Journalist, presenter, researcher.
Examples of video verification, geolocation and OSINT work with Storyful
Verifying UGC of breaking news events
Attacks on Tesla cars in the US became a regular occurrence throughout 2025 after Elon Musk joined President Donald Trump's team in the Whitehouse working in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In one visually dramatic incident, several Tesla cars were firebombed using Molotov cocktails at a dealership in Las Vegas.
The video was shared by a local news site shortly after the arson attack in the early hours of March 18 2025.
After taking over from the Storyful team in the US who began chasing the video, Aisling made contact with the source via telephone to verify details of the video and worked to geolocate the footage to confirm it was the same incident being investigated by local police.
​
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department held a press conference on March 18, confirming details of the attack which could be used for verifying the video and its location.
Once the source had agreed to provide the footage to Storyful, Aisling sought to share the video on the newswire as the story was emerging in the US. The police had provided the exact address of the Tesla repair shop in Las Vegas. Using other video evidence provided by LVMPD including CCTV footage Aisling was able to match the UGC with the police material, confirming the location.
Freeze frame from the source's video
Using Google Maps Streetview Aisling could see there were a row of houses directly opposite the Tesla repair shop, which confirmed the spot where the source filmed from. Also, the features of the entrance to the Tesla building, along with street furniture like a lamp and planted curbside, confirmed the location. You can watch the video here.
Google Maps Streetview
Mexican Navy Tall Ship Crashes into Brooklyn Bridge
As part of the role, Aisling was responsible for the APAC desk alone on weekends, tackling breaking news as it arose, and keeping in touch with US clients close to their evening deadlines to acquire content they wanted for their coverage.
On May 17 2025, she was working solo on the APAC desk when a Mexican navy tall ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, which resulted in fatalities. Aisling trawled social media for videos of the incident minutes after it happened, and had two videos up on the newswire within an hour of the incident.
This involved independent editorial decision making, as the incident was so high-profile profile with fatalities expected but not immediately confirmed. From her experience reporting on breaking news, Aisling knew it would be several hours before any deaths were confirmed by authorities. She decided to press ahead and only seek clearance for videos rather than enter licensing agreement with videos up on the newswire shortly after the event for clients who were trying to report on the incident.
Video: X/@TheWillieNelson
Searching across social web for UGC of particular video content
(Profanity) Video: Reddit/JimmieNuetron
Tornado season in the US in 2025 was in full swing when Aisling worked with the team in Sydney. Taking over from the US team each day, Aisling was tasked with discovering new content and pursuing strong leads on videos from areas wth suspected tornados across the social web.
User-generated content presents an opportunity to find videos from situations and angles that newsrooms would rarely capture with professional crews and journalists. A good example of this is when regular people find themselves in the path of a suspected tornado. In this case, Aisling used Reddit to find unusual angles of people caught in a dramatic storm and a suspected tornado in Kansas.
In this case, the user was completely anonymised by his Reddit handle, however in the video the source mentions Grinnell, which matched up as a town in Kansas that the National Weather Service warned would be affected by a possible tornado around that time.
Aisling got in touch with the source via Reddit, and he responded after a couple of hours. He shortly afterwards agreed to allow Storyful to share his video, and provided more video content than he had previously posted.
After acquiring the video, Aisling sought to get it out to clients as soon as possible as news of the suspected tornado began to emerge. However, the content of the video made geolocation particularly difficult as high winds and rain obscured most of the details. There was added difficulty too, as the source stopped responding to messages as Sydney office hours went past midnight in the US.
Not wanting to waste any time waiting for the source to come back to give a lead on where the footage was taken, Aisling went through the content frame by frame. Her first hint was the name of the town as mentioned in the video. Then a frame showing a basketball hoop and kids' playground led her to look up the schools in the town. After searching on Google Maps Streetview, Aisling found the back of Grinnell Grade School was the location of the video and was able to match up the basketball hoop, door, playground snadpit and fence. You can watch the full verified video on Storyful's YouTube.
Freeze frame from the source's video
Google Maps Streetview
Using TikTok to find compelling UGC from younger users
Wildfires in California raged in January 2025 and dominated much of the global news agenda leading to demand for reliable, verified and compelling video content. Shortly after beginning to work with Storyful in Sydney, Aisling was part of verifying videos of homes damaged by the fires.
This video was posted to TikTok in the days after fires ravaged more than 23,400 acres between Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Aisling and others in Storyful found the video, but it was only a short clip showing a damaged car.
However, the source was posting multiple videos from different angles of the building, leading Aisling to search for more footage from the source. Nearly four minutes of strong, quality user-generated content were acquired from the source in this case.
Filmed by Alana Hunter, the video shows the remnants of her home as she surveys the fire damage in a yellow hazmat suit and face mask. The first-person nature of the video, showing common household items like a laptop destroyed, made this a compelling video for newsrooms to use to demonstrate the difficulties faced by families in California attempting to rebuild.
After discovering this video on TikTok, Aisling worked to get in touch with the source, confirm that she filmed the video, details of her story and enter an agreement to share the video with newsrooms working with Storyful.
The next step was to verify the content, corroborate details and geolocate the footage. Much of this work was complicated by the intense damage done to houses and structures in the area. Aisling also matched the location of the video with reports from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which confirmed the areas affected by the fires. Watch the full verified video on Storyful's YouTube.
In many frames of the video provided by the source the majority of the houses and buildings in the area which would usually be used to help geolocation were completely destroyed by the fires.
Freeze frame from the source's video
However, in one part of the video, the source showed the front of her elementary school with the sign outside clearly visible. Using three points in common to geolocate Aisling could see that the school crest, the flagpole and the disabled parking sign were in the same spot.
Google Maps Streetview from 2023