Fact-Checking IV: Fact-Checking Videos
People unknown to you often tweet, email or text you videos from “news events.” But do you know if they are legit? Was the video from today or five years ago? Was the video doctored? How can we see when and where a video was first published? We’ll explore how with Watch Frame-by-Frame and Amnesty International’s YouTube Dataviewer.
WatchFramebyFrame.com
http://www.watchframebyframe.com/watch/yt/Xb0P5t5NQWM
Great for fact-checking videos. Paste URL into player and hit the arrow keys to look at each shot frame by frame. Watch for shadows out of place, etc. You also can watch frame by frame in YouTube by using the comma and period keys after pausing the video. Comma moves backward and period forward.
Exercise: Test both tools with this famous fake video of a bird trying to fly off with a kid. It was passed off as real and went viral. Watch the shadows of the bird and the kid for clues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE0Q904gtMI
ABC News story explaining how to tell it’s fake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVr43I16B3Q
YouTube Dataviewer
https://citizenevidence.amnestyusa.org/
From Amnesty International, plug a YouTube video URL in and see where the video has been published through reverse lookup of video frames.
Case studies and examples of how to verify photos, video and other news.
More fact-checking tools on Journalist’s Toolbox: https://www.journaliststoolbox.org/category/trust-and-verification/