Open-source investigation courses target ‘crisis in democracy’

A new open-source investigation course set up in partnership with a world-renowned investigative journalism outfit hopes to serve as a “wake-up call” amid concerns over social media echo chambers and disinformation.

Bellingcat, a specialist in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT), has made headlines around the world for its investigations into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury and the use of weapons in the Syrian civil war.

Now the Netherlands-based organisation has begun working with universities to develop open-source investigation courses and create student-led investigative hubs in an attempt to solve the “crisis in democracy”.

“More and more people feel that the democratic systems around them don’t really serve their interests and that’s leading people to move towards more authoritarian systems, and you can see that very, very clearly in the US at the moment,” Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins told Times Higher Education.

“I think there's a lot of stuff that’s underlying that that we aren’t really addressing through the current education system, and I think it’s crucial that we do address that as a really high priority.”

Bellingcat has co-created an undergraduate module at the University of Nottingham, with the hope that it will lead to the creation of another investigative hub – along with one at Utrecht University.

Higgins said working with universities was partly about responding to issues around disinformation but was also a “social issue” – developing critical thinking skills to help puncture social media bubbles.

“We don’t really educate young people to think critically in those spaces, so it’s then no wonder that people actually engage with information that just reinforces their beliefs rather than actually thinking about that material and challenging that material,” he said.

“And I think a lot of the issues we’re facing today [are occurring] because we as a society haven’t really risen to the challenge that’s presented by that.”

While some institutions, such as the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, have done their own OSINT, many universities have “struggled” to integrate the rapidly developing field, he added.

Due to start in the autumn, the 10-week module at Nottingham will examine the theoretical side of OSINT, their application in journalism, law and policing and security, as well as practical skills, including geolocation, chronolocation, and data forensics taught by Bellingcat themselves.

The module was co-created by Nottingham’s Centre for Media, Politics and Communication Research and will be part of the politics department, but it is hoped it will be extended to other departments.

Natalie Martin, co-director of the research centre and assistant professor in politics and international relations, told THE that the spread of social media had taken the power away from journalists as the “gatekeepers” of information.

“News consumers, if they’re going to get their news from social media, have to be the gatekeepers, and to do that, they need skills,” she said.

“And this is a start in disseminating those skills to the wider public, but really it’s a wake-up call that everyone needs these skills.”

While Nottingham is the first institution in the UK to launch such a module, Martin said she wants to “bang the drum” and hopes that it catches on elsewhere.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com