Mass Media and Journalism

The African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA) is a network of media and civil society organizations that work to counter misinformation. The network supports fact-checking missions to debunk dangerous content, including conspiracy theories and misinformation.

The African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI) is an initiative supporting media and NGOs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal to identify and address problematic behaviour in the information space. The initiative will supply training and mentorship, as well as resources and support from the ICFJ's other teams and partners.
 

Communalytic is a computational social science research tool for studying online communities and discourse. This resource uses advanced text and social network analysis techniques to automatically pinpoint toxic and anti-social interactions, detect bots, assess posts’ sentiments, identify influencers, map shared interests and the spread of misinformation, and detect signs of possible coordination among seemingly disparate actors.

There are two versions:

The ICFJ Knight Fellowship programme in Nigeria is building collaborations among journalists, fact checkers and social media influencers to combat misinformation about health and other critical issues in Nigeria. With more than 33 million monthly Facebook users and 25 million monthly Twitter users, Africa’s most populous country is known for a lively and free-wheeling social media climate replete with rumors and false information.

Internews’ Thwarting Disinformation and Promoting Quality Information in Haitian Media project will limit the impact of inflammatory rhetoric, false news and disinformation. The project strengthens understanding of the challenges facing Haiti’s information environment and equip local CSOs with the tools and skills to thwart disinformation and promote reliable, trusted and relevant information.

Center for Media Research – Nepal (CMR Nepal) is an autonomous, research and policy-oriented, not-for-profit non-governmental policy think tank registered with Nepal Government and Social Welfare Council  and is based in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

CMR-Nepal’s main focus is to enhance the knowledge content of policy making and media development by conducting researches aimed at informing Nepal’s policymakers and media stakeholders.

Within the disinformation and memory studies direction, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) team is developing tools in several ways. Firstly, IDFI research historical roots and disinformation narratives that are weaponized in contemporary times. Secondly, IDFI develops academic courses that are offered to the students in schools of media and social sciences, and to representatives of CSOs and civil servants.

The implementation period for Suara Masyarakat (SM) or ‘Community Voices’ in Bahasa Malaysia, officially began in January 2020. SM is a three-year project funded by the EU and implemented by Internews in Malaysia together with local partners to build the capacity of Malaysian journalists to deliver high quality investigative and data journalism on the reform processes in the country. Moreover, SM aims to develop community information media and networks to improve governance by providing two-way communication between citizens and local authorities mainly through ‘MOJO Kita!

The Initiative for Media Freedom (IMF) is a five-year program implemented by Internews and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Internews and its partners work collaboratively to enhance democratic governance that provides economic, political, and social inclusion and advances social stability. The Initiative for Media Freedom will advance media capacity by improving the environment for a free press, bolstering capacity of media and other organizations to address disinformation, and strengthening media self-regulation in the Philippines.

The USAID-funded Media Program in Ukraine will empower local media to expand Ukrainian citizens’ access to high-quality news and information. This project, implemented by Internews from 2018-2023, is the largest media development activity in Ukraine’s history, and represents a significant US $35m investment in Ukraine’s independent media sector. The last four years have seen a raft of important media reforms in the realms of access to information, transparency of media ownership and public service broadcasting.