Youth Media Literacy Fact Checking Manual

"Anyone with access to a mobile phone and the internet can share information, images and videos as if they are reporters, but without necessarily checking the veracity of the content."

 

This dis- and misinformation fact-checking toolkit is designed to equip youth with the knowledge and practical skills to stop the spread of false information. It was developed by Africa Check for young African journalism students as well as members of youth-focused non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs). The toolkit, which was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, seeks to provide an easily understandable overview of fact-checking with a focus on health information. Its goal is to help young people to understand false information, identify it, and decide when and how they can share information.



The toolkit was developed by Internews to support the Youth Media Literacy Program, a programme that forms part of the Advancing Rights in Southern Africa Program (ARISA), a five-year regional human rights programme operating across the southern Africa region and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Youth Media Literacy Program seeks to enhance the digital literacy skills of young people from university journalism students and young leaders from CSOs in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa. Through training, the programme works to guide young people in applying critical thinking to online communication as well as apply improved digital hygiene and digital security practices. This fact-checking manual was developed to provide additional support and tools to combat misinformation and disinformation and improve online behaviour and security.



The manual contains the following sections:

• The Importance of Accurate Reporting in the Digital Age - looks at how and why false information spreads, why fact-checking and facts matter, what can be fact-checked, and the impact of bias and how it influences the stories we tell.
• The Sharing of Information Traffic Light - describes the use of the "traffic light" to help make decisions on what information can or should not be shared. The traffic light offers a list of questions to help assess whether information falls into the red, green, or yellow category.
• Fact-Checking News - deals with dis- and misinformation that comes in the form of news, which can be from reputable news sources or questionable ones.
• Fact-Checking Political Statements and Information - deals with dis- and misinformation that comes from politicians or that relates to political discourse. It offers a list of questions to help young people identify false information and verify the content of a claim before it is shared.
• Fact-Checking Information on Social Media - deals with dis- and misinformation on open social media networks, meaning platforms that are not encrypted, such as Twitter or Facebook.
• Tips for Sharing (or not Sharing) Posts on Social Media - offers tips on how to verify the source of the content as well as the content itself.
• Fact-Checking Information on Closed Social Media Networks - deals with dis- and misinformation on closed social media networks such as WhatsApp.
• What's Crap on WhatsApp - looks at a podcasting show started by Africa Check in partnership with the podcasting platform company, Volume, called "What Crap on WhatsApp". It deals with issues related to disinformation and allows subscribers to send in information to be fact-checked.
• The Five-Step Fact-Checking Process - provides readers with an overview of the five-step fact-checking process that is used by Africa Check to verify information.
• Verification Tools for Images and Videos - looks at tools such as Google reverse image search and TinEye and offers guidance on how to verify Twitter Accounts and how to determine possible crowd size.
• Useful Resources - provides a list of organisations and resources that can help young journalists find the best and latest data and research results, as well as experts who might be able to put the data into perspective.