How Do We Make Our News?

Some of our sources are private, including people in affected areas which may be putting themselves at risk talking to us. But there are a lot we can talk about. A large majority of our sources come from scouring social media, message boards, and official websites. With everyone owning a smartphone in the modern day, people are posting what is happening in the world around them in near-real time. Allowing us a valuable insight into what happens in the world. If we find a social media source that isn't pre-verified, such as a government organization, we mark note what they are posting and when. We use our already verified sources to ensure that the information is correct. After so much time, a source can be deemed as reliable in it's information. As such, we then begin to use it within our reporting which is then viewed by you!

Misinformation is something we have talked rather extensively about. The first thing to know when attempting to avoid misinformation is that you must keep an open mind. Misinformation is usually given in two ways: intentionally or unintentionally. You must address both but do so in a different way.

1) Intentional misinformation usually occurs by government or individuals wishing to portray a narrative. Either to bolster support, incite a beneficial reaction from the viewers, or to undercut another government or individual's narrative. Governments in conflict or who see each other as adversaries are in what is best described as an "information war", meaning that both are withholding information, selectively releasing information, inflating/deflating statistics, etc. As long as your cognoscente of this fact, and you ask yourself: "what is the narrative", you will be able to rather easily identify. In the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war, we purposefully do not report on Russian losses for this purpose and ensure that we report on Ukrainian war crimes when we know or can reasonably suspect they have occurred. Simply because few sources are willing to.

2) Unintentional misinformation usually occurs when in individual misreports something (such as giving an incorrect location) or shares information that was already intentional or unintentional information. Usually through social media. Unintentional misinformation occurs for a number of reasons. Misreporting because the initial reporter is under duress or a stressful situation, is in harm's way, or is in shock. As well as just general confusion or issues remembering where it took place. Misinformation usually is meant to pull on someone emotionally, meaning it gets widely shared, incorrect or not. We use official sources as well as in-house experts and geolocation in order to prevent something. If we cannot reasonably say that a situation occurred in the reported location. We expand the scope: we cannot say it happened in this city, BUT we can say it happened in this region. This means we can still report on the issue, while ensuring we are not misrepresenting.

If you come across misinformation and intend to report it. You need to clearly state what it is, and that it is misinformation. Should we as an organization misinform our viewers on something. We are obligated to make an immediate correction once the discrepancy has been identified. As such, you'll hear us make corrections when live, as well as making official corrections on our discord to ensure that everyone knows we made a mistake. We are human, we are "amateur journalists", and as such we make mistakes. We just ask you to keep an open mind with anything being said by anyone.

Technical experts help us verify and vet sources. They can advise us on their field of expertise and assist us in our research. Meaning we can not only verify the sources and report what is happening but is allows us to explain the usually very complicated situations happening globally on a level that the average viewer can understand. If you have this expertise, we are constantly looking for assistance to expand our "knowledge bank". Please let us know!