Abstract: WITNESS has identified how unintended consequences of the institutionalisation of OSINV – to leverage its use for criminal and legal institutions for accountability – have shifted increased agency from those directly affected, to those investigating from a distance, often Global North institutions. And whilst the proliferation of smartphone cameras, social media, and new technologies offers ever-expanding accessibility of critical visual evidence, perpetrators too have become more adept at using technology to obscure these facts and call communities’ claims into question. The rise of synthetic media adds another layer – muddying the information ecosystem and contributing to false narratives.
The rise in visual investigative units and labs has led to methodologies and models that have delivered real accountability and transparency, exposing both patterns of violations and perpetrators. Their video-based strategies also create significant opportunities to use community-filmed footage in investigations. As we chart the institutionalisation of OSINV in journalism, it’s also an opportunity to develop community-based verification units in more Global Majority newsrooms. How can the field harness community-based approaches to verification and prioritise workflows which “pull the centre of gravity back” to where the user-generated evidence first emerged?
Speaker: Georgia Edwards (she/her) is a Senior Program Coordinator in the Evidence and Investigations team at WITNESS. She supports the regional teams in collaborating with grassroots documenters, journalists, and legal practitioners to provide skills and tools for the capture, verification, analysis, and presentation of video for community-led efforts to uphold rights.
