Google News partners with Canadian Journalism Foundation with $1 million grant to combat fake news

Google News is giving a $1 million CAD grant to the Canadian Journalism Fund for the creation of a news literacy campaign that will help educate Canadians on navigating information and misinformation.

The initiative called NewsWise, will be developed based off of a classroom program the CJF created and will be launched before the upcoming election. The grant will help Canadian publishers “with tools to educate their audiences on how to understand and navigate an increasingly complex information environment.”

Tools will include interactive PSAs and hubs that are developed with experts, and these will be hosted on media news outlets.

According to an Earnscliffe Strategy Group study, 53 percent of Canadians have read stories where facts were not placed properly or were used to push a specific agenda and 46 percent of respondents saw headlines that looked like news but were articles that contained paid content.

As a result, 85 percent of Canadians strongly agreed or agreed that this confused them on not knowing which politician to trust.

“To be an engaged citizen is to have access to quality journalism,” Richard Gingras, vice-president of Google News, said in a release. “That’s why we’re thrilled to support the Canadian Journalism Foundation in expanding NewsWise, so that Canadians of all ages understand how to find and filter authoritative information online. News literacy is fundamental to a healthy democracy and a central pillar of the Google News Initiative.”

The goal is to make the initiative available before the upcoming federal election in the fall.

Source: Canadian Journalism Foundation

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