Fact-checking in the age of AI: a European Newsroom workshop on verification
What is disinformation? What principles drive the spread of fake content online? And what role does artificial intelligence play in this context?
On May 27, the European Newsroom continued its series of webinars with one of the most highly relevant topics for journalists and media professionals: the surge in disinformation and fake news on social media and other online platforms. The webinar aimed to strengthen participants’ ability to identify misleading content quickly and apply verification techniques in their daily reporting.
The systematic, interest-driven dissemination of disinformation poses significant challenges for mass-media audiences and users of digital information ecosystems. This includes false and divisive narratives that influence public opinion, AI-generated images that cause irritation and outrage as well as manipulated content in high-reach social media channels. Against this backdrop, the fundamental principles of journalistic due diligence have gained considerable importance.
Julian Bohne, Verification Specialist at dpa-Custom Content in Hamburg, equipped participants with tools, tips and techniques to identify and debunk such material in the digital space. Starting with the basics, he demonstrated how manipulated content is created and explained the principles behind its dissemination. The key message: verification, source criticism and contextualisation are more crucial than ever for distinguishing authentic content from manipulated material.
To put theory into practice, he used examples from the daily editorial work of Germany’s largest news agency, dpa, to demonstrate fundamental verification methods and tools. Throughout the webinar, participants tried their hands in analysing and verifying images and videos, determining whether and why they were fabricated or AI-generated.
Participants came from several European Newsroom agencies, including ANSA (Italy), AMNA (Greece), BTA (Bulgaria), PAP (Poland), EFE (Spain), and FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
