'The Verification Handbook': A guide to verifying digital content for emergency coverage

"The Verification Handbook" has been published and is now freely available online at verificationhandbook.com. (It's available in html, PDF, ePub, or Kindle versions, and is billed as a resource for both journalists and aid providers.)

"In a crisis situation, social networks are overloaded with situational updates, calls for relief, reports of new developments, and rescue information. Reporting the right information is often critical in shaping responses from the public and relief workers; it can literally be a matter of life or death. The Handbook prescribes best practice advice on how to verify and use this information provided by the crowd, as well as actionable advice to facilitate disaster preparedness in newsrooms."

It is published by the European Journalism Centre, in partnership with numerous NGOs.

Chapters include: Verifying User-Generated Content; Verifying Video; Adding the Computer Crowd to the Human Crowd; Creating a Verification Process and Checklist(s); Verification Tools; and more. As the book points out, "verification is a process. It is relatively rare that all of these [verification] checks provide clear answers. It is therefore an editorial decision about whether to use a piece of content that originates from a witness." The book includes case studies and lots of illustrations. Tell me what you think!