the techniques used to create and spread it, and the motivations of those doing so
• May 26, 2021: Confirm or debunk – Checking for context, corroboration, and visual clues
• May 31, 2021: Digging deep for info – Techniques and workflows to search effectively for information while conducting fact checks
• June 2, 2021: Source analysis – Examining sources for analysis and investigation and for obtaining contact details
• June 7, 2021: Where and when – Essentials of geolocation through mapping platforms and determining dates and times through visual clues
• June 9, 2021: Ethics of online investigation – Avoiding pitfalls in gathering and using information

Interested participants may register via this form. However, do note that registration is ongoing until May 21, 2021.