Uncovering Truth in the Digital Age: Colvin Lecture Addresses Open-Source Journalism

Journalists play a critical role in uncovering truths and exposing disinformation. At the February 26 Marie Colvin Distinguished Lecture, Rhona Tarrant, executive editor of CBS News Confirmed, discussed the importance of today’s journalists as well as the unique challenges of reporting remotely in a digital world. 

In a dynamic presentation titled “The New Battlefield: Open Source Investigations into Conflict and Disinformation,” Tarrant examined the rising prominence of open-source verification in conflict reporting. The event took place in the Charles B. Wang Center Theatre and was hosted by the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting at Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism (SoCJ). 

Open-source investigators use internet tools like satellite imaging and social media verification to uncover some of the biggest stories of our time. They allow reporters to peer into closed societies and conflict zones and expose disinformation, human rights abuses and war crimes. It’s imperative that today’s journalists master this increasingly vital way to establish the truth. 

Tarrant discussed her career transition from broadcast journalism to open-source journalism, and spoke about the importance of open-source journalism in complementing traditional reporting, especially in conflict zones. She also offered a first-hand glimpse into the verification process of today’s newsrooms. 

“When I got out of college, I knew I wanted to get into broadcast journalism,” said Tarrant, a native of Ireland who worked in radio and television. “I loved storytelling. But I got to a point in my career where a lot of things began to happen on social media, and I just wasn’t learning those skills in the newsroom that I was in at the time. So I made the leap.”

Tarrant said open-source journalism isn’t just about verification, but also about understanding counter-narratives and how those play out online. 

“There are sophisticated groups who push out counter-narratives, and also companies that do it for-profit,” she said. “Now we’re seeing people better understand the role of social media and shaping the public narratives, because that’s where people are getting their news. It’s particularly important now because it’s touching every part of journalism. Also, AI has brought with it a sort of paranoia about people not being able to believe what they see.”

Tarrant stressed that open-source journalism isn’t meant to replace journalists on the ground. “That work is so vital, and this will never replace it,” she said. “The whole idea is that it can help journalists on the ground, and it can help newsrooms, and it’s a new layer of reporting that can supplement and help that work.” 

Tarrant described three events that helped shape her approach to her journalism. The first was the Arab Spring in 2010-11, a series of anti-government protests that took place while she was in college. She said it was one of the first events where she realized that social media was changing the game, both for how news was breaking online, and also how newsrooms were covering it.

Platforms like YouTube and Facebook, which were new at the time, were being used by activists and protesters to organize, share videos, connect with each other, and document what was happening on the ground. “This sounds so basic now, but it was really incredible at the time, and it also presented a new challenge for newsrooms,” she said. “How do I know where this is actually from? How do I know how to verify this?” 

The second, she said, was the weaponization of the medium by ISIS. “The most obvious one being when they were entering Northern Iraq in 2014, they got a hashtag trending on Twitter,” Tarrant said. “They figured out how to produce very slick videos and post them online to spread fear and propaganda. But it was also hard to see what was actually happening versus what was the illusion. That was a challenge for newsrooms.” 

The third was the Douma chemical attack in Syria in 2018, which killed more than 40 people. “Immediately after it happened, we had sources on the ground in Syria that we knew were local activists. We verified all these videos. We knew it was in Douma. We knew it was very likely a chemical attack.”

But very early on, a counter-narrative started spreading.

“It was all the same things we hear today — it was staged, it’s fake, these were actors,” she said. “It was very sophisticated, and it was very loud, and that was one of the first times in my career that I realized how much our work was being weaponized. While we were using these videos and sending them out to newsrooms, making sure this was being covered accurately, those same videos were being used at the same time by people who were trying to spread disinformation.” 

Tarrant then took attendees through the grueling and intense verification process, using an example of a hospital bombing in Ukraine. She described step-by-step how her team verifies location, date, and sources, highlighting the importance of on-the-ground reporting as well as online tools like Google maps, Google Translate, reverse image searches, and news aggregators.

In the Q&A session that followed, a student asked Tarrant to comment on the idea that journalism is a dying art, and asked what advice she would offer to journalism students. 

“It’s always been difficult to get into journalism,” she said. “When I was in college, the bottom fell out of the newspaper business in Ireland. You could not get a job as a journalist. So it can feel like you’re coming in at the worst time.” 

But, she said, the massive appetite for context, storytelling, and reflecting back at communities will always bring with it opportunity, and that there will always be an audience for deep reporting. “Anybody I know who’s successful in journalism has been down a long and winding road,” she said. “But there are still opportunities out there. You have to really love it. And if you still want to do it, you will be able to do journalism and to do it well. But it’s a tough industry.” 

Sarah Baxter, director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting, described the lecture as “an eye-opening window into the future.”

“Truth has never been more important than it is now, with so much disinformation infecting everything that we see,” said Baxter. “Rhona’s job is important, but it’s also important for all our students and for everyone to really learn about how to counter disinformation effectively. And, as ever with journalism, it’s about the research. Get out there, look at the evidence. That’s what we do every day, whether we’re in the field or watching things in the internet space.” 

— Robert Emproto