Media literacy training
Our fact-checking training program, launched in 2018 with the support of the Google News Initiative and run in collaboration with local partners, trained over 15,000 journalists and journalism students and resulted in the launch of many fact-checking initiatives in the country.
More recently in 2020, as the world battled an ‘infodemic’, Internews launched a news and information literacy program that helps new internet users in smaller cities and rural areas of India assess online information better and identify hoaxes. The program- FactShala – (supported by Google News Initiative and Google.org and in collaboration with a local partner)– brought together a core team of 253 journalists, community radio professionals, media faculty members, nonprofit workers and community leaders from across India who have so far organized over 900 sessions for at least 35,000 people. This also included community radio broadcasts in 10+ languages.
In 2021, Over 7000 students from 120+ schools have also been trained on media and information literacy as part of our commitment to take this work further.
Mobile Journalism and Capacity Building
Internews in India also supported a Mobile Journalism training program with the help of local partners for 140 professional journalists and citizen journalists to strengthen their ability to cover stories of their choice using their mobile phones and provide impartial and objective reporting. Three of our fellows were awarded the YouTube Creators Grant.
Rural reporters from three states in India were trained on mobile journalism to cover stories around them and use social media to amplify voices from the marginalised communities. This course will be made available for the public.
