Interactive talk
As fake images and videos as well as AI get increasingly technologically sophisticated and harder to spot, specially-trained fact checkers are needed to keep up. These fact checkers have certain skills, tricks and tools to help them with their work – including geolocation and reverse image search programmes. In this workshop, the fact checking team of APA – Austria Press Agency will present some of these tools and tricks and give an insight into recent developments.
Florian Schmidt (AT)
Florian Schmidt is the head of the fact-checking department at APA – Austria Press Agency where experts check viral claims and debunk misinformation. Those fact-checkers verify information, examine manipulated images and check altered videos. APA-Faktencheck trains journalists and other interested persons in verification skills and collaborates with scientific partners to develop verification tools. Schmidt teaches those skills also at different universities of applied sciences such as the FH Wien der WKW, FH Hagenberg, FH Joanneum, FH Wiener Neustadt, FH St. Pölten, Tiroler Journalistik Akademie and in trainings for teachers.
Valerie Schmid (AT)
Valerie Schmid joined APA – Austria Presse Agentur in July 2018 after several internships, including at the newspaper „WELT“ in Berlin. After working on the foreign desk, she switched to the APA fact checking team in May 2020, where she is responsible for researching and editing fact checks. As a member of the media literacy organization Lie Detectors, she teaches journalism, political education and how to debunk disinformation to students. Schmid studied journalism and communication science as well as international development in Vienna and London.