What stood out from this video, in contrast to the description and resulting headline, was
that at no time could the protesters be seen actually pushing the car off the bridge. It clearly
required a closer look. Here’s what I did to assess the content of the video and determine
the exact location of the incident:
One of the first steps when validating citizen video is to search for other content that shows
the same incident.a I normally search YouTube as well as in the Storyful dashboard (a paid
service) and Storyful’s Open News Room to find additional video content. (As noted in the
chapter, I filter my YouTube searches by upload date to narrow down the number of results.)
Using these tools, I found a second video7 that was shot from a different angle. It appears to
be filmed from a nearby high-rise, and thus provides a great view of the whole scene. The
additional footage shows that no one actually pushed the police car off the bridge. Rather,
the car appears to have collided with another vehicle, causing it to roll back and fall off the
bridge. This second video confirmed the incident was real, but also revealed that the description (and headline) were inaccurate.
With the new vantage point provided by the second video, it became easier to find the exact
location of the incident. The Washington Post article provided the “6th of October Bridge” as
the setting of the video. This is sufficient to get started, as the bridge is easy to find on online
maps. However, the bridge is actually a very long elevated road that runs through large parts
of the city. This made it more challenging to find the exact location.
When carefully reviewing the second video, one landmark stood out: a sports stadium. By
tracing the 6th of October Bridge on Google Earth, I was able to identify two stadiums that
are in close proximity to the bridge. After rotating the view on Google Earth to find the potential location and line of sight of the person filming, I found a location that matches up with
the second stadium8. Having confirmed the general location, it was then easy to pinpoint the
high-rise buildings overlooking the incident. Using the mapping tool in Google Earth Pro, I
produced a simple overview map, depicting the location of the two videos, the area of sights,
and relevant landmarks:
Finally, two more features further confirmed the location: A broadcasting tower is visible in
the background of the video, which is also visible in satellite images9. Additionally, I turned
on the Panoramio photo layer in Google Earth to check for user-generated photos. The Panoramio layer contains georeferenced, user-generated photos that provide an on-the-ground
view, and thus a high level of detail. There are also several photos from underneath the
bridge10 where the car landed, and the pillars of the bridge as seen in the video match up
perfectly.
a For more about the value of multi-perspective video, please see: Hal Hodson: “Multishot video can identify civil rights abusers”. New Scientist,
28 June 2013; and the Rashomon Project. «
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