Chapter 3.1: Open Source Journalism, Misinformation and the War for Truth in Syria

Open source research has reinvigorated investigative journalism, enabling it to exploit the increased visibility brought to world events by new technologies, and creating robust methodologies to collect and analyze data about them. This chapter details these developments and shows how they are addressing the challenges facing contemporary journalism, including reduced access to conflict regions, cutbacks in funding and an increasingly contested information landscape marked by misinformation and organized disinformation campaigns. Demonstrating that digital open source research is rigorous, collaborative and ethical, this chapter shows that it is helping investigative journalism rebuild credibility and trust, answer its critics and enhance global transparency and accountability.