Ebook
First Draft Essential Guides
First Draft, closed 2022
Five short, well-designed primers on information disorder, responsible reporting, newsgathering, verification, and closed groups, from an organisation that closed in 2022. The site is unreliable; the archive is worth it.
First Draft published its Essential Guides in 2019 for working journalists: understanding information disorder, responsible reporting, newsgathering and monitoring on the social web, verifying online information with its five pillars of provenance, source, date, location, and motivation, and closed groups, messaging apps, and online ads. The organisation closed in June 2022 and its site is archived; the live domain timed out when we checked.
First Draft closed in June 2022 and the live site failed on every request we made. Its successor lab does not appear to host the guides. The Internet Archive does.
Worth it if
- You teach verification to journalism students and want short, clear primers
- You want the five-pillars verification model in one place
- You cover closed groups and messaging apps
Skip it if
- You need current tools; the 2019 references include several that no longer exist
- You want anything on evidence or legal standards
What is inside
- 01
Understanding Information Disorder
Claire Wardle's framework for misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.
- 02
Responsible Reporting
How to cover disinformation without amplifying it.
- 03
Newsgathering and Monitoring on the Social Web
Finding and tracking content across platforms.
- 04
Verifying Online Information
The five pillars: provenance, source, date, location, motivation, each with checklists.
- 05
Closed Groups, Messaging Apps, and Online Ads
Reporting inside private spaces and on paid political content.
What you will be able to do
- Apply a five-question verification check to any piece of content
- Explain the three kinds of information disorder to a newsroom
- Report on a disinformation campaign without spreading it
How current it is
Frozen between 2019 and 2021. The frameworks are still taught; the tool references are dated.
- Updated
- 2019 to 2021; organisation closed 2022
- Maintained
- Archived
How to get the most from it
- 01
Use the Wayback Machine
Search for the guide title with the First Draft domain in the archive if the live link fails.
- 02
Teach the five pillars
They are the most durable part and fit on one page.
Strengths
- Clear and short
- A respected framework
- Translations
Limitations
- Organisation closed
- Site unreliable
- Dated tools
Pair it with
FAQ
Questions, answered
Where did First Draft go?
It closed in June 2022. Related work moved to a university lab, which does not appear to host these guides.
Were there six guides?
The first guide calls itself the first of six, but only five are listed. We could not confirm a sixth.
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