How Language Intelligence Helps Combat Disinformation and Supports Reliable News Journalism

Language in its written, spoken and visual form is, of course, the key medium of news content. The tools and technologies that have been developed to create and manage this content can therefore be called collectively “language intelligence (LI)”, a term that may be applied in a more general context and which is not confined to the media alone. The application of LI provides a critical mechanism across the digital world, where speed, data
volume, trust, cost and quality of knowledge all need to be carefully handled and balanced to deliver reliable products to networked customers on a global scale. As well as opening up new opportunities in news production and delivery, LI can play a central role in the constant fight against disinformation.

This report (“Orientation Paper”) attempts to characterize the various roles that language intelligence plays in the News value chain by asking the following three questions and providing answers to them:

•    Are there reliable automatic decision procedures for identifying the truth/falsity of news and similar content in general or in specific cases? Problem solution technologies.
•    Which available LI technologies can help news producers most to accelerate processes while lowering risk and complexity? Technologies along the News value chain.
•    What kinds of language solutions are needed and likely to emerge? The way forward.

At a workshop on 29-30 November 2018 in Vienna, Austria, co-organised by LT-Innovate, EUROSINT and SAIL LABS, various use cases that addressed the fake news problem were presented, and discussions into how Language Intelligence can extend its applicability within the news and intelligence industries in their effort to track down fake information were held.

This report is the result of the workshop, with contributions from all speakers and co-organisers. Editors-in-chief: Andrew Joscelyne, LT-Innovate; Margaretha Mazura, EMFS. Supported by the Vienna Business Agency.

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