First Draft is an organisation dedicated to supporting journalists, academics and technologists working to address challenges relating to trust and truth in the digital age.
We host a global verification and collaborative investigation network through our CrossCheck International initiative, work in partnership with our expanding community to conduct innovative and experimental research projects, and continuously develop online and offline training designed to expand and embed best practices in newsrooms and journalism schools around the world.
With a firm focus on tackling information disorder, First Draft is building on its pioneering work around elections in the US, France, UK, Germany, Brazil and Nigeria. In 2019, we will support the development of sustainable, collaborative efforts in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, South Africa, Spain and Uruguay, plus a cross-border project to investigate misinformation tactics and trends in Europe.
History
First Draft formed as a nonprofit coalition with nine Founding Partners in June 2015, providing practical and ethical guidance in how to find, verify and publish content sourced from the social web. In September 2016, our original coalition expanded to become an international Partner Network of newsrooms, universities, platforms and civil society organisations.
In October 2017, First Draft was invited to join the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. During this time, we inspired and coordinated the development of the Information Disorder Lab and expanded the scope of our research to explore the spread and threat of information disorder on closed messaging apps.
With thanks to ongoing support from key funders, First Draft now operates as an independent entity with headquarters in London and a New York bureau housed at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
We are currently recruiting in both locations. Apply now on our ‘Opportunities’ page.
Partner Network
The First Draft Partner Network includes some of the largest news organisations and prominent people working in this space.The Network is designed to scale training and establish industry standards on social monitoring, verification, and responsible reporting on disinformation.
We have the following Partner categories:
- Founding: nine organizations that came together in 2015 to establish First Draft.
- Core: newsrooms that have staff dedicated to social monitoring and verification and have publicly listed standards policies and corrections protocols.
- Academic: journalism schools and researchers in a variety of disciplines that work to understand and explain information disorder.
- Technology: organizations that help to bring insights to the reporting and understanding of how information travels online.