IBC Conference: Beating fake news - inspiring trust in the age of disinformation

In the recent words of Time Magazine, ‘2024 is not just an election year. It’s perhaps the election year.’ As the publication notes, more people than ever in history will have headed to the polls by the end of December, with ballots in at least 64 countries (as well as the European Union) expected to see a combined total of around 49% of the world’s population casting their vote in national elections.

Simultaneously, conflicts continue to rage in Russia/Ukraine and the Middle East, whilst there are also lingering fears of military action in East Asia. Not only is it surely the most uncertain – and dangerous – global picture in recent decades, it’s also set against the backdrop of an unprecedented challenge to the authenticity of news coverage coming from state actors, unmonitored social media channels, and even lone individuals.

All of which makes this an opportune moment for the IBC Conference to address the perils of brand impersonations, fake news, synthetic content and other risk factors in a session entitled ‘Combating disinformation in News: A critical year for democracies’, taking place on Saturday 14th September from 11.15am. Speakers will include Laura Ellis (BBC R&D), Neil Ellis (AWS), Raymundo Barros (GLOBO) and Ross Dagan, who as Executive Vice-President and Head of News Operations at CBS News and Stations has recently overseen the launch of the CBS News Confirmed content verification project.

With CBS/Paramount also participating in a 2024 IBC Accelerator project entitled ‘Design your weapons in the fight against disinformation’ – which aims to develop an “industry-wide understanding of the challenges and abuses being faced today by all media outlets in identifying disinformation and helping audiences identify trustworthy news and information” – it’s clear that Dagan will have plenty of material to draw upon.

Read more IBC2024 Accelerator Project: Design Your Weapons in the Fight Against Disinformation

CBS News Confirmed

“We’re facing one of the biggest threats to our existence there has ever been, and that is the threat of disinformation” Ross Dagan, CBS News

A stalwart of global news for several decades, Dagan had worked for organisations including Al Jazeera, Seven Network, Television New Zealand and Network 10 before joining CBS News and Stations in 2021. In his current role, he oversees all news operations, engineering and technology functions across CBS News and Stations, and is also tasked with innovation and transformation across the division.

Most significantly in terms of his presentation at the IBC Conference, the last three years have seen him play an integral role in the development and launch of CBS News Confirmed, which is a new initiative that brings together a team of experienced journalists who use traditional skills, data and technology to verify and fact-check videos and information while explaining CBS News’ verification process. The far-reaching project includes significant investment to add forensic journalists, new training, technology and tools to ensure that CBS News and Stations teams can “combat misinformation and ensure the accuracy of their reporting.”

Dagan tells IBC365 that one of the major developments of recent years has been “the realisation as an industry and as a group that we’re facing one of the biggest threats to our existence there has ever been, and that is the threat of disinformation. If we can’t rely on our brand credibility, we can’t rely on the word about people. If we are being deliberately tricked [in terms of information], then that is a material fear and present danger that we have to respond to.”

Accordingly, there are “three key areas” that CBS News is currently focusing on concerning verification. The first is the use of “various tools to fingerprint content to ensure that when it’s not ours we know that, or conversely that the world knows it’s ours because of the nature of what’s embedded into that content.”

The second area is around collaboration and “ensuring that there is communication between various media outlets so that we have a path by which content that is found not to be true can be proven so,” he says. “Having a mechanism whereby there is an understanding with other media players that can better protect the industry from having embarrassing circumstances unfold [is very important].”

The third primary area of focus is detection, and in some respects “using AI against AI to work with various technology vendors to say what the tell-tale signs are and the technical signals that give us cause for concern about various pieces of content,” continues Dagan. “Whilst it will never replace human intervention – the human role that we proudly have as part of our legacy for CBS News and Stations – we think it is an extra part of the toolkit that means we can have, almost in the background, a sense of scrutiny going on for content that’s coming to us. If there is something to be flagged, it can then have human eyes on it more rigorously. [Therefore] we’re investing in the sorts of tech partners that can help us achieve that aim for the betterment of our security around these sorts of stories.”

Read more Momentum builds behind content credentials to combat AI deepfakes

Industry alignment

Part of the motivation for participation in the IBC Accelerator programme is to optimise dialogue with other industry players and “to do so in a collaborative way,” says Dagan. “In our view, the industry isn’t well-served if one of the main players is in some way embarrassed or tricked, because invariably that has the potential to weaken the perception of the grand credentials of [that organisation]. It’s better for us as an industry to be working together across various fields [in order to] come up with a ‘best-in-class’ recommendation or approach.”

He is enthused by the experience of working within the IBC Accelerator project, noting that it has “certainly helped inform all of us more. It’s always a wonderful thing when you get a group of smart people in a room talking about things they’re passionate about, and I have definitely found that with the IBC Accelerator programme. Every time we get on a call I feel a little bit more educated, and that’s a great thing.”

Dagan also hopes that his IBC Conference presentation can provide another “opportunity to engage” around the critical issue of disinformation. He adds: “We don’t ever want to downplay the idea that as a competitive force, you want to be breaking news and you want to be setting the agenda. So none of what we’re doing stops that process happening, and indeed we’re very proud of our capacity at CBS News and Stations to do that. What we’re saying is that where there’s an opportunity behind the scenes in which coordination may be beneficial, we should be okay with those conversations taking place. The nature of the [IBC Accelerator programme and Conference] is entirely about encouraging that sort of engagement.”

Super Desk

“We’ve always had that sense of scrutiny, and that continues with [the present focus] on the deep fake threat that is the more apparent risk profile on this occasion” Ross Dagan, CBS News

Of course, Dagan is tackling this huge challenge in a period that is also characterised by profound technological change. In particular, the advent of fibre and now 5G connectivity, as well as cloud-based platforms, has made it significantly easier for news teams to produce entire reports and programmes remotely, and collaborate seamlessly across distance. Hence, in the case of CBS News and Stations, an initiative called Super Desk, which entails the entire newsgathering operation collaborating on one system. It also sees the creation of a centralised coverage team to coordinate newsgathering and embrace “story-centric thinking”.

“In its most simple form, it’s the collaborative connective tissue for our entire organisation,” explains Dagan. “We have had previously – and this since is some years ago now – siloed parts of the organisation, [but] over the last two to three years we’ve been on a supercharged effort to bring the various parts of our family together. Super Desk enables that to happen and ensures that we understand what’s going on across all arms of our organisation. And when we know what’s going on across all parts of the organisation, we have the capacity to leverage all of that content, make sure it can assist in our storytelling, and serve all the platforms that are now needing our content. [It’s about] breaking down those barriers and making sure we have the necessary capacity from human, physical, technical, logistical and editorial points of view.”

One imagines that breaking down the technological and practical barriers will come in especially useful for reporting on what seems certain to be the most hotly contested US Election of modern times, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 5 November. A mood of deep uncertainty and division that escalated significantly by the attack on the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on 6 January, 2021, will surely continue into this ballot, underlining the necessity of authenticity initiatives such as CBS News Confirmed.

“CBS News Confirmed will be part of every element of our election coverage,” confirms Dagan. “We’ve always had that sense of scrutiny, and that continues with [the present focus] on the deep fake threat that is the more apparent risk profile on this occasion. Of course, [Confirmed] does not replace anything – it simply supplements the excellent team we’ve got from a political coverage point of view, in Washington and across the country, who have made it their job to recognise, review, check and recheck the content that is coming from various political sources, including the main parties to some extent on some conclusions. But in [an era] when the credibility and legacy of the organisation has to be protected and reinforced, then certainly CBS News Confirms assures those touch-points to all arms of CBS News and Stations.”

Hear more from Ross Dagan and his fellow panellists at ‘Combating disinformation in News: A critical year for democracies’, which will take place on Saturday 14th September from 11.15am

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