GIJN Webinar — Investigating the Pandemic: Reporting COVID-19 Disinformation

Editor’s note: This webinar has now taken place. You can see the recording on GIJN’s YouTube channel.

The COVID-19 pandemic, already highly complex, is made even more difficult to report by the proliferation of misinformation about drugs, cures, death rates and more. Along with assertions that are simply false, information is spun or twisted in myriad ways.

Whether it’s unverified, misleading or false information — distinctions made by Craig Silverman, one of the speakers in this webinar — it is a major issue for public safety and trust, as well as for journalists. Reporters and their editors obviously have a responsibility to publish accurate information, but checking out misinformation is increasingly part of the investigative process and can take a reporter to a good story.

In this webinar, Reporting COVID-19 Disinformation, two veteran journalists will share their tips and strategies for dealing with the flood of bad information.

Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and one of the world’s leading experts on online misinformation, fake news, and content verification. He is the media editor of BuzzFeed News where he leads a global beat covering platforms, online misinformation, and media manipulation. Craig was named to the Politico 50 for his work exposing fake news and its effect on American politics and has won numerous awards. He edited The Verification Handbook and The Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting, and is author of the award-winning book “Mafiaboy.”

Jose Antonio Lima has worked in media both in Brazil and internationally, and is now an assistant editor at Comprova, a nonprofit that brings together journalists from 28 media companies in Brazil to investigate misleading and false content. Comprova is coordinated by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) and was set up during the 2018 Brazilian election to encourage collaborative investigation of misinformation. It currently focuses on the COVID-19 crisis.

This one-hour webinar is free and designed for journalists interested in investigating the pandemic. It’s the fourteenth in a GIJN series, Investigating the Pandemic. Coming soon: following the pandemic money in Africa; and how to survive as a freelance journalist. Watch our Twitter feed @gijn and newsletter for future events.

NOTE: GIJN will offer Arabic and Russian interpretation for this webinar.