April 5, 2018 by Stephanie Farid

MediaWise is an initiative lead by Poynter aiming to teach teens about the difference between fact and fiction online.

The starting team on the project will include three members, an editor, a reporter and a designer. The remaining staff will be made up of “teen fact checkers”-teenagers that are trained in finding out what is true out there and what is not.

Eventually, the vision is for the curriculum to be brought to classrooms around America.

The project is similar to the popular website PolitiFact, with regards to the fact-checking, however it differs in many ways. MediaWise will not be a website, but a platform on every form of social media. The plan is to go to the reader, debunking fiction on the same feed it was posted, in order to save the  the reader from having to go out of their way to seek the truth. It will be checking pop culture and other real news, it will not be political at all.

Ingrid Nilsen and John Green are among the many YouTubers on board with the initiative, volunteering their time towards spreading awareness about the importance of finding the difference between what is true or not online.

Poynter received a $3 million grant from Google to start this project. They are trying to make the biggest impact with the small amount of resources that they have and hope that the impact they make will open gates for more future funding.

“Democracy works best when citizens can make decisions for themselves based on accurate, independent and honest information,” said Poynter Institute president Neil Brown in a press release on March 20. “Poynter is honored to be part of MediaWise, which aims to help the next generation of voters have that power, and to reduce the spread of misinformation, which is polluting our civic life.”