BOOM Live will spearhead the media literacy program in partnership with MediaWise of the nonprofit Poynter Institute and with support from Google.
BOOM received applications from over 100 teenagers across the country. We shortlisted 32 of them and after a comprehensive elimination process, we selected our final 13!
This select group of 13 teen fact-checkers will pitch, write and record 10 fact-checks covering technology, health and nutrition, education, and finance. Fact checks will be done in English as well as other regional languages, and published on BOOM’s YouTube, Instagram and Linkedin social profiles.
“At BOOM, we’re honoured 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 to 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.”
These 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 social feeds.
“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.”
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.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy centre that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media, and 21st-century public discourse. 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. 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. Explore programs and be part of the solution at poynter.org/mediawise.
