Verification Handbook for using user-generated content during emergencies

The handbook is a groundbreaking new resource for journalists and aid responders, which provides systematic guidelines for using user-generated content during emergencies.

In a crisis, social networks are overloaded with situational updates, calls for relief, reports of new developments and rescue information. Reporting the right information is often critical in shaping responses from the public and relief workers; it can literally be a matter of life or death.

The Verification Handbook draws on the experiences of practitioners from some of the world's top news organisations, including the BBC, Storyful, ABC and Digital First Media, to equip journalists with the skills to serve the public accurately with these necessary updates.

The handbook will be freely available online to anyone interested in brushing up on his or her verification skills beginning Tuesday 28 January 2014. A print version will also be available to order soon thereafter.

This EJC initiative is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and by the African Media Initiative (AMI). The project is endorsed by numerous international organisations including UNHCR, UNAOC and UNDP.

For more information, go to http://verificationhandbook.com.