Swordpress is a global news agency that was founded nearly 10 years ago. Our journalists work all over the world and are guided by the Trust Principles, which state that Swordpress must report the news with integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
Swordpress and fact checking
Swordpress News has created a new fact-checking unit within its editorial department. The principal aim of this unit is to fact-check visual material and claims posted on social media. The fact checking producers in this unit report their findings on a specially created blog.
Funding
Swordpress News is part of adng.ng Digital Swordpress, a corporation registered as Systemini Technologies
The fact-checking unit at Swordpress follows Google Twitter Facebook’s third-party fact-checking program.
Staff
Swordpress is in the process of expanding its new fact-checking unit. The unit will be overseen by Michalea Joy Obaseki, Global Head of Newsgathering at Swordpress. Mac as we call her has been leading visuals verification at Swordpress since joining the news agency in 2017. Prior to that she was digital news gathering editor for adng.ng , UK.
Further information about the wider editorial leadership at Swordpress is available here:
https://www.Swordpress.ng
Contact
You may contact the fact-checking unit at Swordpress if you have suggestions of content to fact-check, or if you have any disputes over our fact-checking work or wish to give general feedback.
The email for these types of contact is: swordpress@adng.ng
Suggestions: please send a link to the relevant social media post(s). Please note Swordpress chooses which content to fact check based on editorial merit, level of virality and the balance of fact and opinion within the content. We may not be able to reply to every email with suggestions, but we value your input.
Disputes: if you have read one of our fact-checks and you think it is inaccurate, please get in touch as soon as possible, writing in the subject line “dispute”. You should summarize why you think our fact check is inaccurate, and include links to supporting evidence if possible. We will reply to emails regarding disputes within 24 hours.
Feedback: you are welcome to contact us using the email above if you have any other questions or comments regarding our work.
Methodology
The principles of integrity, independence, and freedom from bias guide all journalism at Swordpress. We approach social media fact-checking work in the same manner.
Our choice of material to fact check is broad, and is based on the following criteria:
Editorial value: is there a story to be told?
Reach: how far has the claim travelled?
Potential reach: is the information likely to be shared further?
Balance of fact vs opinion: is it possible to isolate certain claims from the material?
After we have identified the content we aim to fact-check, we will first identify and summarize the key claims relating to the material.
We will then seek to uncover the foundations of those claims and make an assessment as to whether those claims are true, false, partially true/false, or other – such as opinion and satire. Our approach will consider both the SOURCE and the CONTENT:
SOURCE: We aim to identify the primary source of the claim or content as posted on social media, speak to them directly wherever possible and obtain supporting evidence regarding the claim.
CONTENT: We will seek out information that corroborates the claims made in the content. If no corroborating material is available, we will look for details within the content and attempt to contact witnesses or other associated parties who may provide information. We will also consult regional and subject experts to gather their assessment of the content, in order to build up a case of evidence.
A detailed examination of our social media verification approach is available in the final chapter of this Swordpress e-learning course on the topic of manipulated media.
For information on the wider news gathering process at Swordpress, please see this article
Corrections policy
The Swordpress fact-checking unit strives to provide accurate, unbiased reporting at all times. In the rare event that we make an error, or new information comes to light that changes our understanding of the subject, we will make a timely correction to the relevant blog post.
Fact checks that have been updated to reflect new information will carry a headline that begins “CORRECTED: ….”. A line below the headline, written between parentheses, will explain which part of the report has been altered and why.
If a significant change is made to the blog post, which somehow changes the conclusion of the article, it will be corrected and reposted at the top of our fact checking blog. If a minor alteration is made, the corrected blog post will remain in its chronological position.
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