INSTITUTION: UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
CONCENTRATION: New Media Master’s Thesis
TOPIC: Journalism at the Intersection of Open Source Intelligence and Multimedia Story Forms
TITLE: Inquired Truth: Human Rights Center Open Source Investigation Methodology
PRESENTATION TYPE: Video
ABSTRACT
Background
The Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law is a human rights nonprofit organization that trains students, in the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab, how to use open source intelligence to investigate human rights abuses in the international community. Open source intelligence is “data and information that is available to the general public,” according to Recorded Future, a research and security intelligence company. The Human Rights Center recently introduced multimedia story forms to its curriculum to show how students researchers conduct open source investigations.
Objective
This capstone project, Inquired Truth, uses multimedia story forms to show the research methods used to conduct open source investigations. The storytelling techniques aim to create informative, resourceful, and entertaining videos. The multimedia package highlights three major case studies the lab students conducted. Creating the videos also indicates how multimedia tools can develop OSINT reports into stories with journalistic value.
Research Methods
I produced a short-form video series modeled after a variety of visual techniques created by AJ Plus, NowThis News, BBC Africa, and Vox explainer videos. Each case study had two versions of the same video, version A included English captions, background music, and no voiceover. In addition to a voiceover, version B included the same music and captions.
I conducted A/B testing for each case study to gauge which storytelling method was more effective. I created a survey with a total of eight videos, pairing versions A and B of each case study, followed by a multiple-choice question asking the lab students which video they preferred for learning purposes.
The first case study, Hate Speech in Myanmar, shows how Facebook was used as a tool for hate speech against the Rohingya people, a minority Muslim population in Myanmar. The lab students’ research contributed to Reuters journalist Steve Stcklow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story for international reporting in 2019.
The second case study, Protests in Sudan, covers the 2018 Sudanese uprising. Lab students investigated the excessive use of force on demonstrators by the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces under the orders of former president Omar al-Bashir. The student researchers collaborated with Dr. Rohini Haar of Physicians for Human Rights who published a report verifying that the paramilitary group attacked hospitals and peaceful protesters.
The third case study, Chemical Weapons in Syria, is a two-part video about chemical attacks on targeted locations, including a surgical hospital, in al-Lataminah, Syria. The lab students published a report corroborating witness testimonies that chemical weapons were used during the attacks in March 2017.
Results
My analysis of the data shows that more than 94 percent of the lab students preferred version B of each case study. The results of the A/B testing experiment indicated that students in the investigations lab preferred videos with English captions, background music, and a voiceover. In conclusion, the A/B test confirmed that multimedia story forms add journalist value to open source investigations.