First Draft News

First Draft News First Draft News was an organization founded in 2015 focusing on verification, reporting practices, and combating disinformation across digital media platforms. It engaged with newsrooms, technology companies, academic institutions, and civil society actors to develop tools, training, and research on verification methods and the ethical use of online content. The organization became notable for rapid-response verification during crises, producing handbooks and editorial guidance adopted by a range of outlets, platforms, and international organizations.

History

Founded in 2015 amid heightened attention to the 2014 Crimea crisis, the rise of ISIS, and contested narratives around the 2016 United States presidential election, First Draft News emerged as a response to challenges posed by viral content on platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Vimeo. Its founders brought together backgrounds from Harvard University, digital forensics labs, and newsroom verification teams that had worked on events like the Syrian Civil War and the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Early initiatives included investigator networks that collaborated with news outlets covering the Paris attacks (2015), the European migrant crisis, and high-profile incidents like the Syria chemical attack allegations. Over time, the organization expanded training in verification techniques used by teams reporting on the Iraqi Civil War, the Arab Spring, and elections in countries such as Brazil and India.

Mission and Activities

The mission emphasized improving reporting standards through practical resources, workshops, and research linking practitioners at outlets such as The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Associated Press, and Reuters with academics from institutions like University of Oxford, Columbia University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Activities included producing verification guides for journalists working on incidents similar to the Brussels bombings (2016), publishing case studies of visual forensics used during the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 investigation, and hosting training that referenced tools developed by teams at Bellingcat, First Look Media, and university labs such as the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The organization promoted methods for geolocation, chronolocation, and metadata analysis applicable to multimedia shared during events like the Ferguson unrest, the Hong Kong protests, and natural disasters such as the Hurricane Maria response.

Partnerships and Collaborations

First Draft collaborated with technology companies and foundations including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Knight Foundation, and Open Society Foundations to deliver verification workshops and research projects. It worked with investigative collectives like Bellingcat and academic partners including Oxford Internet Institute, Harvard Kennedy School, and King's College London to advance standards for assessing user-generated content during crises such as the Nepal earthquake (2015) and the Zika virus epidemic. The organization engaged with media programs at outlets like NPR, Al Jazeera, and Le Monde to implement newsroom verification protocols and partnered with fact-checking networks such as the International Fact-Checking Network to coordinate responses during election cycles in nations including Nigeria, Mexico, and France.

Notable Investigations and Impact

First Draft contributed to public-facing verification during incidents that generated viral multimedia, including circulation of footage related to the Gaza–Israel conflict, the Downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and scenes from the Bataclan attacks. Its rapid-response verification units and handbooks influenced newsroom practices used in coverage by organizations like The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, and Der Spiegel. Collaborative projects informed platform policy discussions around synthetic media and deepfakes that drew attention from researchers at Stanford University, New York University, and policymakers in institutions such as the European Commission and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The outputs shaped training curricula for journalists covering crises comparable to the Syria refugee crisis and public health emergencies analogous to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organization and Funding

Governance and staffing combined practitioners from newsrooms, academic researchers, and technologists with advisory links to think tanks like Chatham House and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Funding sources included grants and partnerships from foundations and corporations such as the Knight Foundation, Google News Initiative, Facebook Journalism Project, and philanthropic organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Collaborative grants supported projects with universities including Boston University and University College London, while workshops and training were delivered in partnership with media organizations including Financial Times and The Atlantic. The organization’s archival materials, training curricula, and case studies have been referenced in academic literature produced by centers such as the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

Category:Journalism organizations