We’ve all become aware of the role that social media has played in political discourse in recent years. The political and social reverberations of information and disinformation posted on social platforms have rocked the world, shaken up journalism forever, and, in the eyes of many analysts, legislators and investigators, posed a threat to the democratic process as we know it. 

Since Storyful was founded, our focus has been on the sourcing and verification of usable content from open platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. But, with the growth of fringe platforms and their influence on what’s appearing on open platforms, we've had to find a way to delve deeper, to uncover and chart the flow of misinformation and disinformation.

Enter News Intelligence, a data-driven analysis of social media platforms by our team of journalists. This team has devised ways of understanding the flow of information and disinformation from the fringes to the mainstream. We believe the work this team is doing, in-depth, detailed and painstaking, is akin to the investigative reporting of old: the principles and methods remain the same. 

In this episode of the Storyful podcast, and with an eye on the US midterms this November, we ask the question: is news intelligence the antidote to what we’ve come to know as fake news in election coverage?