Global Fact-Checking Mentorship Program
The Global Fact-Checking Mentorship has concluded. We hope to launch another iteration of the program at a future date.Â
The International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute in partnership with Meta is pleased to announce the launch of a global mentorship program that will leverage the expertise of member organizations in the peer-to-peer exchange of information. These programs will later be scaled to be offered to the wider IFCN community; deliverables for scaled training can include webinars, online courses, case studies, etc. Up to $450,000 will be awarded, with both mentors and mentees receiving compensation.
Applications for mentees are closed.
Applications for mentors have closed.
The International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute will partner with Meta to distribute $450,000 in grant support to support fact-checkers and ecosystem partners to participate in a mentorship program.
Overview:
The Global Fact-Checking Mentorship Program will match signatories to the IFCN with demonstrated expertise in specific topics with other IFCN signatory organizations with an interest in enhancing skill sets in those areas.Â
The selected mentors are listed below:
dpa-Infocom GmbH (Germany) | Boost your fact-checking training
This global news agency offers custom training for fact-checkers to hone their skills and improve the quality of their services. As experts in journalism instruction and verification methods, dpa established its own e-learning platform, dpa-factify.com, which is packed with educational videos, one-pagers and interactive exercises for fact-checkers. Video consultations are available in English, French, Dutch or German, and highly effective for onboarding new fact-checkers or expanding business operations.
Fatabyyano (Jordan) | Drawing out the health fact-checking protocol
Fatabyyano provides fact-checkers with the tools, techniques and resources to investigate health misinformation and disinformation. The training addresses the different types of medical studies, the most common mistakes journalists make when dealing with medical articles, and reasons why people believe health misinformation. By the end of this program, the mentor and mentees will work as a group to create well-structured, informative and authentic protocols and guidelines that support the fact-checkers who deal with health-related misinformation around the world. Best practices will be published and translated into six languages.
Maldita.es (Spain) | Advocacy to fight disinformation
Maldita.es is hosting institutional discussions on policies that affect the global fact-checking community and can improve the universal information ecosystem citizens live in. This mentorship will guide organizations on how to define a position on public policies and how to guide their relationships with other stakeholders in order to further their influence, without compromising editorial independence and legitimate interests. After the workshop, mentees will receive personalized sessions for the elaboration of position papers and strategies that will allow them to start or improve the advocacy, lobbying or policy work in their regions.
Nest Center for Journalism Innovation & Development NGO (Mongolia) | Product immersion for fact-checking organizations
This mentorship program is tailored to help fact-checking organizations diversify their income sources by developing fact-checking as a product that serves specific consumer and community needs. Inspired by the media industry’s journey to instill an audience-centered product approach, the program focuses on building a product-thinking culture within the fact-checking newsroom, starting from listening to customer needs to earning additional revenue, while staying compliant with IFCN principles. Mentees will learn to recognize and identify the needs of audiences, build a product team, prototype, measure and iterate the product. As a result, mentees will be able to develop fact-checking products in-house, possibly diversify their organization’s income source and build a community around the values their products create.
BLOGOSFERA PRODUCCIONES SAS: La Silla VacÃa (Colombia) | Osint and humor in fact-checking
La Silla VacÃa is helping fact-checkers create and produce videos to scale the impact of their verification efforts and reach more people. The team is dedicated to developing and improving digital-first products, especially across social media platforms. La Silla VacÃa will teach fact-checkers how to produce effective videos through a series of workshops and a bespoke program to help mentees create a successful audiovisual product. By the end of the program, participants will be able to create a new video product that suits their strategy and needs. The program also features a short digital course that teaches the larger audience how to communicate fact checks with innovative formats.
Asociación Convoca (Peru) | Innovative formats, bigger audiences
Asociación Convoca is teaching fact-checkers how to use innovative formats, such as podcasts and online video games, to develop fact-checking news products for Indigenous communities and young people. The program will train digital fact-checking organizations in the planning and development of a creative workflow to approach innovation based on the public’s specific needs and context. The underlying goal of this project is to provide mentorship on how to use innovation as a transversal element to build effective relationships with unserved audiences, which will in turn result in greater interaction and engagement rates for the organization.
Eligibility and selection criteria are detailed below. Selected mentors will receive $50,000, distributed in payments outlined in the Terms and Conditions. Selected mentees will receive $5,000 upon completion of the training.
If you have any questions regarding the application process, please feel free to reach out to factchecknet@poynter.org.
Eligibility CriteriaÂ
Mentors:
- The program is open to IFCN signatories, fact-checking organizations as well as ecosystem partners that have demonstrated success or expertise in a given area.
- Mentors will be required to provide educational materials to support other fact-checkers & journalists
- Applications that include a partnership between an IFCN signatory and another organization will also be considered but would require an additional MOU which will be provided in the application
Demonstrated expertise is defined as documented success in developing or implementing training and development on a core topic area. Examples might include:
- Previous completed project in the subject area with success metrics
- Previously conducted training/teaching
- Existing training materials or curricula on the subject matter
- Public recognition or awards around the organizations establish success in a given area
Mentees:
- This program is open to IFCN signatories, fact-checking units and aspiring fact-checking units; IFCN accreditation is not required to participate as a mentee.
- Mentees will be required to commit to completing all required training and assignments.
- Demonstrated interest in mentorship topic
Key dates
November 2, 2021
Applications for mentors open
December 15, 2021
Applications for mentors close
April 5, 2022
Announcement of mentors and applications for mentees opens
April 29, 2022 (day TBD)
Applications for mentees close
May 2022
Announcement of mentees
May 2022 – November 2022
Mentorship period
Mentor selection criteria
The selection committee will review mentor projects against the following criteria, which will be weighted equally:
- The training is relevant to a global and/or regional audience, even if initial programs or trainings were initially conducted in narrower settings.
- The proposed topic area can be scaled into a training deliverable for the greater fact-checking community, across geographic borders, languages, etc.
- Does the application reflect a strong actionable plan to achieve the intended goals of the project?
- Does the proposal meet a high priority and timely topic for the fact-checking community? See example topic areas in the previous sections.
Mentee selection criteria
The selection committee (comprised of members of IFCN, Meta and designated mentors) will review projects against the following criteria:
- Mentee has a demonstrated area of interest in selected topic that corresponds to its business objectivesÂ
- Mentee commits to participating in required trainings and completes all assigned tasks
- Mentee demonstrates adherence to the journalist standards of the Poynter Institute and the International Fact-Checking Network.
- Mentee shows potential for transformational growth
Terms and conditions
This grant is subject to Terms and Conditions, including the following restrictions and requirements:
- Mentor applications will be accepted from Nov. 2 – Dec. 3, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time
- Mentee applications will be accepted from April 5 – April 29, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time
- Applicants must meet the eligibility requirements outlined in section A for their corresponding applicant categoryÂ
- All evaluation criteria will be weighted equally. See a list of criteria outlined in the corresponding section.
- All candidates must provide the application criteria outlined in the corresponding section.
- Selected mentors may be tasked with mentoring as few as one organization and as many as five.
- Selected mentors will receive $50,000, distributed in payments of:Â
-
- $20,000 delivered upon initial acceptance into the program
- $20,000 delivered upon completion of the mentoring
- $10,000 upon completion of the scaled training program
-
- Selected mentees will receive $5,000 upon completion of the training.
- Mentorship must be completed by Aug. 15, 2022.
- Deliverables for larger community must launch no earlier than Oct. 1, 2022 and be completed by Dec. 16, 2022.
- Scaled training can consist of a variety of educational material, including self-directed coursework, webinars, question and answer/panel discussions, case studies, etc.Â
- Each grant recipient is expected to schedule three quarterly assessment sessions with an adviser from the selection committee and/or a member of the IFCN staff.
- Each grant recipient must provide IFCN with two short narrative reports and two financial reports: one of each at the midpoint of the project (about three months in) and one of each after the end of the 6-month project term. These documents will be made publicly available.
- Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc. and Meta (directly and/or through a third party (e.g., Submittable) may collect personally identifiable information to perform certain compliance checks and sanctions screenings.
- National or legal residents of a jurisdiction where the laws of the United States or local law prohibits participating or receiving benefits in connection with a program such as this one or in which the United States has embargoed goods or services are not eligible to participate (including, without limitation, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and any other area or jurisdiction designated by the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control).
- Use of any Grant amount must comply with all applicable explicit or implicit terms and conditions or policies applicable for platforms, applications, software, tools, or other resources used by the fund’s recipient if any. Funds recipient must also comply with Facebook’s Privacy Principles available at https://www.facebook.com/about/basics/privacyprinciples, as well as any ethical standards applicable to the proposed project, as determined in Meta and IFCN’s sole discretion. As such, each Applicant must follow the spirit of such terms and conditions, principles, and policies; and any attempt to subvert or to use a workaround of such terms and conditions or policies may, in Meta and IFCN’s sole discretion, result in forfeiture of any Grant amounts awarded or disqualification from this Program
- Grant applicants are obligated to comply with all applicable laws and any additional compliance language requested in writing by Meta or IFCN (email acceptable).Â
- Grant applicants are obligated to supply Meta and/or Partner, as applicable, with any information reasonably requested in order to perform necessary due diligence and background checks.
- The grant recipient must agree not to use the funds provided in connection with the Program directly or indirectly, in any manner that would violate applicable laws, including, without limitation, in any manner that would constitute bribery, an illegal kickback, an illegal campaign contribution, or any other violation of applicable anti-corruption, political activity, economic sanctions, or other laws. The funds will not be used by the organization in any event to: (A) carry on propaganda or otherwise attempt to influence specific legislation; (B) influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive; or (C) utilize the Funds in a manner, not in furtherance of the purposes enumerated under 170(c)(2)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code.
- The grant program is subject to full Terms and Conditions are available here
Mentor Selection Committee
The selection committee will select projects based on a number of criteria. (See Below)Â
The mentorship period will run from May 2022 to November 2022. Mentors can be matched with up to five mentee organizations. Selected mentors are also expected to scale their projects to be shared with the wider community in October.
Yvonne Chua
Associate professor of Journalism
University of the Philippines
Yvonne T. Chua is an associate professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines. A longtime journalist, she has been associated with these fact-checking initiatives: Vera Files Fact Check, which she started in 2016 and led till early 2019; Tsek.ph, a pioneering collaborative fact-checking initiative for the 2019 Philippines elections; and the student-driven FactRakers for her students at the university. She is also an expert consultant and one of the mentors of the ongoing Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator project, which is assisting six Philippine newsrooms. Yvonne has done research on disinformation, hate speech, dangerous speech, and media and democracy.
Alanna Dvorak
International Training Manager
The International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute
Alanna Dvorak is the International Training Manager with IFCN, where she helps produce interactive learning materials for journalists around the globe. Prior to her current role at Poynter, Dvorak worked as an interactive learning producer at the Institute’s News University team. She began her career working as a local reporter for the Loudoun Times-Mirror, located just outside of Washington, D.C. in Northern Virginia, where she covered public safety, health and sports before earning a master’s degree in international development with a concentration in media development at the George Washington University.
Lucas Graves
Associate professor
University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Masato Kajimoto, PhD
Associate professor of practice
University of Hong Kong
Masato Kajimoto, PhD, is an associate professor of practice at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. He specializes in news literacy education and misinformation ecosystem research in Asia. He also founded a region-focused education NPO called ANNIE (Asian Network of News and Information Educators) and leads a student-driven fact-checking project called Annie Lab.
Milena Rosenzvit
Chief of educational programming
Chequeado
Milena Rosenzvit is head of Chequeado’s Education Program, at which she develops fact-checking education projects for journalists as well as Media and Information Literacy projects for young people in formal and nonformal education environments. Milena studied Biological Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and did a Master of Education at Harvard University.
Mark Stencel
Co-director
Duke Reporters’ Lab
Mark Stencel is co-director of the Duke Reporters’ Lab, where he studies the spread and impact of political fact-checking. He is NPR’s former managing editor for digital news and previously held senior positions at the Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly and CQ’s Governing magazine. He also covered science and technology for the News & Observer in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Stencel began his career at the Post as an assistant to political columnist David S. Broder.