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  • "Good morning.

  • My name is Malachy Browne.

  • I'm a senior producer on the Visual Investigations team

  • here at the 'Times.'

  • Thanks for tuning in and sending questions in advance.

  • We've got dozens of questions from viewers and readers

  • of the 'Times,' which we're going to go through.

  • First of all, we're going to introduce the team."

  • "I'm Haley Willis."

  • "Hey.

  • I'm Evan Hill.

  • I'm a visual journalist on the team."

  • "I'm Barbara Marcolini."

  • "Christoph Koettl."

  • "And Christiaan Triebert."

  • "And one of the first questions that we got

  • is what is open-source investigation?

  • So Christiaan, have a go."

  • "Yeah, so basically, open-source investigation

  • is it's reporting, but using any kind

  • of openly-available source.

  • So think of a Facebook post, or a tweet, a YouTube video,

  • or just a database-- anything you can find online, openly,

  • and for free.

  • So this is the opposite of closed source.

  • Like if a source tells me something or tells

  • my colleague something, you will

  • need to believe that source.

  • But the strength of open-source reporting

  • is that anyone with an internet connection

  • and a laptop can access that same source

  • and can take the same steps for verification.

  • So that's what we do here--

  • a lot of open-source investigation."

  • "And a lot of the process, if there is an event

  • that we're investigating, it involves, as Christiaan said,

  • collecting as much evidence as we possibly can,

  • you know, from the open web.

  • There's so much documentary visual evidence out there now

  • that allows us to get to the truth of an event

  • to break it down and really analyze it moment by moment.

  • And so that could be video satellite imagery,

  • a timestamp from a tweet, but it also

  • involves turning those open sources who

  • are witnesses into primary sources,

  • and finding secure ways to get in touch with them,

  • and find out more about what they saw,

  • very often get the raw imagery as we did in Syria.

  • Do you want to talk about that a little bit?"

  • "Yeah, I think that was an interesting one

  • because that combined sort of traditional reporting

  • methods with the open-source stuff

  • that I've been learning as a new member of the team.

  • But for that story for Syria, we

  • needed to get a wealth of material."

  • "Do you want to explain what the series was about just

  • for a second?"

  • "Yeah, so it was a series of stories about Russian bombing

  • of hospitals in Syria and other civilian targets that

  • came out over the course of last year.

  • And we needed to get a bunch of material

  • from the ground-- videos and photos

  • from Syrian journalists.

  • And so that was basically who we

  • can find through WhatsApp networks,

  • through activist networks, people

  • we can reach out to and expand our sources on the ground

  • speaking in Arabic a lot of the time."

  • "And the key was using the material

  • to identify the minute that a strike happened."

  • "Yeah, and that included metadata analysis, so

  • going into the actual files, explaining

  • to the sources on the ground the best way

  • to send the files to us so that we can extract

  • the information from the file to confirm,

  • oh, yes, we heard the airstrike occurred

  • at 5:00 PM.

  • We'll the file tells us, yes, it did occur at 5:00 PM."

  • "And by establishing the very minute of those attacks,

  • then we obtained access to thousands

  • of intercepted recordings of Russian pilots

  • carrying out their missions.

  • And so by understanding the time that something happened

  • on the ground, we could then examine

  • what was going on in the skies at that time, and then,

  • you know, basically apportion blame

  • to specific pilots for attacks on hospitals, on an IDP camp,

  • a busy commercial street in Syria.

  • So the evidence that witnesses are collecting

  • and that we're managing to verify through our processes

  • here can be really valuable to the journalism.

  • How did you get your start in OSINT?

  • OSINT is Open-Source Intelligence.

  • It's a term that lots of people

  • use to describe this work.

  • We call it visual investigations

  • or open-source investigations.

  • Choose your term, but how did you get your start

  • in it, Barbara?"

  • "I actually started working at Storyful.

  • Storyful is an agency that verifies

  • content on social media.

  • So that's how I started, just working at this agency

  • and learning from their experience

  • there, which by the way, Malachy

  • used to work for them."

  • "I came from Storyful too.

  • That was where I got my start too.

  • Haley?"

  • "I got my start working with a student collective

  • actually at the University of California, Berkeley

  • at our Human Rights Center.

  • We had a lab that did this kind of work

  • for human rights legal cases and for advocacy groups.

  • We had a partnership with Amnesty International

  • and their Digital Verification Corps.

  • So that's kind of how I started this work is using

  • the same open-source techniques

  • that everyone's been talking about,

  • and we applied that to kind of human rights issues."

  • "Christoph?"

  • "I got my start at Amnesty International in 2007,

  • so quite a while ago.

  • And back then, I think when I started at Amnesty,

  • it's the first time that a human rights group started

  • using satellite imagery.

  • So that was my-- well, that is my speciality.

  • We did a lot of work around satellite imagery

  • for a few years, and then around 2011,

  • it became just extremely important with the Arab

  • Spring to verify YouTube videos, photos,

  • and similar materials.

  • So we had to teach ourselves, basically, how to verify that

  • and how to integrate that into human rights reporting."

  • "Yourself?"

  • "So I was an aspiring journalist as a student,

  • so I tried to do photo reports in Iraq, and Syria,

  • and Ukraine, but I felt like I'm not

  • the best writer there is in the world

  • and I'm also not the best photographer.

  • So I felt like what am I doing?

  • What am I contributing to what is already out there, right?

  • Anyone with an internet connection

  • can find stories that are better

  • written, have better photos.

  • And I was intrigued by a guy called Eliot Higgins, who

  • started Bellingcat, an open-source investigation

  • group.

  • And I just started tweeting.

  • Literally on Twitter, I started tweeting out

  • my findings because in Iraq, I saw airstrikes

  • in the distance, but I didn't know much about it

  • except for I could say, well, an airstrike happened.

  • But by using that same kind of satellite imagery Christoph

  • was talking about, I could figure out

  • when did the airstrike or what did it

  • target, who was in control of the village.

  • And I started tweeting out those findings and got

  • involved in 2015-- so wow, five years ago--

  • with this group called Bellingcat.

  • And I've been doing that ever since before I joined

  • the 'Times' last year."

  • "A great question to get started on the practices

  • from Natalie in Toronto and Sena in Tehran--

  • how do you verify a video?

  • There's lots of different ways you can verify video,

  • but maybe we'll cut to a show and tell.

  • We have one from recently when the Ukrainian airliner

  • crashed down outside Iran.

  • Iran was denying that it was shot down.

  • There were reports at the time that it was allegedly

  • due to technical malfunction.

  • And over the course of a few days,

  • we had started mapping out the evidence related

  • to the downing of that airliner.

  • It killed over 170 people on board.

  • Maybe we'll just walk through that.

  • You've got a slide show that I'll cut to here.

  • Sorry, not that one.

  • It's on Keynote.

  • Bear with me for a second.

  • Yeah, there we go."

  • "Right, so let's just start with it right?"

  • "Yeah."

  • "So PS752, it basically started for us

  • with a Slack message from a colleague,

  • who was like, whoa, a plane has been crashed in Iran.

  • And we were all on high alert.

  • It was the evening here in New York.

  • Basically, the whole team was still in the office

  • because Iran had just launched those ballistic missiles

  • onto military targets in Iraq.

  • So we were all on high alert.

  • And then this message comes in and we're like,

  • O.K., whoa, let's investigate it.

  • So one of the first things we're doing with this

  • is open-source reporting.

  • We explained it in a lot of words,

  • but it's an actual example.

  • This is a plane crash.

  • Now, any commercial airliner nowadays is being tracked.

  • And anyone with an internet connection

  • can track those flights through websites

  • like Flightradar24, RadarBox24.

  • And here, we see the actual flight path

  • of the plane that allegedly crashed near Tehran.

  • And we can see how it's here on the--

  • it's starting to take off.

  • It's departing the International Airport

  • near Tehran, the capital of Iran.

  • And we can see how it flies away.

  • And we can also see the flight path is not that long.

  • It basically stops right here.

  • Now, the great thing is that we can also

  • download this flight path for free

  • and put it in a program that's called Google Earth.

  • And Google Earth is just basically

  • Google Maps on steroids.

  • It's, as you can see here, this is the same flight path

  • that we just saw on the website.

  • It's now on Google Earth and you can see it's also in 3D.

  • The height is also visible.

  • And we can see exactly where the last transponder sign

  • of that flight was spotted.

  • That's the first start for us, just

  • to have basic information about the incident

  • and have a sense of time and space.

  • Now, it started to get morning already in Iran.

  • And before people started uploading photos

  • from the crash site, people saw that plane going down.

  • And you can see it here.

  • There are different videos.

  • Here, we see the plane, but we couldn't verify those videos

  • at first.

  • But what we did is we matched them up with this explosion

  • to be sure, hey, that they are showing the same incident.

  • So these videos seem to be from the same plane crash,

  • so it's a first step.

  • We hadn't verified the location of this,

  • but the crash sites were--

  • sorry-- anyone nowadays has--

  • usually, a lot of people have a mobile phone, right?

  • And Tehran is a massive city.

  • So if something like this happened what you just

  • saw in those videos is that people start filming

  • something when it happens.

  • I mean, think of yourself.

  • Imagine something big is happening.

  • And here, we can see a video from the actual crash site

  • when the morning has broken already.

  • And one method we use, usually as a first step for verifying

  • a video to come back to the question,

  • is a process we call geolocation.

  • And geolocation is determining where a photo or a video

  • has been taken based on visual clues in the video.

  • Well, let's have a look.

  • We see a lot of debris.

  • We see people running.

  • It's a chaotic scene.

  • We don't see a big visual clue, like the Eiffel Tower,

  • but hey, what we see there?

  • We see something like a water tower.

  • I marked it here on the right so you can see it.

  • Now, a water tower may seem like a small visual clue,

  • but the thing is we knew the general area where

  • the plane had last spotted the transponder signal,

  • so then we started looking on the map for all the water

  • towers basically we can find that look similar.

  • And eventually, we did find a water tower right here.

  • And I'll zoom in a bit here on Google Earth.

  • And you can see here on the left or above it,

  • you can see it has the same markings in red and white

  • on it.

  • And basically, we started matching those two

  • to each other, right?

  • So we have a visual clue in the source material--

  • the video we want to verify--

  • and we tried to match it with reference footage--

  • in this case, satellite imagery.

  • And the great thing is this is all openly-available

  • information, so you can recreate that process,

  • or what we see, what we depend on a lot

  • as well is the community, is you actually doing

  • those same steps, right?

  • You're trying to find that water tower

  • and you're tweeting it out, just

  • like I did five years ago.

  • So here, we see another photo.

  • Later on, aerial photos came out.

  • And we were pretty confident about the location.

  • But now if we compare those two photos

  • with each other-- the satellite image-- we can see,

  • hey, we have the same park.

  • We have the football field in the background.

  • And now, it's basically 100% confirmation, like hey,

  • the videos we were seeing from the crash site

  • were taken here.

  • What is also good to mention is

  • that obviously, that community is great,

  • but also a lot of people may jump to conclusions.

  • So we did see posts popping up like these.

  • And they were like, look, these are shrapnel remnants.

  • This is shrapnel damage in a part of the airplane.

  • Right, you see those holes?

  • And if a missile explodes next to a plane,

  • it would leave such damage.

  • However, online investigators pointed out,

  • hey, look at this.

  • Actually a high resolution photo

  • of the same debris of the plane

  • shows that these are not holes in the plane,

  • but they're actually stones laying on top of it.

  • And that's pretty important because obviously, a stone

  • is not the same as shrapnel damage.

  • So this was not evidence that the plane was shot down.

  • But then this video appeared on Telegram

  • and we tried to do that exact same process again--

  • geolocation, using reference footage

  • or the source image trying to verify

  • the video by visual clues.

  • And actually, Malachy--

  • I could say our boss on the team, right--

  • he knows how to do this very well as well,

  • so maybe, you can have a word about how

  • you verify this video."

  • "Yeah, because we had been looking around Parand

  • and we had a mind map of how it all unfolded--

  • the flight path where it lost its signal over this town

  • called Parand that you're seeing in the background

  • and there's very distinct buildings in the background.

  • There's also, you see, small little

  • what looks like a security cabin with a security light,

  • a mast of a light beside it.

  • And we're looking at all of these details.

  • And then towards the end of the video,

  • you see this small kiln on the right-hand side.

  • And basically, it looked like a building site.

  • And by knowing the direction that the camera is facing

  • and how it would intersect with the path of the plane,

  • we could narrow down approximately

  • where it should have been filmed if it indeed showed

  • the missile being downed.

  • And yeah, we found the corner basically.

  • And another piece of verification

  • was the sound in this one because you see the flash,

  • but it takes 10.5 seconds for the camera to hear that.

  • We know the altitude and we know the direction that

  • the flight was taking, so we can calculate the vertical--

  • the y and the x--

  • the distance from the camera across the ground, and then

  • calculate the hypotenuse and estimate how fast sound

  • travels over that distance.

  • And it was approximately 10.5, so that was just

  • another point of corroboration.

  • And we very quickly put that out.

  • But just we'll cut back to the team and the questions.

  • Now, how do I get out of that?"

  • "As Malachy goes out of it, just one reminder

  • that what he was talking about is the--

  • how do you call this in English-- the Pythagoras'

  • theorem.

  • It's like high school math, right?

  • I was really not good at the math, but like,

  • using that very simple mathematics to figure out

  • the question that is massively important for news today

  • to find out what happened-- how 176 people died--

  • it's like kind of mind-blowing.

  • It was to me because you're, like, trying

  • to do this basic maths again and you're like,

  • O.K., maybe I should have paid attention in high school."

  • "Question from Ahmad in Maryland.

  • Maybe Christoph, you could answer this.

  • How do you select your stories?"

  • "Sure.

  • I mean, that's obviously a really good and challenging

  • question.

  • If you follow the news, there's

  • a lot of things happening every single day.

  • So I think what we're really specializing in

  • or what at the core of our work

  • is, you know, governments put out official accounts of what

  • happened, right?

  • And I think the example that we just

  • heard about is very good.

  • Iran was saying like, we don't know what happened

  • and they were putting out various theories.

  • So that's something we want to look at.

  • It doesn't matter if this is in Venezuela, or in Syria,

  • or in any country in the world.

  • There are always official accounts from governments

  • and they are presented as the authoritative story, right?

  • This is exactly what happened.

  • As journalists, we are very, very critical

  • towards these stories.

  • We have to question these accounts.

  • It doesn't matter if it's a government, or maybe

  • a single agency, or if state media is putting something

  • out.

  • We want to be very critical and raise

  • very important questions if this is really

  • how it happened or maybe they're admitting that this

  • happened, but they're playing down the impact

  • of a specific event.

  • I think one of the strongest examples

  • here is our investigation in the Douma chemical weapons

  • attack, where both the Syrian regime and also the Russians

  • were saying like, well, that didn't even happen,

  • and if it happened, it was not us.

  • So we want to look at that and look behind that.

  • And that takes a very long time,

  • but that is something we really

  • want to do because it's such a big story,

  • we want to make sure that the truth eventually comes out.

  • That takes a lot of time.

  • That takes a big team effort, but I

  • think that's one of the main things

  • that we look at when we want to do stories.

  • Something very obvious I think that I want to point out is

  • we cannot just do any story.

  • We are visual investigations team, so we rely on visuals.

  • So if there are no visuals, it's

  • a little bit harder for us to do our work.

  • So that's another factor that we consider."

  • "I might play the introduction to the Douma story

  • actually, just as an example of how we collect evidence

  • and what that looks like.

  • Just a warning-- some of the images in this introduction

  • are graphic, but here we go."

  • [VIDEO PLAYBACK]

  • "The UN has accused the Assad regime

  • of repeatedly committing war crimes in Syria,

  • including a chemical attack in April on a town called Douma.

  • It killed dozens of people and triggered US-led strikes

  • inside Syria.

  • To this day, Syrian officials and their Russian allies

  • deny the attack ever took place."

  • "There were no dead bodies found."

  • "This is a theater."

  • - [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

  • "The event did not take place."

  • "So it's a farce."

  • "Finding out what really happened matters.

  • Entire families were killed and the regime

  • went to great lengths to conceal the evidence.

  • Our investigation is the most detailed reconstruction

  • of the attacks so far.

  • We analyzed a trove of videos and interviewed dozens

  • of witnesses and experts.

  • We scoured some evidence with the investigative group

  • Bellingcat, and we teamed up with the agency Forensic

  • Architecture to create a virtual model of the crime

  • scene.

  • We center on one building that confirms where

  • the attack happened, one bomb that shows who carried it out

  • and when, and the victims, whose symptoms

  • tell us what happened-- a lethal chemical attack.

  • The evidence combined exposes Syria and Russia's lies."

  • "Where is your concrete evidence

  • about what happened?"

  • "The concrete evidence is right here."

  • [END PLAYBACK]

  • "Just a couple of key pieces of evidence

  • that allowed us to over-- this, by the way,

  • took us 2 and 1/2 months, about five

  • of us reporting on it.

  • Seven of us in all, you know, bylined

  • on this story, which means that they were closely

  • involved in the reporting of it and the production of it.

  • But a few things give us a sense

  • of what's happening in Douma that day

  • if we're not there ourselves.

  • First of all, satellite imagery.

  • You know, by looking at before and after images of Douma,

  • you can see that this particular street was

  • obliterated over 24 hours.

  • And the question was, well, why?

  • In a leaked UN report that our reporter in Geneva, Nick

  • Cummings-Bruce, obtained, the UN

  • said that there was an ambulance run

  • along that street leading to an underground hospital.

  • And in fact, you know, there was a tunnel

  • at the end of that street leading to a hospital

  • under the building opposite.

  • We spoke to many of our sources in Douma

  • and they pinpointed in maps that they send to us where

  • that tunnel entrance was and confirmed

  • that it was an ambulance run.

  • So the Syrian regime was trying to cut off access

  • to that hospital.

  • And it was along this street that the chemical attack

  • happened.

  • And so that's some coincidence if indeed,

  • the Syrian government's account

  • that this was a staged event, if that were true.

  • And you know, what we do in our stories is

  • we try to be transparent with people about the evidence.

  • And so this is a video filmed by an activist

  • from the balcony of that building.

  • And we're calling out our geolocation,

  • basically-- what Christiaan explained a little bit

  • before.

  • Barbara, do you want to talk about this?

  • There were very fragmentary pieces

  • of video coming through because communications were

  • difficult. And what we were trying to do

  • was to get a continuous video carrying us

  • through a building to basically establish

  • that all the victims were in one place.

  • Do you want to talk about that process?"

  • "Yeah, so one of the challenges

  • that we had with this story was that you had images

  • from outside the building and you have many videos

  • from apparently inside a building.

  • And we wanted to make sure that all these videos had

  • been filmed inside one location,

  • so all those victims had died in one building

  • and not that there were more than one.

  • So we looked for videos--

  • we looked for architectural clues

  • from inside this building to understand,

  • O.K., are all these videos filmed in the same place?

  • So I worked with a journalist who has

  • a background in architecture.

  • And by watching those videos, we

  • were able to build a 3D model of that building.

  • And we could see from the beginning

  • from entering the building, going up the stairs,

  • entering rooms, kitchens, bathrooms,

  • we were able to see that all of those videos

  • were in the same space.

  • And as we were doing that, we were also counting bodies.

  • One important thing was the location

  • of where we found these bodies.

  • So people in Syria had been warned

  • that whenever they smelled a strong smell of chlorine,

  • they should go to higher ground

  • and wash their faces with water.

  • And as we were touring this building looking

  • at the videos from inside this place,

  • we were seeing that most of the bodies

  • were inside kitchens and bathrooms

  • and in the stairwells.

  • So we could recreate and have a better understanding

  • of what happened inside that building on that night."

  • "Yeah, we also worked with the research team

  • in London, Forensic Architecture,

  • to create a 3D model of the balcony where the bomb landed

  • and the chlorine spilled down into that building

  • where people were coming up into it

  • trying to get some relief.

  • They were actually walking up towards the source

  • of the chlorine.

  • And you know, what this allowed

  • us to do is to create a virtual model of it,

  • and examine the space for ourselves,

  • and examine how the debris around the place

  • related to the weapon itself.

  • Bellingcat had done a lot of good work on this as well.

  • Do you want to talk-- were you involved

  • in that, Christiaan?"

  • "It was mostly led by others, yeah."

  • "By others?"

  • "But yeah, I mean, what specifically?

  • Oh, yeah, this for example, like this slide

  • is maybe interesting to mention.

  • I mean, if they're watching-- and I don't know whether it

  • was Eliot or Nick Waters that pointed it out--

  • but just to see, like, Malachy has basically highlighted

  • here a part of the barrel bomb.

  • But if you're just looking at this picture as a whole

  • and without it being highlighted,

  • it's like there's just, like, it's trash.

  • There's debris laying around.

  • But really just it's not even like a tool that detects it

  • for you, but it's just looking very, very closely

  • through those images and what am I actually looking at?

  • And what they discovered is that the tangled remains here

  • are actually of the kind of--

  • how would you say this in English-- the--"

  • "It's a rigging."

  • "--the rigging around the canister, which here,

  • it shows this very well--

  • and the tangled remains of it.

  • And here, you can see it in a different attack,

  • how it looks like when it's still around the canister.

  • So it's just really looking at those close and tiny details

  • on individuals.

  • And even, if we go to the next slide,

  • you can see that the pattern of what we believe is--

  • I'm sorry--"

  • "It's kind of a lattice."

  • "A lattice."

  • "--lattice above the balcony, and it fell through.

  • And you can see that the squares of the lattice

  • are basically imprinted on the canister,

  • suggesting that it fell from a height

  • and smashed through the roof, leaving those markings

  • on the canister."

  • "One of the most revealing things was this, I thought.

  • It was what looked like it could be cloud.

  • You know, it's one of the first videos that

  • was filmed as somebody went into the building

  • after the attack.

  • And it looked like it could be moonlight in the clouds.

  • But our video team said, no, the camera

  • would never pick that up.

  • And so when we color corrected it--

  • Eliot actually spotted this as well at Bellingcat--

  • when you color corrected, you can

  • see that it's actually the shape of the canister sitting

  • in the hole.

  • And you know it's in the same position from the photographs

  • that were taken the following day, but why is one white

  • and why is it yellow?

  • Our photographers here examined this footage

  • and said, you know, it would never reflect as white.

  • It would always reflect as yellow.

  • And we contacted the Chlorine Institute.

  • And they told us that what happens

  • when these highly compressed bombs suddenly open,

  • it's called auto-refrigeration and it's

  • a behavior that have been seen in previous chemical attacks

  • as well.

  • And that was a really important clue

  • because it meant that this was an active bomb

  • and that it wasn't placed there after the fact

  • to try to stage an event, as Syria had been declaring.

  • And if we could get the metadata-- the file

  • information-- of this video that

  • was filmed on the left-hand side,

  • that would give us a timestamp for approximately

  • when the attack happened.

  • And thousands of people were shipped out of Douma

  • after that, including the person who filmed this video,

  • but we found him in Turkey a couple of weeks later

  • and got the metadata from that file.

  • And indeed, it was that night when, you know,

  • by this stage, 15 or 20 other witnesses had told us

  • that it had happened, and so that was also another clue.

  • Anyway, I'll end there and move on to the next question.

  • What's the most difficult part of your reporting?

  • This is Matthias from Chile.

  • Who wants to take that question?

  • Barbara?

  • Evan?"

  • "I mean, something that's been extremely difficult

  • with the Syria reporting, I think

  • for all of us who've been on it,

  • is the fact that you have these networks of people who

  • are on the ground under bombardment,

  • don't have a lot of food, they're

  • fleeing their own houses, and yet

  • they're still working, right?

  • These people are still shooting photos, taking

  • videos, doing interviews.

  • And without them, we wouldn't be able to do our work.

  • And they want results.

  • And it's also hard to pay these people oftentimes.

  • And there's rules about that.

  • And you don't want to put people in danger.

  • But they want to see results from their reporting

  • and they're struggling in these conflict zones.

  • And the best that you can tell them is we're

  • getting the story out.

  • And I do think it's obviously worthwhile, otherwise

  • I wouldn't be doing what I do, but that's quite difficult."

  • "Haley?"

  • "Yeah, I mean, and I think that speaks

  • to probably a wider issue with this kind of reporting,

  • and I guess any kind of reporting when you're

  • reporting on conflict zones and issues like this,

  • is something called secondary trauma or vicarious trauma.

  • And what that means is when you're

  • reporting a story, when you're doing what we are,

  • when you're speaking to these people who are on the ground

  • and guilt that may come from that from your position

  • or when you're spending eight hours a day

  • watching graphic content--

  • as Barbara was explaining, walking through a building

  • looking at bodies--

  • that can have an effect on you.

  • And I think that's probably all of us would agree

  • is sometimes the hardest part of this work.

  • And it's also the reason why we do it because these

  • are very important stories.

  • Fortunately, at the 'Times,' we have professional

  • resources for that.

  • There's, I think, a lot of awareness

  • on the team of what that looks like

  • and we look out for each other.

  • And I think another important thing to recognize that

  • speaks to Evan's point is that sometimes,

  • you can feel guilty for being affected by the work,

  • especially if you're not in it [? live ?] and you're here

  • at the 'Times.'

  • And I think part of it is being very aware

  • of the fact that looking after yourself

  • and being aware of the fact that this work can

  • take a toll is not selfish.

  • It helps you sustain the work and it

  • helps you get the story out.

  • And that's what's important here is telling the story."

  • "Yeah, I think what Haley said is very important.

  • When we did that Syria piece, the Douma piece,

  • I had nightmares for weeks just remembering

  • those images of those bodies.

  • And it's really tough.

  • And another thing that I think is important

  • is many stories that we are doing,

  • we are covering places where there is conflict.

  • Maybe we are covering stories where

  • there were no journalists on the ground at that moment

  • that could tell the story.

  • And we are trying to get any residual information that

  • can inform our reporting.

  • So sometimes, this part of gathering the information

  • and being able to report all sides of a story

  • that we were not able to be on the field

  • is the most difficult part of the reporting."

  • "O.K. Mohammed from Islamabad--

  • how does the reporting process differ from a print story?

  • Great question.

  • Christoph, do you want to take that one?"

  • "Yes, I love that question because I

  • struggle with this question, I guess, every week.

  • So coming from a background where you do more writing--

  • a human rights group--

  • I am used to more like write everything down

  • and that's the most important part--

  • writing out all the facts, explaining everything

  • in a lot of detail.

  • So then you start working here at a video team, where

  • you have to write a script.

  • When you start doing that, it just doesn't work.

  • So I think the most important thing

  • is you have to really think much more about the story,

  • but the most important thing is

  • you have to think about the visuals, right?

  • I cannot just write stuff and I have no visuals for it.

  • So what I still find hard and I'm still

  • learning is you really, really have to write to the visuals

  • and you have to let the visuals lead the story.

  • And that is a massive difference to a print story.

  • The other part, which is very obvious

  • and that is also a daily challenge-- something

  • is happening and we want to do a video story.

  • It might take at least a couple of days

  • to put that story together, which

  • means there might be a hundred other journalists who

  • have already written that story, right?

  • So we have to think very strategically

  • which stories we want to pick, and what sort of angle,

  • and what new things do we bring to that story

  • because we know print reporters will

  • be much faster in the daily reporting, right?

  • So that's something, I think, to consider.

  • It's very, very hard.

  • It's a lot of fun to learn it, I guess,

  • but it's a challenge, I think."

  • "We have a great collaboration with the print hub

  • as well and with some of the designers up there.

  • And you know, they love the fact

  • that a lot of what we're presenting, the reporting

  • is visual.

  • And so they've done incredible double-page and

  • quadruple-page spreads with the material.

  • Several of us have tweeted those out,

  • and you can find them as PDFs online

  • if you're interested in checking that out.

  • Question from James from Albany--

  • have governments reacted to your reporting?

  • Great question.

  • The impact that our reporting could have

  • is something that we always assess

  • before we embark on something that's really ambitious

  • and could be potentially months long.

  • And the answer is yes.

  • You know, although this is innovative and sort

  • of a new form of journalism, it's

  • rooted in answering traditional investigative

  • questions.

  • And so for instance, you know, the Nigerian army

  • said that they acted in self-defense

  • when their military opened up on unarmed protesters

  • in the capital Abuja a couple of years ago.

  • And you know, we got on the ground.

  • From social media and from other sources,

  • we collected a lot of video of that.

  • And we were able to--

  • Christoph worked on that intensely--

  • and we were able to show that that was BS, basically,

  • that it was a lie, and that they killed many more

  • people than they claimed that they had killed.

  • And it was really a brutal assault.

  • They were using battlefield weapons.

  • They blew arms and legs off people clean with bullets.

  • And [INAUDIBLE] it was a very powerful story

  • that resonated in Nigeria.

  • There's a very strong Twitter sphere in Nigeria.

  • And in press conferences after that,

  • Nigerian journalists pressed the interior minister

  • about the reporting and asked had they seen

  • what we had put out there.

  • And the government later launched an inquiry

  • into that.

  • The work has been cited in State Department reports,

  • in UN investigations.

  • I believe we did a deep investigation, which

  • we might we might show later, on the shooting

  • of a medic in Gaza.

  • And an IDF commander months after that came out

  • was asked if they had seen the report

  • and if there was any response.

  • And we understand that they said

  • that there had been a modification

  • to the use of live fire along the border fence with Israel.

  • Now whether these things are true

  • and whether the Nigerian investigation actually

  • came to anything, we don't know,

  • but governments have responded to this type of work.

  • The Russian government, of course as well,

  • has really tried to diminish the reporting,

  • and attack the reporting that we're putting out there,

  • and said that we're falling foul

  • of a campaign of disinformation within Syria,

  • but the volume of independent evidence and visual evidence

  • really rebuts that claim.

  • Question here-- there is an inescapably political nature

  • to this work.

  • For example, western investigative journalism

  • on China has a strong political incentive

  • to paint China in as negative a light as possible.

  • How do you and the team view this issue and deal

  • with it in your work and how you report?

  • How should other journalists report

  • in a way that earns trust?

  • This is Will from Tokyo.

  • Thanks, Will.

  • Christoph, you've been reporting on China."

  • "Sure, I mean, I think a general statement

  • on this question is and that works really well, I think,

  • for our team, we try to build very, very compelling stories

  • obviously, but at the core of these stories is evidence.

  • And we really build stories that

  • are driven by the evidence and there's just

  • no space for any sort of political opinion or bias.

  • And that's the short answer to it

  • I think with the coronavirus right now

  • that we're looking into, we have done

  • a couple of short news videos and not

  • any big investigations yet, but that I think

  • is a good example, right?

  • So we receive a lot of videos.

  • And we are very, very careful with that.

  • We verify these videos in a way

  • that Christiaan was explaining at the beginning.

  • And we want to make sure we provide the proper context.

  • And that is really, really important

  • because a single video that you see coming out of Wuhan

  • might be a little bit misleading.

  • We had a case this week where it was not entirely clear

  • if the people we saw in the video

  • actually died from the virus or from another cause.

  • And that's something we cannot determine from the video

  • itself.

  • So that's something we're still looking into

  • and we would not publish that because that

  • would be very irresponsible.

  • Once we get there, again, we present the facts

  • and that's basically the gist of it, in my opinion."

  • "Question from students from SF State--

  • how long does it take to create an investigation

  • from start to finish?

  • Haley, do you want to have a go?"

  • "That really depends on the investigation, I would say.

  • We've done investigations that were day turns.

  • Just recently, I did an investigation

  • on police violence against protesters in India

  • during the citizenship amendment bill protests.

  • And that was basically a 12-hour process

  • and was published the next day after we started it.

  • But there's investigations, like Douma, which we showed,

  • which Malachy said that took two or three months.

  • I know the Gaza investigation, which

  • has also been spoken about, took almost six months.

  • And it kind of depends on the level

  • of investigative reveal, the urgency of the story,

  • if it's more of an enterprise investigation

  • as opposed to something that's current happening right now.

  • That's something that influences how long it takes.

  • Also kind of the level of different styles of reporting

  • that we include, whether or not

  • it's fully reliant on open sources

  • or whether or not, in the case of Gaza,

  • we want to go on the ground and we want

  • to interview people as well.

  • So all of those kind of go into it.

  • It's really dependent upon the story

  • how long an investigation takes."

  • "I don't see this kind of journalism in Latin America.

  • How can we push it and how do you

  • see it evolving into the future?

  • That's a question from SlackAt on YouTube.

  • Barbara?"

  • "As the Latina in the team, yes, I

  • think not only Latin America, but many other countries

  • in the world could be doing more

  • open-source investigations.

  • Basically, as Christiaan said, everything you need

  • is Wi-Fi and a laptop.

  • There are great tutorials.

  • Bellingcat has great, like, pieces,

  • articles where they explain what they do, how they do.

  • So I guess it's a matter of journalists

  • and of course, news organizations

  • investing in this kind of work.

  • And there is a great amount of resources

  • out there where journalists and citizen journalists

  • can start learning and developing

  • this kind of work."

  • "Yeah, one thing I would just say

  • about that quickly is that this technique,

  • you can see it spreading quickly everywhere.

  • And so we've even been beaten by a Syrian outlet called

  • Verify-sy, which took a Russian propaganda video

  • of airstrikes and showed that they had actually hit IDPs--

  • displaced people-- and not an armed group.

  • And they did it, and I mean, we admired that work."

  • "Yeah, and I think also one big point, as you can see,

  • this is the core team, right?

  • And the team has done stories on Latin America

  • and more will be coming.

  • But please do tip us, right?

  • Email us-- any one of us.

  • Write us an email via Twitter, via YouTube.

  • It doesn't really matter--

  • Facebook.

  • If you think, hey, you and the team,

  • you should really focus on this specific topic

  • in Argentina, or Chile, and so on.

  • So yeah, we're always open for that."

  • "And I mean, I think one thing I want to add to be clear,

  • I think there is a lot of-- well, there's always

  • a lot of citizen journalism going on

  • in Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and all over Latin America.

  • And there's a lot of open-source verification

  • work going on.

  • It might not be called visual investigations,

  • but to be clear, this is nothing

  • that comes out of New York and spreads through the world.

  • It's more the other way around, I would say.

  • And we learn from everyone around the world who

  • is doing this sort of work."

  • "Absolutely.

  • Yeah, I might just actually show this.

  • We published this story today on the situation

  • in Syria, which is a collaboration with our Beirut

  • team and the graphics team in London--

  • Allison McCann, who pulled that together.

  • And this includes some of what you just heard Evan

  • describing there-- the Verify-sy--

  • but also a lot of sources on the ground who

  • sent us footage or who were posting footage

  • on open sources.

  • And it really shows, you know, the scale--

  • the sheer scale of numbers of people

  • and the dire conditions they face with the border

  • closed in Turkey.

  • It's less of an investigation, but this type of reporting

  • can also be used for explanatory visual pieces,

  • where the images are so strong,

  • they help you tell the story.

  • You know, this is another hospital--

  • yet another hospital-- that has been bombed in recent

  • weeks during the campaign to retake it--

  • people who were fleeing whose bus was bombed.

  • Back to the question, that leads us

  • to another good question.

  • Evan, question on how you build trust

  • with sources and with key leads in your investigations,

  • especially in sensitive investigations like the Jamal

  • Khashoggi story.

  • You didn't work on that story with us,

  • but this is from Salwa on YouTube.

  • Thanks, Salwa.

  • Do you want to talk about that in relation

  • to the Syria series?"

  • "Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

  • A hugely important question.

  • And if you want to jump in on the Khashoggi investigation,

  • you should.

  • But I think so it's a challenge

  • to build trust with sources when you can't meet them

  • face to face, which in a lot of cases for us,

  • we can't go to the ground and meet these people

  • face to face.

  • First thing is that journalists and people doing

  • this work should know other languages.

  • You should try to know the language

  • of the country that you're reporting on

  • and the people that you're speaking to.

  • And if you don't know it, you should make an effort.

  • So in the case of Syria, though by no means fluent,

  • the ability to speak Arabic and communicate with people

  • in Arabic is crucial.

  • I think the second thing is that you

  • have to treat these people with respect and as humans,

  • and often as fellow journalists who are doing

  • the same work that you doing.

  • And that means not just going to them

  • when you need something from them.

  • That means going to them as a professional,

  • and with compassion, and keeping up communications

  • with them, and actually caring about what's

  • going on in their lives, which is something

  • we have to constantly remind ourselves to do,

  • and another member of the video department

  • who we work with a lot, Yousur, is quite good at.

  • She's one of the best sourcers who I've ever met.

  • And the way she does it is by treating

  • these people with compassion and really caring

  • about them."

  • "I think--"

  • "Do you want to talk about Hong Kong?"

  • "Yeah, we build an amazing group--

  • like an amazing base of supporters and sources

  • in Hong Kong.

  • I spent almost three months in Hong Kong

  • last year covering the protests.

  • And I think one of the main things that

  • helped me build trust with my sources in Hong Kong

  • was my previous work.

  • So every time I reached out to someone--

  • and in Hong Kong, most protesters

  • I reached out through Telegram, so I wasn't

  • meeting them face to face--

  • I would send examples of my past work

  • so they would see the kind of work that we do.

  • And that helped us build this trust

  • because they saw that we were serious journalists trying

  • to find the truth of what was happening there.

  • Yeah, so I guess sharing, of course, being a human being,

  • and treating others with the kindness

  • that you would like to be treated

  • is the most important thing, but also present them

  • your work, and show that you are serious,

  • and you are doing that work because you believe

  • the truth needs to come out."

  • "I'm also just going to walk through

  • very quickly another story that we did, just to show

  • how much we rely on the community

  • and on those sources to provide us with,

  • as Christoph described, the evidence really essentially

  • that when we can collect and analyze it, you know,

  • reveals something bigger about the story and gives us

  • a much deeper insight.

  • We're also going to be joined by Whitney Hurst, who's

  • another member of the team, after this presentation.

  • So this is a Palestinian medic, Rouzan al-Najjar,

  • who was killed during protests on June 1st

  • two years ago during protests around the border fence

  • between Gaza and Israel.

  • And the question was, how did she die?

  • You know, the immediate news reports

  • suggested that she was very close to the fence when she

  • was killed, but our job was to really

  • just start collecting visual evidence as quickly as we

  • could.

  • And getting the metadata was a key part of this.

  • That's the file information that every video

  • and photograph that's taken on a cell phone

  • is imprinted with.

  • And so we got, you know, entire cards

  • from photographers who were there and in total,

  • over 1,300 photos and videos direct from the devices

  • of people that were there on that day.

  • And that was an important part of our reporting

  • because we weren't there to witness it.

  • But by getting the metadata, we

  • had the minute that each photo and video was taken,

  • and we were able to string that out and see how

  • the day unfolded, the violence that happened,

  • the inflection points, the points of tension,

  • and the reason that the soldiers of the IDF

  • started to use live rounds.

  • Some other techniques were, you know,

  • this is the critical-- this is the moment of that gunshot

  • that killed Rouzan al-Najjar.

  • And we have it from five different angles.

  • And by syncing that up, we can see

  • what's going on at that time, what's

  • happening near the fence, where are the crowd,

  • where are people in relation to each other.

  • And you can see them all flinching at that moment.

  • And it kind of gives us, similar to the Iran

  • crash, a kind of a mind map of the place.

  • We also used Cinema 4D to--

  • we worked with Forensic Architecture

  • on this investigation again.

  • And we used Cinema 4D to stretch out videos

  • as they panned around to create

  • a panoramic of the situation.

  • So that was important because we

  • wanted to know what was going on between the protesters,

  • the medics, and the fence.

  • And that allowed us to kind of analyze that space

  • and see what was going on there,

  • how far they were away.

  • And then we also sent high-definition cameras

  • out there on drones.

  • We droned the area and turned that

  • into a 3D model of the space, sketched in details

  • like the sand berms, the jeeps,

  • the position of the snipers.

  • And also, you know, as we're going frame

  • by frame through the footage, we're calling out details.

  • This is one of the medics that was hit in the leg

  • by that bullet before it struck Rouzan al-Najjar.

  • You can see he's holding his leg as he flees away.

  • And the medic next to him, Mohammed,

  • who was hit by debris and fell to the ground.

  • You can see Rami's thigh is grazed by the bullet.

  • And here in the back, you know, you see Rouzan.

  • We knew it was Rouzan tucked away behind people because we

  • oversaturated this image.

  • Yousur, again, was working on this

  • and she oversaturated it for a very distinct color

  • of pink that was a stripe across the medics' vests.

  • And we could see the pink glowing in this position

  • here, and also with several of the other medics

  • in that frame.

  • And so what you're gradually seeing

  • is that a bullet ripped through this crowd

  • and through an area which was dense

  • with medics in white coats.

  • And the question was, was that a justified or a

  • responsible shot to take?

  • And with our 3D model because it was so high definition,

  • we were able to put the cameras into the space,

  • and trace the cameras through the model

  • through months of meticulous work

  • really, and identify the exact location of the key people

  • in the frame.

  • And doing that repeatedly from multiple angles

  • and correcting it, we ended up with a 3D model

  • of the space, which allowed us, essentially,

  • to freeze that moment in time and examine it in space.

  • And because we know that there was just one

  • bullet at that moment and that it hit Rouzan,

  • and it hit Rami, and we know their positions,

  • we can trace it back to the source, which was three

  • snipers who took up position.

  • And we actually see them taking up

  • position in the footage of that day on that sand berm

  • just a few minutes beforehand.

  • And we know the minute that it happened,

  • and so when we had questions for the relevant authorities,

  • we had very technical detail about what happened and could

  • answer their questions.

  • Anyway, just an example of that

  • would not have been possible--

  • I'll end that presentation there now--

  • but that would not have been possible without the sources

  • on the ground who had documented that and provided

  • that raw footage directly from their devices for us

  • by sending it electronically, but also

  • when we went on the ground in Gaza and met them.

  • And Iyad, one of our colleagues in Gaza,

  • did a great job on that.

  • We're joined now by Whitney Hurst.

  • Do you want to introduce yourself?"

  • "Hi, I'm Whitney Hurst.

  • I'm a senior producer and I work

  • on news and visual investigations sometimes."

  • "Whitney has been intimately involved in the series

  • that we did on Russian attacks on civilians and hospitals

  • in Syria over the last while, but also the Nigeria

  • investigation and some other ones."

  • "Yemen."

  • "Yemen, of course."

  • "India."

  • "India.

  • We have a question here about South Asia

  • and doing more stories from that region.

  • Do you guys want to talk about that?"

  • "Yeah, I mean, I briefly mentioned this,

  • and Whitney chime in too, but we did one investigation--

  • Whitney and I-- already that was

  • looking at what happened at Jamia Millia University

  • during the citizenship bill protests,

  • looking at how the police responded and whether or not

  • that was an overt use of force.

  • And we're still continuing to follow up

  • on the story in India.

  • I don't know if you want to speak to some of the things

  • we've been thinking about."

  • "Yeah, I mean, I think one of the interesting things,

  • like what Christoph has mentioned this,

  • but learning from a lot of the local journalists.

  • I think India, obviously, has a very saturated media

  • market.

  • And it's been very impressive to watch

  • the local Indian outlets that are doing a lot of sort

  • of visual investigations and in fact, sometimes

  • getting to it just a little bit quicker than we have.

  • So we've been following this story closely.

  • There's lots that we want to do.

  • And we're following the protests and are working with

  • a 'New York Times' journalist, [? Corinne, ?] who's been

  • great.

  • And we are looking into a bunch of things.

  • I don't know if we can reveal anything yet,

  • but we definitely want to continue

  • to follow that story.

  • It's a big one and an important story."

  • "Another question.

  • David from Kentucky saying, in that region,

  • can you cover the illegal sand mining in Cambodia?

  • Thanks for the tip, David, and keep the tips coming, folks.

  • Christiaan, do you want to talk about how we might go

  • about something like that."

  • "I think he meant me."

  • "Or Christoph, sorry."

  • "It happens."

  • "Too many Chris's."

  • "For the viewers at home, Christoph, Christiaan."

  • "And this happens like five times a day here.

  • So I think my general comment first

  • is that if you follow our work,

  • you will notice we do a lot of armed conflict stories

  • and also protest stories, but the team would love

  • to expand our work, and that includes

  • extractive industries, which I think is a really, really

  • important topic in how extractive industries impacts

  • the environment and communities.

  • I am very interested in that because I work

  • a lot with satellite images.

  • And satellite images lend themselves really well

  • to do this sort of work.

  • On this specific topic on Cambodia,

  • I've actually worked on that a few years ago.

  • I did a little bit of work on that

  • with Amnesty International.

  • And there has been a lot of reporting

  • by human rights groups, by local journalists,

  • and by others.

  • So I think there is still a story there.

  • It's probably a question of what

  • could be a very current angle on this story.

  • So if there are ideas to do this story in 2020,

  • we obviously would love to hear that."

  • "A question about one of the tools that we use

  • and our newsgathering.

  • So a big part of this is the ability

  • to turn over rocks on the open web

  • and to find the clues that you want.

  • So the question is from--

  • sorry, the document is saved in there--

  • are there any alternatives to SAM Desk--

  • so that's one of the tools that we use, S-A-M Desk--

  • for aggregating and monitoring live breaking events,

  • trends, Liveuamap, maybe?

  • This is from Cameron on YouTube.

  • Thanks, Cameron.

  • I'm going to turn to Christiaan and to Haley

  • on that.

  • Christiaan, do you want to go?"

  • "Yeah, maybe Haley can start.

  • You have worked more with SAM Desk than I do, I think."

  • "Yeah, I mean, SAM Desk is great.

  • Basically, it's a platform that

  • allows you to aggregate content as you're finding it.

  • You can tag it.

  • You can label it and you can share it with other people

  • while you're working on it.

  • SAM Desk, if I'm not mistaken, is a paid service."

  • "It's paid-for too, yeah."

  • "And of course, this is something

  • that we preach all the time, but this is work

  • that you can do without paying for anything.

  • I didn't work with SAM Desk before I came here.

  • Liveuamap is great because it's collaborative

  • and they aggregate a lot of the social media

  • content that's out there, especially

  • around specific regions.

  • And they often try to pinpoint it on a map as well.

  • Honestly, just bookmarking things on Twitter

  • is how I used to do this or just

  • throwing links into a Google Doc,

  • and then using the Internet Archive to archive them

  • in case they get taken down.

  • I think a lot of the tools used for open source

  • are least common denominator in the sense

  • that anyone can access them, so don't

  • think you have to pay a lot of money for SAM Desk

  • to do this work.

  • I think a lot of times what we do

  • is a Google Doc collaborative.

  • We're all throwing in links at the same time.

  • We're all commenting at the same time.

  • And sometimes, that's even faster and it's a free tool.

  • So I don't know if Christiaan has anything to add to it."

  • "No, I think that covers it pretty well, yeah."

  • "I think for monitoring breaking news,

  • I've worked a lot in breaking news previously when I was

  • at Storyful and also here at the 'Times.'

  • And just a simple, like, Twitter list.

  • Like anytime when coronavirus started

  • being an important topic, I made a Twitter list for this.

  • Hong Kong, I follow an amazing Twitter list

  • by Laurel Chor, a Hong Kong journalist.

  • And whenever there's something happening in Hong Kong,

  • I tune in her Twitter list to see what's happening.

  • So for monitoring, of course--

  • once you are already working on something,

  • building a Google Doc or just, like, bookmarking things.

  • But if you are monitoring breaking news,

  • I find Twitter lists the best and most simple tool."

  • "O.K., sorry, just trying to figure out

  • another good question that follows on from that.

  • How can we investigate journalism

  • and help face the wave of misinformation

  • we see in the contemporary Western world?

  • This is from Andre on YouTube.

  • Any takers for that?"

  • "Big question."

  • "Pretty existential question in terms of AI."

  • "It comes back to sort of what I said at the beginning.

  • You know, you just have to question everything.

  • And that's especially important I

  • think with visuals.

  • Errol Morris wrote a really great book.

  • It's titled 'Believing Is Seeing.'

  • So it sort of reverses the standard saying

  • of seeing is believing.

  • So once you see a visual, it's very easy

  • to fall into a trap.

  • It's like, I'm expecting something very specific

  • to happen in country X and you see a visual that

  • matches that expectation.

  • It's too simple to believe it and be very uncritical

  • about it, right?

  • And that's sort of like at the core of misinformation.

  • Everything you see that's being put out

  • by governments or by private entities,

  • you have to question it.

  • And don't rely just on one source.

  • So if you see a piece of information,

  • do your own research what else is out there,

  • maybe a different viewpoint.

  • What's the context of this piece of information?

  • Is this maybe a story that has been already put out there

  • and has been debunked already and it's just

  • a conspiracy theory that's being recycled because that

  • happens a lot, I think.

  • So I think what you want to do as investigative journalist,

  • you use the principles of good journalism

  • and of investigative journalism,

  • and you project it onto a topic like misinformation.

  • I think that's the key thing.

  • So be critical and review every single piece

  • of information that you see, no matter if it's official

  • or if it's a statement."

  • "A question from Michael from Chicago.

  • What editing tools do you use?

  • Barbara is the only editor among us.

  • We work with several other editors on the video team--

  • Caroline Kim, Natalie Reneau, and Dimitri Khavin,

  • and many others.

  • But do you want to give it a go?"

  • "Just simple Adobe Premiere for editing.

  • And I don't do graphics, but our graphic designers

  • use After Effects.

  • That's it."

  • "Yeah, very straightforward.

  • And Cinema 4G and some of these other tools

  • as well allow us to sort of manipulate

  • media and that can be useful.

  • Adobe Audition, as well.

  • I remember using that for trying

  • to make sense of the Las Vegas shooting

  • and reconstruct that timeline.

  • And it was the audio signature of every burst of fire,

  • as awful as that was, was distinct.

  • You could see a spike in the audio files for every crack

  • of the bullet.

  • And with multiple video files, you

  • could line those bursts of fire

  • up and rebuild the entire sequence of events,

  • and then examine it from multiple different angles

  • because you had overlapping videos taken

  • at different places.

  • Horrible, horrible event, but the technical examination

  • of the audio files on Audition was the key there

  • to unlocking how all of that footage came together."

  • "Which is something that you can do in Premiere as well.

  • It's just Audition can be a bit more specific,

  • but you can also do it in Premiere."

  • "In Audition, a little tool in Audition--

  • maybe you can do in Premiere as well-- is that you could

  • mark every crack and you could export

  • that in each of the videos, so to get, say,

  • like one of the things that we reported

  • was a bullet count from those videos.

  • And because depending on the position of the camera,

  • for instance, it might pick up a ricochet or something

  • like that, we needed to do it with multiple videos.

  • And what you could do is you could

  • mark in Audition every spike, and then export all of those

  • into an Excel spreadsheet.

  • And like, one video might have 83 spikes,

  • another one might have 85, and so

  • like it's approximately in around the 84 mark

  • or whatever.

  • Morgan on YouTube-- what are your thoughts on Bellingcat

  • and how did you think you differ?

  • Christiaan--"

  • "Am I the right person to ask?

  • [INAUDIBLE]

  • "Christiaan worked at Bellingcat

  • before he came here."

  • "Yeah.

  • No, I think obviously, there's a lot of overlap.

  • We are heavily reliant on open-source investigation.

  • And obviously, that's to the core of what Bellingcat does.

  • I think maybe two of the main differences I personally

  • have experience is that Bellingcat is really

  • focused on open sources.

  • And we do that here too, but we combine it

  • with traditional ways of reporting.

  • And open-source investigation can reveal a lot,

  • but in certain instances, it only is a lead.

  • And it leads you somewhere, but you

  • will need to go on the ground, for example,

  • in the case of Gaza, or you will

  • need to talk to a source that may have more information.

  • Now, I think that's one of the main differences.

  • The second main difference I think

  • is the way we tell the story.

  • So that's similar to what Christoph earlier

  • said about working with a human rights

  • organization like Amnesty International,

  • where you are basically just putting out

  • every little detail that you can find.

  • Anything with Bellingcat is also, like,

  • explaining every detail in writing.

  • Now, this results in really long reports.

  • And obviously, what we do here is really thinking about,

  • O.K., how can we tell this story to a bigger audience?

  • What are the key things in this investigation?

  • And for me personally, that's really nice to experience.

  • Like I said earlier in the introduction,

  • like I don't consider myself a good writer,

  • but it is really nice to learn,

  • O.K., if we did this really detailed investigation,

  • we zoomed in to like the smallest details

  • we could find, but how do we zoom out again and use

  • some of those details to tell this way bigger story?

  • And that's really exciting.

  • But as Malachy mentioned, in some investigations,

  • there's still overlap, right?

  • We compare notes, have a shout out to each other, and so on.

  • But I'm interested to hear from the rest

  • of the team what the team thinks if there's anything."

  • "Well, Bellingcat, they're brilliant.

  • Eliot and the crew, they're excellent.

  • And you know, we've collaborated on a number

  • of different stories.

  • And you know, they've informed us

  • and you know them very well and stuff.

  • They can respond much more quickly, I think,

  • than we can typically to events and to stories.

  • And so I mean, they're great."

  • "Oh, I'm sorry.

  • Can I do one more point?

  • Because I now remember one third big thing for me

  • is indeed, we will also take a lot of time

  • to get something out usually, while also when

  • we have another revelation, like a big revelation,

  • we may decide 9 out of 10 stories

  • or maybe 95 out of 100 things we're investigating

  • may not end up as a publication.

  • And I think with Bellingcat, it's indeed

  • like, hey, we don't have any revelation,

  • but we want to investigate this.

  • This is what we found.

  • We still don't know everything,

  • but here is all there is.

  • Let's give it to the community and see

  • what can be done with it.

  • And that's, I think, of course,

  • different with a major publication like

  • the 'New York Times,' where we want to bring a story that

  • has an end to it as well."

  • "I think one thing as well about the Bellingcat posts

  • and stories are that you can learn

  • a lot from the technical--

  • they talk about the reporting in there.

  • And so as case studies for anybody

  • who's interested in this stuff, that's great.

  • We try to be transparent and educational almost in stories

  • that we do too, but I think there's

  • so much technical detail in there

  • that it can be useful for that as well.

  • PepeJpeg on YouTube-- if you had the opportunity

  • to redo any of your investigations, what cases

  • would you reinvestigate and how would

  • you do it differently?"

  • "Cool."

  • "That's a good question."

  • "I mean, you've seen several of the investigations.

  • Do you want to talk about that?"

  • "Pepe with the tough question.

  • I hope this isn't a cop-out because I

  • don't think I would redo any of the investigations

  • we worked on.

  • Hopefully, my editor agrees with that.

  • But I think all of us--

  • I think I can speak for all of us especially

  • that worked on the Syria Idlib investigations

  • that, you know, we just wanted to do more.

  • I mean, especially in the last month,

  • we've seen 800,000 people flee.

  • Some really horrific things are happening there.

  • And a lot of people have stopped

  • paying attention to Syria.

  • And I know we all feel really passionate about it

  • and want to just do more.

  • And there's like a hunger to just investigate

  • every single horrific thing that happens.

  • And so I think the work that we've done

  • has been incredible, and really moved the story along,

  • and brought about accountability, but you know,

  • I think we would all just like to do one a day if we could.

  • But I don't think I would redo any of the ones

  • that we've done because I think they're stellar work."

  • "Yeah, I think one that we did update, which

  • is difficult to do sometimes, was the Iran crash

  • one because we put out a reconstruction of the seven

  • minutes of that flight with everything that we knew.

  • And it's interesting, like I mean,

  • we suspected that there were two missiles that had hit it,

  • but we just couldn't confirm it.

  • We suspected that because, you know,

  • we had Evan talk to the source who uploaded the video of one

  • missile strike.

  • And of course, the question that we

  • had for him is why were you filming it at that time?

  • And he said, oh, I heard an explosion

  • about a half a minute before that,

  • so I just started filming and it sounded weird.

  • And we knew from the flight path,

  • and the speed of the plane, and from that video

  • where it was hit.

  • And that was probably around 25 seconds

  • approximately away from where the last transponder was hit.

  • And so the theory was, well, the first explosion

  • that he's talking about might have

  • taken out the transponder.

  • And our sources in Washington were also getting information

  • from their intel sources that there were two infrared blips

  • picked up in Iran and that two missiles were

  • launched in that minute.

  • And so we had that, you know, sort

  • of human intel information.

  • And then there was also the CCTV

  • that showed the missile being launched--

  • what ended up being the second missile.

  • And in that CCTV, you could also

  • see that the car alarms in certain cars

  • were already flashing.

  • And so the question was well, what put those off?

  • Probably, a first explosion because the second one

  • definitely put more of the cars off as well.

  • And so although we had all of this information,

  • we didn't put it into the first version of the story.

  • And then, you know, Giancarlo, who's

  • one of the Bellingcat crew, was the first to share

  • video of two missiles being launched.

  • And that was an incredible open crowdsourcing effort

  • to try to verify that video.

  • And Evan, who was here earlier on, through Logan Mitchell,

  • one of the people that we work with on a freelance basis,

  • were able to confirm the location of that,

  • and in fact, that it showed the two missiles.

  • And so we went back and updated that video,

  • and we have a more complete picture now of it.

  • You can watch that on YouTube.

  • One last closing question.

  • I suppose it's the best one.

  • How can people submit tips?

  • What's the best way to reach out to you?

  • What piece of advice do you have

  • for young journalists wanting to start

  • open-source investigations?

  • So let's start with how you can submit tips

  • and how you can reach out to us.

  • Christoph?"

  • "So there are various ways.

  • So we all have Twitter.

  • We're very active on Twitter, so that is a great way

  • to reach out to us personally.

  • We love to communicate on Twitter, so half of our day

  • is hanging out on Twitter and the other half

  • is Google Earth.

  • So please reach out to us there.

  • We have also set up official ways to reach out to us.

  • So the 'New York Times' in general has a tip line that

  • you can find on the website, where you can also submit

  • in a very secure way, very specific tips through Signal,

  • WhatsApp, email, and I think there's a secure box as well

  • where you can drop information as well.

  • So there really are various ways.

  • We also have an email address, as far as I know."

  • "Nytimes.com/tips is where you can find all of that."

  • "/tips."

  • "Nytimes.com/tips-- sorry, slash tips--

  • is where you can find all of that.

  • What piece of advice do you have

  • for young journalists wanting to start

  • open-source investigations?"

  • "That's an easy one."

  • "I mean, find something you are passionate about

  • and just try to find out as much as you can.

  • It can be the Iran crash, for example.

  • And before you know, you may have a Twitter account,

  • and you do find something that is interesting,

  • and you just tweet it out, or you

  • tag some other journalist, or people at Bellingcat,

  • or Storyful, whatever.

  • I think that's a real good way.

  • Like be passionate about it, right?

  • Like find something you're really interested in.

  • And it's almost like a puzzle.

  • I remember when we were doing the Iran crash story,

  • some of the colleagues here in the video department

  • were like, wow, I mean, the topic is so horrific,

  • but we want to get to the facts.

  • We want to know what happened.

  • But the process almost feels like a puzzle, like memory

  • or spot the differences.

  • There's a great account on Twitter called quiztime,

  • where people upload every day, a photo or an audio file.

  • And that account is meant to introduce people

  • to open-source investigations and to see in a fun way.

  • These are not like horrific, potential crimes that

  • are happening, but just someone's holiday picture

  • and you need to find out where is that photo taken.

  • And I think what comes to the core to that

  • as well speaking for me personally,

  • but I think also for everyone here

  • and we haven't really talked about it is

  • that this is really teamwork.

  • You will see for all the stories we do,

  • there's loads of people being involved.

  • I don't think any of the stuff we're doing here

  • can be done alone.

  • And that's us, as a team, but it's also you

  • as a wider community on YouTube, on Twitter.

  • And I think that's something to keep in mind when

  • you want to get started.

  • Like hey, reach out for people and help on Twitter,

  • for example.

  • And yeah, have fun with doing this, I would say."

  • "A plug for the work, it's on youtube.com/nytimes.

  • There's a playlist of all of the visual investigations.

  • You can subscribe to that, subscribe to the channel.

  • We're always in the comments answering

  • questions about specific investigations.

  • And we'll be in the comments answering any questions

  • that you have arising from this video, which

  • will stay up on the YouTube account as well.

  • So thanks for tuning in.

  • Thanks for the questions and send us your tips."

"Good morning.

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