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Digital Forensics

Using Social and Online Tools to Find Great Investigative Stories | Friday 4-5 p.m.

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Join the conversation with #ONA19Sleuth

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About the speakers

Michelle�Baruchman

Engagement Editor/Reporter�The Seattle Times

@mlbaruchman

Jane�Lytvynenko

DisinformationReporter�BuzzFeed News

�@JaneLytv

Ashley�Feinberg

Senior Writer�Slate

��@ashleyfeinberg

Malachy�Browne

Visual Investigations�The New York Times

�@malachybrowne

#ONA19Sleuth

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In this session we will:

  • Enhance your public record toolkit
  • Monitor public figures using new tools
  • Understand the digital trails we leave online
  • Gain a general understanding of a few tools
  • Generate story ideas to pursue

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Malachy Browne’s New York Times Visual Investigations

Using drone, cellphone and satellite footage to analyze a medic killed in Gaza and prove a chemical attack in Syria

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ONE BUILDING,

ONE BOMB:

HOW ASSAD

GASSED HIS

OWN PEOPLE

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HOW TIMES

REPORTERS FROZE

A FATAL MOMENT

AT A PROTEST

IN GAZA

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Malachy’s tools and resources

  • Drone, satellite, cellphone footage
  • SAMDesk, Snap Maps, Crowdtangle
  • INVid EU
  • Plane and Ship Trackers
  • Blender (3D Reconstructions)
  • Adobe Creative (or any edit tools)

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Jane Lytvynenko’s BuzzFeed Investigations

Using discovery and monitoring tools to debunk misinformation and disprove viral conspiracies

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Online Investigation

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Tools in this investigation

  • Reverse image search
  • Exif data
  • Search operators
  • Domain data
  • Crowdtangle extension

​

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Reverse image search

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Isolating the image

https://aim4truthblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/kamala-harris-birth-certificate.jpg?w=980

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Search operators

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Exif data

Social media sites strip images of their exif data. Other sites may not.

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Search operators

  • Inurl:”username”
  • -keyword
  • site:URL
  • *
  • filetype:PDF

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Domain tools

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Creative Googling

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Crowdtangle extension

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Disinformation Roundup

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Reverse AdSense and Analytics

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In this report

  • Audience engagement
  • Crowdtangle search
  • Facebook search
  • Framing

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Audience engagement

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Crowdtangle search

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Facebook search

“Rule number 5: look up HIPPA, your information is federally protected.”

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Facebook search

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Framing

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Jane’s tools and resources

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Ashley Feinberg’s Investigations

Using tracking and sleuthing tools to uncover digital footprints of public figures

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Social Media + Online Mining

Some tips for finding digital trails on social media platforms and how to put various sleuthing tools together

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Twitter

  • Learn the ins and outs of the platform and how the person or people you’re covering use them
  • Ex. I Think I Know Why Trump Faved That Tweet About Rihanna (Slate)

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Twitter

  • Twitter’s advanced search can narrow down time frames or find tweets that contain specific language
  • Ex. New York Times Columnists vs. the Haters (Slate)

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ADD: Advanced Twitter Search Example!

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Advanced Search Operators

list:username/list-name

since:YYYY-MM-DD until:YYYY-MM-DD

filter:replies OR -filter:replies

filter:verified OR -fitler:verified

filter:url [ex. filter:amazon]

from:username

to: username

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Instagram

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Instagram

  • Use Instagram’s search function to look up a location, property name, or hashtags to check in on what our pals are up to

​

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Nexis

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Put your sleuthing together

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Archiving

Some tips about storing information and tracking changes overtime

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Be proactive about archiving and using auto-archival tools.

Ashley Feinberg

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Auto-Archiving

  • IFTTT auto-archives things that could be potentially useful
  • CloudApp automatically saves your screenshots to an app so you will always have access to them

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Interact Archive’s Wayback Machine

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Ashley’s tools and resources

  • Google cache
  • Twitter Advanced Search
  • Tweetdeck
  • Track Twitter bios: spoonbill.io
  • Instagram search
  • FB graph tool
  • Snapchat map location data
  • Nexis
  • WHOIS
  • Reverse Google search
  • IFTTT
  • CloudApp
  • Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine
  • Wikipedia
  • Tineye

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Michelle�Baruchman

@mlbaruchman

​

Jane�Lytvynenko

@JaneLytv

​

Ashley�Feinberg

@ashleyfeinberg

​

Malachy�Browne

@malachybrowne

​

#ONA19Sleuth

Thank you!

​

Be sure to visit the many ONA19 exhibitors in the third floor Exhibit Hall.

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YOUR QUESTIONS

What would you like to understand about using digital tools for investigative journalism?

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TIP SHEET

All the resources + a few extra available here

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