With more than 1.5 billion people around the world using WhatsApp on a monthly basis it has fast become a resource of information and news for many. As the platform grows there have been challenges bu...
Fergus Bell
Fergus Bell is an experienced journalist, editor and leading expert in digital newsgathering and the verification of user-generated content. He is also the founder of news consultancy Dig Deeper Media.
Fergus has worked across the business and editorial sides of the news industry, previously heading up newsroom partnerships and innovation for digital newsgathering start-up, SAM Desk, and before that as International Social Media and UGC Editor for the Associated Press.
Fergus is a prominent advocate for higher industry standards relating to the ethical uses of UGC and social media. In October 2013 he co-founded a committee for the Online News Association that has brought together leaders in the journalism community to explore the ethics and standards of UGC and digital newsgathering for the news industry. He is also founding member of the First Draft News coalition of UGC experts supported by the Google News Lab. Fergus is a graduate of the University of Leeds.
Events IJF 2019
The role of social newsgathering in newsrooms has become more ethically complex than ever in recent months, as those who seek to disrupt disinformation and propaganda campaigns must adapt to an enemy ...
Trust in media and the fight against misinformation is a global problem that requires a global solution; it can never be solved within one region alone, or just by the richest newsrooms. Across the...
This session will help equip your newsroom with the knowledge and workflows that will allow you to work with speed and accuracy from the first tweet to publishing the story on your platform. We’ll f...
Electionland was a unique collaborative project to track and cover voting problems during the 2016 US elections across the whole country and in real-time. It was also the largest social newsgathering ...
In the last year, we’ve seen a number of breaking news events where content posted by eyewitnesses to social media has become a story in its own right. Whether that’s the hounding of students ca...
In this workshop, participants will learn how to set up systems that allow you to monitor social media effectively so you will be the first to find out when news breaks. Learn how to find eyewitness...
How are news media investing in and fostering innovation? Does this work better when launching a new start up, such as Ze.tt from the Zeit Online publisher, or creating a separate unit within the p...
We all need to be the first to run social and user-generated content when breaking news happens. That is the nature of a competitive news business. But what about asking for permission, or even wait...
As news events break, newsrooms need the ability to contextualize and verify reports, photos and videos from social media channels. We’ll discuss some simple tools to help journalists verify infor...
The Online News Association recently formed a working group of journalists who deal with user-generated content to discuss the ethics and standards of digital and social newsgathering. The first ste...
Amateur footage: the increasing reliance on user generated content in news output
News outlets are using more and more footage filmed by eyewitnesses at breaking news events. With the proliferation of mobile phones with high quality cameras and easy access to the social web, citi...
