The social-first digital media literacy program MediaWise of the nonprofit Poynter Institute continues the international growth of its Teen Fact-Checking Network with an expansion in India.
In partnership with BOOM Live India, and with support from Google, a select group of teen fact-checkers will pitch, write and record 10 fact checks covering technology, health and nutrition, education, and finance. Fact checks will be conducted in both English and Hindi, and can be found on BOOM’s YouTube, Instagram and Linkedin social profiles.
“At BOOM, we’re honored and excited to be running the Teen Fact-Checking Network in India,” said H R Venkatesh, Director, Training and Research, BOOM Live, about the partnership.
Venkatesh shared how the TFCN will address the misinformation challenges that Indian teens face.
“One, it involves young people who will no doubt influence their peers to pause, think and do some digging before believing whatever they see and hear. Two, they’re learning and teaching not just fact-checking but also media literacy, which means they’re learning to find answers but also ask the right questions. And three, they’re doing it in the best way to scale educational messages, which is through journalistic content and video.”
BOOM Live staffers lead a meeting with the MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network’s India newsroom.
Indian teens will weave media literacy into the fact-checking process, presenting the evidence that informed their decision to rate a claim. This transparent approach is aimed at building trust in journalism and fact-checking, and equipping teens with the ability to debunk claims they see on their own social feeds.
The TFCN was launched in 2019 with a goal of reaching 1 million teenagers across the U.S. MediaWise has since exceeded 12 million views of TFCN-produced videos across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
“Misinformation in India has led to violent real-world consequences, division and threats to public health. But, the country has one of the strongest fact-checking presences in the world, and a formidable list of media literacy programs to fight back against falsehoods,” said Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise. “We’re excited to partner with an organization like BOOM that’s doing both, as our program’s been combining fact-checking and media literacy to address misinformation since we began.”
After four years of reaching teens through peer-to-peer learning in the United States, the Teen Fact-Checking Network expanded to Latin America and Europe in April 2023, through partnerships with Lupa in Brazil and Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) in Germany.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media, and 21st-century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at newsrooms, conferences, and organizations around the world. Its e-learning division offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum, with hundreds of interactive courses and tens of thousands of registered international users. The Institute’s website produces 24-hour coverage about media, ethics, technology, and the business of news. Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the International Fact-Checking Network and MediaWise, a digital information literacy project for young people, first-time voters, and senior citizens. The world’s top journalists and media innovators rely on Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians, and broadcasters. This work builds public awareness about journalism, media, the U.S. First Amendment, and discourse that serves democracy and the public good. Learn more at poynter.org.
About MediaWise
MediaWise is a social-first digital media literacy initiative of the nonprofit Poynter Institute. The program teaches people of all ages and backgrounds how to responsibly engage with online content in the age of information overload. The fact-checking enterprise was created in 2018 to empower citizens to find trusted sources and make sense of the vast amount of information at their fingertips. We bring simple, yet effective, digital media literacy tools to people where they are — whether they’re on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or TikTok or in one of the six countries where MediaWise operates — and walk them through every step to determine what’s real and what’s not on the internet. Through MediaWise, everyone can do their part to reduce the spread of misinformation and elevate the truth. Follow MediaWise on social media to learn how to debunk viral claims and be more critical consumers of online information. Explore programs and be part of the solution at poynter.org/mediawise.
About BOOM
BOOM Live is an independent digital journalism initiative with a mission to fight misinformation, explain issues and make the internet safer. BOOM Live is a leading fact-checking organization in India, committed to providing readers with journalistically verified facts.