Meedan

Last updated
Meedan
Formation2005
TypeNon-Profit Organization
Legal status501(c)3 non-profit
HeadquartersSan Francisco, CA
Founder, CEO, Chairman
Ed Bice
Jon Corshen

Hanan Heakal

Tim Hwang

Zeynep Tufekci

Maria Ressa
Website meedan.com

Meedan is a technology not-for-profit that builds software and programmatic initiatives to strengthen journalism, digital literacy, and accessibility of information online and off. [1]

Contents

Meedan builds an open-source software platform for fact-checking and content annotation [2] and runs a service that brings together public health professionals to provide expertise and summaries of challenging public health concepts on-request for journalists, fact-checking organizations, and media outlets. [3] Meedan also runs a project to improve digital literacy, community-building and political engagement skills for citizen journalists, activists, journalism students, civil society organizations and human rights defenders through training, programming and research [4] [5]

Background

Meedan, whose name means "gathering place" or "town square" in Arabic, began as a project to model boundary (language, culture, ideology) crossing "dialogue and collaboration" as the key to creating "understanding and tolerance" between different communities online and offline. A fundamental premise of the organization is that social technology on the web can play a part in enabling information equity and media literacy between the peoples of different regions, thereby helping to improve cross-cultural understanding. Meedan's vision is thus to "create a more equitable internet."

Meedan was founded by Ed Bice in 2005 and incorporated as a nonprofit charitable organization in 2006. Bice, who was formerly the Executive Director of The People's Opinion Project, and currently serves as Meedan CEO and chairman. Jon Corshen, Hanan Heakal, Tim Hwang, Zeynep Tufekci and Maria Ressa also serve on Meedan's board of directors.

Current Projects

Meedan's Check software creates tiplines for fact-checking on encrypted platforms. This open-source software allows users of WhatsApp and other platforms to forward suspicious messages to misinformation tiplines operated by fact-checking organizations. [6] [7] Check's first major use was for Electionland, a 1,000-person collaborative reporting project led by ProPublica that tracked claims of voting issues on Election Day 2016. [8]

Meedan's Health Desk software hosts a COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub, which provides journalists and fact-checkers with a trusted source of evidence and experts they can turn to, as they report on the fast-evolving news around COVID-19 vaccines. [9]

Past Projects

Meedan.net

Launched in 2009, Meedan.net was Meedan's first project. It was a forum for cross-language conversation and media sharing in Arabic and English. [10] [11] Users could browse aggregated sources around world events – blogs and mainstream sources; opinion and reporting; Arabic and English writing – and help expand the news narrative by posting articles and comments themselves. All sources and comments were mirrored across Arabic and English using a combination of machine and human translation.

Meedan.net was included in the 2008 New York Times Magazine "Year in Ideas" issue: "It’s a lovely idea: a social-networking site with automatic translation bolted on. That’s Meedan, a gathering place for English and Arabic speakers who want to exchange thoughts on Middle East issues. Comments are translated automatically and instantly; Nebraska can now chat with Nablus." [12]

Meedan's translation technology has been developed in collaboration with The Watson Research Group at IBM with which it entered into a research partnership in 2006. Development has focused on Machine and Machine Augmented Translation tools that enable users to improve translations collaboratively, including IBM's Transbrowser – a browser tool for creating a translation layer on the web. [13]

Bridge

In 2015, Meedan built Bridge, a tool for social media translation using a combination of human and machine translation. [14] Translators using the app could follow different topics or users, and when they saw a post they wanted to translate they could tap on it to start a translation. Once they got to the main translation screen, users could call up a machine translation from Bing.

Research

Meedan co-founded the Credibility Indicators Working Group, with Hacks/Hackers. The project had four core aims: to develop the framework of credibility indicators to test; to refine the process of credibility indicator development through testing and annotating a wide variety of articles; to evaluate the training data developed through these annotations in partnership with potential users, and to define this entire process for the coalition group members. [15]


Related Research Articles

Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such checking done in-house by the publisher to prevent inaccurate content from being published; when the text is analyzed by a third party, the process is called external fact-checking.

Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is deliberately deceptive and propagated information. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn out to be either true or false. However, definitions of the terms might vary between cultural contexts. Even if later retracted, misinformation can continue to influence actions and memory.

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Network. It also operates PolitiFact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PolitiFact</span> American nonprofit fact-checking website

PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the Tampa Bay Times, with reporters and editors from the newspaper and its affiliated news media partners reporting on the accuracy of statements made by elected officials, candidates, their staffs, lobbyists, interest groups and others involved in U.S. politics. Its journalists select original statements to evaluate and then publish their findings on the PolitiFact.com website, where each statement receives a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The ratings range from "True" for statements the journalists deem as accurate to "Pants on Fire" for claims the journalists deem as "not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Africa Check</span>

Africa Check is a non-profit fact checking organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. The organisation's goal is to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent. Africa Check is an independent organisation with offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar and London, producing reports in English and French testing claims made by public figures, institutions and the media against the best available evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Full Fact</span> Fact-checking organisation

Full Fact is a British charity, based in London, which checks and corrects facts reported in the news as well as claims which circulate on social media.

Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. In October 2022 Harsh Mander, along with the campaign he launched in 2017, Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a campaign supporting and showing solidarity with the victims of hate crimes, along with Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha have been nominated in the Henrik Urdal's list of "worthy candidates"/"worthy recipients" for 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. A note on the official website of Peace Research Institute Oslo read, "Other worthy candidates for a prize focused on combating religious extremism and intolerance in India are Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, the co-founders of Alt News, a fact-checking site making significant contributions to debunking misinformation aimed at vilifying Muslims in India". Alt News was a signatory partner of the International Fact-Checking Network until April 2020.

Vera Files is a non-profit online news organization in the Philippines, known for its institutionalized role in fact-checking false information in the Philippines, and as one of the news organizations most prominently targetted by intimidation and censorship due to its critical coverage of the Philippine government. It is part of the International Fact-Checking Network of the Poynter Institute and is one of Facebook's two Philippine partners in its third-party fact-checking program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media Bias/Fact Check</span> American website

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is an American website founded in 2015 by Dave M. Van Zandt. MBFC uses an explicit methodology to rate media outlets. It considers four main categories and multiple subcategories in assessing the "Political bias" and "Factual Reporting" of each source.

NewsGuard is a journalism and technology tool that rates the credibility of news and information websites and tracks online misinformation. It operates a browser extension and mobile apps for consumers as well as services for businesses, including a brand safety tool for advertisers and services for search engines, social media apps, cybersecurity firms, and government agencies.

The StopFake website is a project of Ukrainian media NGO Media Reforms Center. It was founded in March 2014 by Ukrainian professors and students with the stated purpose of refuting Russian propaganda and fake news. It began as a Russian- and English-language fact-checking organization, and has grown to include a TV show broadcast on 30 local channels, a weekly radio show, and a strong social media following.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic</span> Aspect of viral outbreak

Media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic has varied by country, time period and media outlet. News media has simultaneously kept viewers informed about current events related to the pandemic, and contributed to misinformation or fake news.

Disinformation attacks involve the intentional dissemination of false information, with an end goal of misleading, confusing, or manipulating an audience. False information that is not intentionally deceptive is referred to as misinformation, although that has also been used as a catch-all term. Disinformation attacks may be executed by political, economic or individual actors to influence state or non-state entities and domestic or foreign populations. These attacks are commonly employed to reshape attitudes and beliefs, drive a particular agenda, or elicit certain actions from a target audience. Tactics include the presentation of incorrect or misleading information, the creation of uncertainty, and the undermining of both correct information and the credibility of information sources.

Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media in spite of the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the internet as being scientific information. A high proportion of internet sources on the topic are "inaccurate on the whole" which can lead people searching for information to form "significant misconceptions about vaccines".

Software for COVID-19 pandemic mitigation takes many forms. It includes mobile apps for contact tracing and notifications about infection risks, vaccine passports, software for enabling – or improving the effectiveness of – lockdowns and social distancing, Web software for the creation of related information services, and research and development software. A common issue is that few apps interoperate, reducing their effectiveness.

Logically is a British multinational technology startup company that specializes in analyzing and fighting disinformation. Logically was founded in 2017 by Lyric Jain and is based in Brighouse, England, with offices in London, Mysore, Bangalore, and Virginia.

A truth sandwich is a technique in journalism to cover stories involving misinformation without unintentionally furthering the spread of false or misleading clams. It entails presenting the truth about a subject before covering misinformation, then ending a story by again presenting truth. Margaret Sullivan summarized it as "reality, spin, reality — all in one tasty, democracy-nourishing meal".

This timeline includes entries on the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. This includes investigations into the origin of COVID-19, and the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 which is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. Social media apps and platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and YouTube, have contributed to the spread of misinformation. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) reported that conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 began on "day one". CAHN reported on March 16, 2020, that far-right groups in Canada were taking advantage of the climate of anxiety and fear surrounding COVID, to recycle variations of conspiracies from the 1990s, that people had shared over shortwave radio. COVID-19 disinformation is intentional and seeks to create uncertainty and confusion. But most of the misinformation is shared online unintentionally by enthusiastic participants who are politically active.

Watchdog is a Sri Lankan research collective founded in April 2019. It maintains a fact-checking website and makes use of open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods.

References

  1. ↑ "Check uses automation to improve fact-checking during elections | Media news". www.journalism.co.uk. 2019-08-09. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  2. ↑ "Check uses automation to improve fact-checking during elections | Media news". www.journalism.co.uk. 2019-08-09. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  3. ↑ "Edition 33 - Mobilizing Public Health Professionals to Support Journalists and Fact-Checkers During the Covid-19 Pandemic - HPHR Journal (Formerly Harvard Public Health Review)". 2021-05-30. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  4. ↑ "Student-led outlet fights misinformation, trains young fact-checkers in Nigeria". International Journalists' Network. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  5. ↑ Turner, Jerome; Saber, Dima (2021-01-13). "Understanding factors and barriers to alternative media development in emerging economies: Learning from the Check Global project". First Monday. doi:10.5210/fm.v26i2.11370. ISSN   1396-0466.
  6. ↑ "Human or machine? Social science or computer science? Yes, we need them all". The Commons. 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  7. ↑ Kazemi, Ashkan; Garimella, Kiran; Shahi, Gautam Kishore; Gaffney, Devin; Hale, Scott A. (2022-01-31). "Research note: Tiplines to uncover misinformation on encrypted platforms: A case study of the 2019 Indian general election on WhatsApp". Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. doi: 10.37016/mr-2020-91 .
  8. ↑ "This tool is helping newsrooms collaborate on factchecking and verification projects". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  9. ↑ "COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub open for service". www.sciencemediacenter.de. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  10. ↑ Singel, Ryan. "Site Hopes Automatic Arabic-English Translation Translates into Peace". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  11. ↑ "Bridging the Online Language Barrier: Translating the Internet". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  12. ↑ Giles, Jim (2008-12-12). "Learning to Talk". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  13. ↑ "Meedan puts machine translation into practice". the Guardian. 2010-02-22. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  14. ↑ "Tweeting across borders: With a new mobile app, Meedan is working to improve social media translation". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  15. ↑ "The Credibility Coalition is working to establish the common elements of trustworthy articles | Media news". www.journalism.co.uk. 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
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