ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (March 1, 2024) – Twenty groups have been awarded a total of $2 million in grants to help grow the capacity and sustainability of fact-checkers to fight misinformation around the world, the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute announced Friday.
Poynter, a global leader in journalism, is home to the IFCN, which is administering the $12 million Global Fact Check Fund, established by a grant from Google and YouTube. Today, the IFCN announced the winners of the Fund’s third phase of grants, called ENGAGE, which is aimed at scaling audience and stakeholder engagement in local and regional spaces
The proposals selected for funding will all strengthen the global network of fact-checkers that is essential for the fight against dangerous misinformation, said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the IFCN.
“The winning proposals put forward innovative, impactful fact-checking projects that will make a difference around the world. With upcoming elections and the arrival of generative artificial intelligence, fact-checkers need resources to engage and innovate,” Holan said.
The funded proposals include:
- Newschecker in India will seek to empower senior citizens to combat misinformation and be digitally sufficient. Seniors have unique challenges in navigating the digital landscape and discerning credible information, and the organization notes that by 2031, India will have 194 million people above the age of 60.
- Fake News Tragač in Serbia will focus on increasing audience engagement through various communication strategies, content tailoring and website and social media optimization. It will also employ eye-tracking technology to get insights into how the audience responds to fact checks. They believe that this can contribute valuable knowledge to the broader fact-checking community and to the overall efficacy of fact-checking initiatives.
- HKBU Fact Check in Hong Kong is preparing a public information literacy exhibition and student-directed fact-checking workshops to promote exposure to the practice of fact-checking, with the overarching goal of enhancing students’ literacy in navigating both news media and social platforms.
- Colombiacheck in Colombia is activating El Gato Chequeador (The Cat-Checker) to deliver an interactive El Gato ChequeBot (The Cat-Checker Bot) via WhatsApp. El Gato Chequeador will also elevate a brand awareness strategy, targeting young students in colleges or universities and teenagers in schools, to include augmented reality pedagogical experiences and media literacy based on the same pet character.
The ENGAGE grants are intended to cross-pollinate features across technology channels, explore new target markets, capture audience research metrics and analytics, employ digital media, enhance community engagement, or apply innovation and experimentation to develop tools for fact-checking.
The full list of ENGAGE recipients is here, listed by name and country:
Agence France-Presse (AFP), France
Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative, Nigeria
Chequeado, Argentina
Colombiacheck, Colombia
Demagog, Poland
Doğruluk Payı, Turkey
Fact Crescendo, India
Faktograf, Croatia
Maldita, Spain
HKBU Fact Check, Hong Kong
Ideosync Media Combine, India
Liputan6.com, Indonesia
Mongolian Factchecking Center, Mongolia
Newschecker, India
FakeNews Tragač, Serbia
Redes Cordiais and Lupa, Brazil
Science Feedback, France
Facta and Pagella Politica, Italy
Factcheck.org, North America
Wisconsin Watch, North America
These grants follow the first phase of the fund, called BUILD, which awarded grants to verified signatories of the IFCN’s Code of Principles, and GROW, which allowed for non-signatory organizations to apply with the endorsement of a verified signatory as long as the projects worked to advance fact-checking. The announcement of winners of the ENGAGE phase marks the end of the three-tier round for 2023. Two more rounds for 2024 and 2025 are upcoming.
The next phase of the effort, BUILD for 2024, will open grant applications in March. Those grants of $25,000 will provide material and logistical support for ongoing operations and to support capacity building. The IFCN will hold a question-and-answer session for the community about the BUILD grants in March at a date to be scheduled.
Media Contact:
Angie Drobnic Holan
Director, International Fact-Checking Network
aholan@poynter.org
+1-727-410-1770
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About the International Fact-Checking Network
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter was launched in 2015 to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world and advocates of factual information in the global fight against misinformation. We enable fact-checkers through networking, capacity building and collaboration. IFCN promotes the excellence of fact-checking to more than 100 organizations worldwide through advocacy, training and global events. Our team monitors trends in the fact-checking field to offer resources to fact-checkers, contribute to public discourse and provide support for new projects and initiatives that advance accountability in journalism. We believe truth and transparency can help people be better informed and equipped to navigate harmful misinformation.
