Navigating Misinformation: How to identify and verify what you see on the web

This resource page features course content from the Knight Center for Journalism in the America's massive open online course (MOOC) titled "Navigating Misinformation: How to identify and verify what you see on the web." The four-week course took place from March 25 to April 21, 2019. We are now making most of the content free and available to students who took the course and anyone else who is interested in learning how to verify online content and responsible reporting in an age of disinformation.

The course, which was supported by the Knight Foundation, was taught by Claire Wardle and her assistant Aimee Rinehart. They created and curated the content for the course, which includes video classes, readings, exercises, and more.

Introduction Module: Course Introduction

In the introductory module, you will get an overview of the course structure and meet the instructor.

Module 1 - Discovery of problematic content

This module will cover:

How to use the free monitoring platforms CrowdTangle and Tweetdeck

Learn the tipping point of when to report on, or amplify, a piece of content

How mis- and disinformation flows through the web

Donie O’Sullivan, a reporter at CNN who covers disinformation, cybersecurity and election integrity, will talk about how he discovers problematic content for his reporting

Module 2 - Basic verification of online sources

This module will cover:

The verification process

Scrapes, metadata and reverse image search

Free browser plugins to help in verification

Digital footprints: finding people online

How these skills connect to your work

Module 3 - Advanced verification of online sources

This module will cover:

How date and time stamps work on social posts

How to geo-locate where a photo or video was taken

Tools overview to help determine time in a photo or video

Verification challenge

Module 4 - Ethical considerations and challenges

This module will cover:

Journalists are under attack on the dark web; you’ll learn how to defend yourself

The challenges of disinformation: when to report and how to report on it responsibly

How closed messaging apps and the dark web work and the ethical considerations when using the information in your reporting

The real threat of being doxed and what to do if you are

April Glaser, a technology writer and co-hosts the podcast “If Then” at Slate, talks about how she works in the dark web and protects herself from doxing and threats