The Truth Is Online (Behind All Those Fake News)

A lot has been said about and against 'citizen journalists.' Should they be called journalists at all? Or should they just be treated as sources? After all, journalism has always fed from citizens' accounts.

Whether we call them 'journalists' or 'sources,' citizens can help professional reporters to investigate a story, and they have proven to be especially helpful (necessary, even) when covering remote areas or war crimes and abuses.

I am a big fan of Bellingcat's work. A website founded by British journalist Eliot Higgins that uses open source and social media investigation to investigate a variety of subjects, mostly with a focus on war crimes and conflict. Watching their work process feels like a magic show.

On this Foreign Policy podcast, Higgins talks about the breakthrough of one of their latest investigations, the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and how citizen journalists were key in solving it.

This is very important at a moment when social media is being used to spread fake news and misinformation. You can take online information and do something useful with it.

Whether you are already familiar with their job or not, don't miss this podcast on how they do it.