Facebook, Mozilla, the City University of New York (CUNY), nonprofit organizations and other leaders in the tech industry have launched a $14 million fund to fight fake news and advance news literacy. The money according to reports will be invested in News Integrity Initiative with the objective of increasing trust in journalism and better informing the public.
Other backers of this investment include the Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Tow Foundation, AppNexus, and Betaworks.
The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism has been tasked to administer the project.
In a statement, Campbell Brown Facebook’s head of news partnership said: “As part of the Facebook Journalism Project, we want to give people the tools necessary to be discerning about the information they see online. Improving news literacy is a global concern, and this diverse group assembled by CUNY brings together experts from around the world to work toward building more informed communities.”
Presently, 19 organisations and individuals have signed up to work on this new project, including:
- Arizona State University in the U.S.
- Center for Community and Ethnic Media at CUNY Journalism School in the U.S.
- Constructive Institute at Aarhus University in Denmark
- Edelman based in the U.S.
- European Journalism Centre in the Netherlands
- Fundación Gabriel García Márquez para el Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) based in Colombia
- Hamburg Media School in Germany
- Hans-Bredow-Institut in Germany
- The Ida B. Wells Society in the U.S.
- International Center for Journalists based in the U.S.
- News Literacy Project based in the U.S.
- Polis, London School of Economics in the U.K.
- Ecole de Journalisme de Sciences Po (Sciences Po Journalism School) in France
- The Society of Publishers in Asia based in Hong Kong
- Trust Project based in the U.S.
- Walkley Foundation in Australia
- Weber Shandwick based in the U.S.
- Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Division for Freedom of Expression and Media Development headquartered in France.
This is a wonderful development because the internet is overwhelmed and replete with fake news that you can barely differentiate between original and fake news. Hence, the News Integrity Initiative will significantly improve combat fake news and help people understand what journalism is all about.
