Declaring war on dis­infor­mation

Background

False claims on the internet are a serious threat to democracy. Conspiracy myths about the corona virus, for example, and disinformation campaigns as the one in the Ukraine conflict, for example, make it difficult for citizens to access factual information and distort the process of forming free opinions based on facts. The circulation of false reports are also a problem for the media where journalists are hindered in their independent reporting and citizens’ trust is therefore shaken.

To counteract this, the dpa’s fact-checking editorial team launched the Faktencheck21 project in 2021, which is co-funded by the Google News Initiative. Within this framework, dpa offers workshops on verification techniques for journalists from all over Germany to train them in dealing with false claims. The spread of false claims on the internet was a particular challenge for the German media landscape in the course of the 2021 federal election.

To ensure a lasting learning effect, one of the project’s goals was to expand the training opportunities with a digital offering. In this way, more journalists were given the opportunity to train in the area of fact checking. As a full-service agency, we at Factorial supported the project throughout the duration of the process and were responsible for implementing a digital solution.

Approach

To develop a digital training offering, it was first necessary, together with the Faktencheck21 project team, to determine the project goal and define the phases of the project. The implementation was finally completed using various substeps.

Implementation of the UI design

After the creation of the content structure using the MVP, wireframes could now be transferred into the UI design using the existing design system ‘dpa-design-kit’. Additionally, some custom illustrations were developed for the emerging platform. Moreover, an extension to the usage context of the product as well as the appearance of the subsidiary was implemented.

Solution

With the features provided, the e-learning portal dpa-Factify creates an extensive learning opportunity for media professionals in their daily work. Moreover, the platform offers the ideal tool for identifying false claims on the internet. To illustrate the features of dpa-Factify, selected aspects of the application are highlighted below to provide insight into the digital offering.

One-pager

The content provided on the platform can also be downloaded as a PDF in the form of a summary (one-pager). The collected links in the link list refer to additional, helpful tools and applications that are intended to support media professionals in their daily work.

Authentication and access management

By connecting to the dpa’s single sign-on via a JWT procedure, users have access to logging in via the dpa ID as an existing SSO solution. The login to the platform can be managed by the customers themselves. Finally, a solution was found for the integration of external media content via different platforms, including dpa video and hp5.

Impact

The learning platform dpa-Factify created by Factorial makes a crucial contribution to the daily work of journalists of German media houses. With the developed tools in the area of fact checking and verification techniques, dpa is able to significantly support media professionals in independent reporting.

The e-learning platform was rolled out in a multi-stage process and the content has been continuously expanded by the dpa team independently since its launch in April 2021. Managing the learning platform with the editorial system enables dpa to add new content and continuously update the learning offering.

Several hundred journalists — and the number is counting, from German media companies now have access to the digital offering. In cooperation with the news agency APA, the platform has now been expanded to include a version for users in Austria.