Since there are very few accepted standards and norms for anonymization in journalism, we decided on a format using a mosaic mask in Adobe Premiere/After Effects as suggested by several media organizations we consulted. Other anonymization techniques such as backlighting or using lighting that obscures facial features would not work as comparators since we aimed to retain discernible facial features in our output. Our source footage for the experiment was recorded in a studio under controlled conditions, but due to scheduling constraints we did not achieve the level of diversity among our actors that we would have liked — although we do have gender balance.

Categories: Journalism, Presentation