Who are we?

How to become an Observer

Anyone can contribute to The Observers! If you have photos or videos of an interesting or newsworthy event that you witnessed, or have firsthand knowledge of, contact our journalists. Send us your photos/videos, or links to photos/videos that are already online. Tell us the date and location they were made, what event they show, and what your connection is to the event. We can keep information about your identity confidential.

Our Observers come from all over the world. They live in small villages and sprawling capitals. They are students, nurses, miners, activists, professors and any other profession you can imagine. They are your eyes across the globe.

How we work

The Observers site is a collaboration between our Observers and our team of journalists in Paris. We work in two different ways:

1. Our team of journalists finds amateur images on social networks and tries to contact the author or a person with firsthand knowledge of the events depicted. If we are able to verify their account and they agree to join our network, they become an Observer.

2. Our Observers send us information about events they have witnessed and documented via photo/video.

When we are sure of the authenticity of the information and any supporting documentation, we publish them in an online article. The article takes the form of an introduction written by one of our journalists, giving context and explaining who our Observers are and why their account is pertinent. That is followed by a first-person account from our Observer, taken from a telephone interview or an exchange via social media.

Fact-checking information

To fact-check information from our Observers - especially the first time they contribute - we use traditional journalistic methods.

The first time we come into contact with a potential Observer (either they approach us or we approach them), we treat them like any other news source. We ask for photo or video documentation; we question them closely about their access to the event and motivations for talking to us. We err on the side of caution.

We crosscheck the information they give us against other sources, including published reports, local journalists, experts, and pertinent governmental or nongovernmental agencies or other concerned parties.

Once an Observer has contributed, they become a trusted source we can turn to for future reports.

Verifying images

We use the following methodology to verify photos/videos sent in by our Observers, whether they say they took them themselves or found them online:

• We try to contact the author of the image (if not our Observer).
• We check to see whether the image has been previously posted elsewhere (Google Image search, InVID, Amnesty’s YouTube Dataviewer, etc).
• We examine the image for signs of manipulation/tampering/photomontage.
• We show the image to other Observers with firsthand knowledge of the issue/location.
• We show the image to expert sources with knowledge of the issue/location.
• We compare the image with published accounts of the same event.

Debunked

Our work with amateur contributors has made us experts at verifying images from nontraditional sources. Since 2014 our team of journalists put that expertise to use in a special section called “Debunked.” Our journalists analyze and verify photographs and videos that have been widely shared online, but that may have been faked, manipulated or taken out of context. We focus on issues of importance to the public interest, including claims by and against all interested parties. By “widely shared” we mean claims that have been shared sufficiently in a given community to have influence on the perception of that issue in the community. We explain our fact-checking methodology in each Debunked article, and we further share our expertise with the public, for instance in our detailed online photo/video verification guide

Corrections

If we receive pertinent information after the initial publication, we add it to the original article as an update or - if the new information invalidates our original information - as a correction. We are open about our sources and our methodology and publish information only when we are convinced that it is accurate on the basis of the information we have gathered. If we receive new information that changes our conclusions, it is our responsibility to alert our users by publishing any update or correction quickly, clearly and openly. Members of the public who have information relating to the accuracy of our reporting should send it to us! You can find our contact information here. We correct major inaccuracies – those that could change the principal findings of the report - in the opening section of the article concerned, in a paragraph marked “CORRECTION” with the date the correction was published. We correct inaccuracies that do not have a direct bearing on the principal findings of the report at the end of the article, also with a paragraph marked “CORRECTION.” We make our best effort to respond to senders of new information, though not all complaints justify a response.

Story suggestions

We welcome ideas for topics we should look into - including fake news and fraudulent images. We are unable to fact-check every claim that is sent to us; we focus on claims that have been widely circulated in a community and could have an impact on public well-being, and that are connected to current events and social topics that we cover regularly. Certain assertions, such as those that are a matter of opinion, are impossible to fact-check. We are interested in topics relating to human rights, governance, civil society, innovative social experiments, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals - especially those that involve amateur images. You can find our contact information here

Editorial team

Derek Thomson

Editor-in-Chief

Corentin Bainier

Deputy editor
French

Alexandre Capron

Journalist
French

Djamel Belayachi

Journalist
Arabic

Ershad Alijani

Journalist
Farsi

Chloé Lauvergnier

Journalist
French

Maëva Poulet

Journalist
French

Pariesa Brody

Journalist
English

Fatma Ben Hamad

Journalist
Arabic

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