Verification, Disordered Discourse, and the Repair of Democratic Reality Webinar
A two-hour webinar with Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat
9 November 2026, 9-11 am EST New York time/ 3 -5 pm CET Amsterdam time
Price: EUR 175
Democracy doesn’t fail simply because lies spread; it fails when reality loses its leverage. When knowing what’s true no longer holds power accountable, the system breaks down. This online training examines how we arrived here, how to diagnose the crisis, and how to repair it.
Grounded in the VDA framework (Verification, Deliberation, Accountability) and the concept of distributed verification, this session moves from diagnosis, to anatomy, to response.
- We begin with the information environment itself: how the twentieth-century pyramid of institutional gatekeepers gave way to a flat, algorithmically amplified network, and why — under conditions of attention scarcity and emotional intensity — identity-based belief systems reliably outcompete evidence-based ones.
- We then map disordered discourse in detail: its elements, drivers, agents, and stages, and trace how it escalates from individual engagement to group identity, institutionalisation, and finally institutional capture, where distorted narratives are absorbed into the core functions of power.
- Finally, we turn to the response: what it means that verification has migrated out of legacy institutions and into distributed networks, and how open-source methods, deliberation and accountability can function as genuine democratic infrastructure rather than after-the-fact fact-checking.
This is not a doom-scroll through misinformation. It's a working framework for thinking clearly about a disordered information system, and for locating where intervention is actually possible.
Join Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins for two hours of presentation, framework walkthrough and worked examples, followed by an open Q&A.
What you’ll learn:
- Understand the network shift: How information moved from 20th-century institutional gatekeepers to flat, algorithmically amplified networks
- Unpack why viral beliefs win online: How speed, emotional intensity, and "survival of the fastest" allow identity-driven narratives to outcompete evidence
- Master the Disordered Discourse framework: Identify the core elements, drivers, agents, and stages of modern information decay
- Analyze institutional capture: Trace the governance failure cascade that embeds distorted narratives into the machinery of power
- Apply the VDA lens: Use Verification, Deliberation, and Accountability to diagnose systemic breakdowns as truth migrates out of legacy institutions
- Deploy new democratic infrastructure: Utilize open-source verification and distributed accountability as active tools for systemic repair
Experience level:
There are no prerequisite requirements for joining this webinar. Journalists, researchers, policymakers, educators, civil-society practitioners, and anyone working at the intersection of information, trust and democratic resilience. No technical background is assumed.
Logistics:
The webinar will be led by Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins who will guide you through the topic.
Zoom webinar joining details will be shared with participants in the week before the training.
Bellingcat training:
In case you would like to learn more about our training, please check our website for upcoming workshops and webinars matching your needs.
