What You'll Learn
Program Modules
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Module 1: Visual Verification
Techniques for authenticating photos and videos, including reverse image search strategies, metadata examination, and shadow analysis. Practice with manipulated images from actual misinformation campaigns.
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Module 2: Social Network Analysis
Map information spread patterns, identify bot accounts, and trace coordinated campaigns. Learn to use network analysis tools and interpret the data they generate.
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Module 3: AI-Generated Content Detection
Spot synthetic media including deepfakes, AI-written text, and generated images. Understanding how these technologies work helps you recognize their artifacts.
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Module 4: Documentation Methods
Create bulletproof records of your verification process using screenshots, archives, and timestamped evidence. Legal and ethical considerations for misinformation reporting.
Each module includes weekly verification challenges using current examples from social media and news sites.
Program Details
Deepfakes, coordinated inauthentic behavior, manipulated screenshots—digital misinformation has moved beyond simple fact-checking. This program teaches the investigative techniques you need when someone sends you a viral video or a suspicious document.
We start with verification fundamentals: reverse image search, metadata analysis, geolocation techniques. Then we move into detecting AI-generated content, analyzing bot networks, and tracing how false narratives spread across platforms. You'll use the same tools professional fact-checkers rely on, working with actual examples of misinformation from recent news cycles.
Technical Skills Covered
The program includes hands-on training with InVID, FotoForensics, CrowdTangle, and other open-source investigation tools. You'll learn to spot inconsistencies in lighting and shadows that reveal photo manipulation, identify synthetic faces generated by AI, and map coordination patterns in social media activity.
We also cover interviewing techniques specific to misinformation—how to talk to people sharing false content without alienating them, and how to gather information about where they first encountered it. The final weeks focus on documenting your findings in ways that hold up to editorial scrutiny and potential legal challenges.