The open source investigation workshop is designed to provide participants with in-depth techniques, tools and skills, with case studies and practical examples focused on topics including conflict, crime, corruption, and fake information.

The 3-day workshop will include hands-on sessions and collaborative exercises to understand how to collect, verify, analyse and preserve user generated content in order to use it for reporting and investigations. The workshop will provide a focused set of skills such as verifying the time and location of photographic/video evidence, locating satellite images of particular events when searching across multiple providers, verifying information published online during critical events and conflicts, collect and preserve information securely and familiarity with crowdsourced verification platforms.

The workshop will be split into two sections, but both will focus on a hands-on approach in which participants will work alongside the trainer. For the first day-and-a-half, participants will be introduced to verification tools and techniques, ranging from simple tools to advanced verification methods.

During the second day and third day, participants will be shown digital forensics techniques, both in a presentation format as well as with interactive case studies.

The last two days allow participant to apply those skills to topics of their choice, with assistance from the workshop leaders. On the final day, the progress of these projects will be presented to the group and future steps in the investigation will be discussed. Where possible and desirable for the participants, Bellingcat will provide additional help with those investigations after the workshop is concluded.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this workshop, Participants will be able to:

• Understand the impact of open source investigations on reporting, advocacy and accountability
• Learn how to collect and preserve digital content securely
• Learn how to verify visual evidence through different tools and techniques including geolocation and the use of satellite imagery in order to use it in conducting open source investigations
• Learn how to analyse thousands of verified videos to show patterns of human rights violations

Target Audience

TV, print and radio journalists and editors,  post/undergraduate media students as well as media professors.

ARIJ Training Solutions are tailored to your training needs, for further information and a quote, contact ARIJ Business Development Specialist, Yazan Abu Al Rous, yazan.rous@arij.net