Misinformation can spread like wildfire. Within minutes of an event, there’s a common expectation that videos from those on-the-ground will show up on social media.
Graphics reporters, video teams and photography teams often are relied upon to gather open-source videos and images to check for authenticity. But what else can be gained from these sources?
Can we dive deeper to determine what happened and in what sequence? What REALLY happened? HOW did it happen?
This event has a maximum attendance of 125. Registration closes Oct. 17, 2022.
In 2020, The Washington Post announced the creation of a Visual Forensics Team, an investigative unit who’s reporting was based primarily on open-source visuals from major news events. This award-winning team uses cutting-edge technologies to locate, verify and analyze open source videos to provide their readers with a close examination of how key moments unfolded.
Two members of this team, Sarah Cahlan and Atthar Mirza, will discuss the power of visual forensics in visual journalism at SND’s Designing Success 1-day workshop on Oct 22, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Their session:
Visual Forensics: How open source videos lead to powerful investigations
Most, if not all, significant breaking news events are now captured on bystanders’ phones. In the aftermath of the Astroworld tragedy, The Washington Post’s Visual Forensics team immediately got to work gathering concertgoers’ cell phone videos of what happened. We used open source video, witness testimony, a crowd density analysis and 3D model to examine how these unexpected deaths occurred. The result was a compelling and troubling report that revealed that the dead were packed into one overcrowded quadrant where they were crushed to death.
Sarah Cahlan is an award-winning video reporter and documentary filmmaker who founded the Washington Post’s Visual Forensics team, developing the style and tone of the pioneering work. She adds clarity, creativity, and vision to stories that reveal new findings, such as the location of the victims at the Astroworld festival, and provides further context to complex events. Her projects span format, coverage areas, and languages and includes pieces about the clearing of Lafayette Square, which won an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, and the January 6 Capitol insurrection, which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize Public Service medal. She joined the Post in 2019 as a video editor for the Fact Checker where she produced ambitious video fact checks, stylized animated series, and the Webby award-winning guide to manipulated video. Prior to her time at the Post she directed a BAFTA student shortlisted documentary at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, edited videos as an NAHJ fellow at NBC News, and produced archival-driven documentaries at an award-winning production company in New York City.
Atthar Mirza is an award-winning graphics reporter working with the Visual Forensics team at The Washington Post, specializing in digital modeling, mapping, data visualization and interactive storytelling. As a founding member of the Visual Forensics team, he conceptualized the design, graphics and visual footprint for the work. His design and digital visualization experience combined with an ability to analyze complex datasets greatly expanded the team’s toolbox. Mirza mapped protester movements in former president Trump’s crackdown on Lafayette Square, which won an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award, and mapped rioters’ movements during the January 6 Capitol insurrection, a story that was part of the Post’s Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He started at The Post as an animator on the Fact Checker’s video team where he created a style guide, coded templates, made bespoke animations, as well as produced a heavily animated series on how misinformation online can have real-world impacts. He has previously worked as a video journalist at The Wall Street Journal and an animator at The Atlantic, and holds a degree in Architecture and Design Thinking from the University of Virginia.
Space is limited to 125 attendees for this event.