January 24, 2020
In communities across the country, broadcasters provide Americans’ most trusted news. This is especially important during an election year, when evaluating the accuracy of news is vital on the national, state and local levels. Broadcasters are renewing their commitment to fact-checking and using innovative new tools to combat the constantly changing methods of disinformation.
Broadcast group TEGNA is working with First Draft, a nonprofit that supports journalists, academics and technologists working to address trust and truth in the digital age, to train all of its journalists to combat disinformation. First Draft will train TEGNA’s journalists across the company’s 49 newsrooms to identify false information online to help audiences distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information.
TEGNA is also expanding VERIFY, its stations’ news fact-checking initiative, by adding additional regional fact-checkers to provide transparency into the reporting process and authenticate topics and news submitted by viewers.
“As we head into 2020, providing trustworthy news and information remains our highest priority,” said Ellen Crooke, vice president of news, TEGNA. “Journalists are trained to search for the truth. Today, they must also be highly skilled at identifying false information and understanding how best to stop the spread of that information. News consumers are demanding transparent, trustworthy content and they want help in deciphering what is real and what is false in their social media feeds.”
To carry on the fight, First Draft is hosting a series of workshops across the country to help journalists and community leaders develop tools and strategies to have a positive influence during breaking news events where disinformation and media manipulation are at play.
These events will include a live simulation, which places journalists in the center of a high-intensity breaking news story and challenges them to make reporting decisions in real time. The purpose of the exercise is to equip journalists with the skills needed to identify manipulation efforts and networked coordination designed to cause confusion and mislead.
It's this commitment to localism, fairness and accuracy that makes local TV and radio America’s most trusted news source. Local broadcasters are working to provide the stories that matter most to you.
More than 2.47 million American jobs depend on broadcasting, and the local broadcast radio and television industry - and the businesses that depend on it - generate $1.17 trillion annually for the nation's economy.
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