As part of the Dutch Media Week, BENEDMO organised a Masterclass Online Verification for students at Beeld & Geluid The Hague on October 4th. During this masterclass, students interactively learned about various ways in which you can defy disinformation. Different practical tools were introduced to show how incorrect and manipulated information can be detected. By means of short presentations & interactive quizzes, given by trainers from the Bellingcat, Nieuwscheckers and Beeld & Geluid, the students learned about practical Googling, image verification and geolocation in an interactive way.

The master class was given by three experts working at partner organisations of BENEDMO:

• Luuk Ex: journalist and data researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Sound & Vision. Luuk provided the student with a short presentation about his recent investigation on the use of the word “fake news” on the social platform TikTok.
• Annique Mossou: trainer and researcher for Bellingcat, an independent international collective of researchers and citizen journalists using open sources and social media to research various topics on conflict, crime and human rights violations. Annique taught the students some tips & tricks about Google searching. She also showed them the world of geolocation & tested their geolocation skills by means of an interactive quiz!
• Leon Pauw: fact checker for Nieuwscheckers, a fact checking initiative of the Journalism and New Media programme at Leiden University, whose mission is to help the public appreciate (online) news and information. Leon taught the students all the ins & outs of reverse image- & videosearch.

The aim was to give students an understanding of disinformation in their own lives and to let them use some concrete verification techniques. In addition, they also learned about professional applications to counter the spread of disinformation.