A Google ad at a global journalism festival, & a Russian train
A vibrant journalism conference, journalists talking about how they risked their lives reporting on the Russian war in Ukraine. And a Google News Initiative video ad, that features a Russian train. Five Minute OISNT insight.
A scene of an ordinary train in a video ad from Google News Initiative at the Journalism Festival that supposingly shows scenes from Italy’s region of Umbria and its capital Perugia. Nothing wrong with that. No?
The video is only 2 minutes long. Scenes of beautiful churches, piazzas, blue sky, exciting bike tracks, people holidaying, smiling tourists. It is played right before every presentation at this week’s Journalism Festival in Perugia.
Dozens of panels and presentations are given here, hundreds of journalists flew in this year. Thousands of visitors line up to see them speak. The panel on Saturday is called “The complexity of covering your own country at war”. Its features the Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musaieva, the editor of Ukrainska Pravda, who discusses the perils of covering the Russian attack on her country.
While we wait for the session to begin, the video ad by Google is playing on the big video screen. But there is a problem. My seat neighbor leans over. He is a Ukrainian reporter who knows the speaker well. He pulls a face as he watches the ad and exclaims that something is odd about the content. The included a scene with a Russian train, he says.
The video plays five times more before the session starts. The short scene of the train, with its red letters, takes no longer than one second. But it is a meaningful second. Thought, the research shows it’s uncertain that the train scene did take place in Italy. It does put an ill faded spin on how Google selects content.
Quick OSINT lession on Russian train identification
The gray train with a red sign belongs to the Russian Railway company RZD. Google’s own product, Google Lens, confirms this with its reverse image search capabilities the nature of the train.
On the side of the train, there is the following numbers inscribed: “078”. “0” at the beginning means that this carriage is suitable for passengers transporting. Two following digits are identifying the owner of carriage. Thus, the number 078 means that this is passenger carriage that belongs to the Sverdlovsk branch of the Russian Railway. The list of codes can be found here https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Железнодорожный_код_приписки
Then “10872”, the production number, according to a post by the website Bilety-na-poezd, a Russian railway ticket site. It offers an explainer on what those numbers indicate.
So called Tavria trains. They operate between the main parts of Russia and Crimea. Numbers between 0 and 150 belong to the categories of this type of train. It’s a high-speed train, and it fits the bill of the train shown in the video. The number 078 belongs to the Sverdlovsk branch of the Russian Railway.
The five digits below have each a different meaning. The first number indicates the type of carriage. In this case, 1 indicates it’s a compartment train. A sleeping compartment with 36 seats. 2 would mean a reserved seat wagons and 3 means a seated salon, 4 — bank or postage wagon, 5 — baggage wagon. Further, 087 indicates the serial number of a carriage. The number 2 revers to the control number.
The number 078 belongs to the Sverdlovsk branch of Russian Railway. Now to the umbers below. The five digits have meaing, each on its own. The first number indicates the type of carrage. In this case 1 indicates its a compartment. A sleeping compartment with 36 seats. 2 means reserved seat wagons and 3 means a seated salon. 087 indicates the serial number of a carriage. The number 2 revers to the control number.
Since Google launched the video, it is still surprising it didn’t end up on their YouTube account, yet. Maybe it never will. What happened here was most likely unintentional. Stock footage has caused other campaigns serious headaches and embarrassment. A commercial ad by the conservative German party CDU caused outrage after people figured out it didn’t feature the Reichstag (the German Parliament), as insinuated by its producers. But the presidential palace in Tbilisi, in Georgia. It is assumed that AI was responsible for the mess. Is there a chance that AI did also pick the wrong scene for the ad by Google News?
With Google coming to terms with its role in journalism, such a faux pas is embarrassing. I use Google every day. I am grateful what capabilities it brought to journalism. But going with such an ad to a journalism festival and playing it hundreds of times at sessions with journalists covering the Ukraine war, could have been, and perhaps, should have been avoided.
