Trust and Truth in Media Fund

In developing countries, where access to information can face significant hurdles and where press freedom often remains elusive, “information dystopia” can undercut efforts to improve health, make disasters worse than they already are, alienate vulnerable populations, and even incite violence. The most important piece of the solution is building locally relevant, trusted information – that’s the best antidote to fake news.

Take our work in the Ukraine, a country which has spent most of its post-Soviet existence on the front line of an information and propaganda war. It’s a country that knows all too well that fake news is most certainly not a one-off. Conflict in the east and Russia’s annexation of Crimea have been accompanied by a tidal wave of propaganda and counter-propaganda. Ukrainian audiences also have to pick through various domestic editorial bad-practices such as jeansa stories on radio and TV: pieces that have been paid for by politicians wanting to be portrayed in a positive light. (It’s called “jeansa” because the cash ends up in the jeans pockets of participating journalists.) However, because of these stark circumstances, Ukraine has also become an unlikely laboratory of solutions to defend the truth.  Our partners, The Academy of Ukrainian Press (AUP) has successfully campaigned to build media and information literacy into the national curriculum. Critical thinking, understanding of media structures and content are now fully integrated into a range of social subjects. It’s been inspiring to hear stories of teenagers in Ukraine educating their parents and grandparents on the skills needed to tell fact from fiction. The positive impact of this approach has been backed up by years of research and offers a large-scale example of best practice.

In Kenya we’ve been working to improve the professionalism and capacity of the Kenyan media and to promote Media Literacy, with a particular focus on health and replacing health myths with useful and reliable health information.  Internews fosters media literacy by increasing the amount of trustworthy health information and creating new platforms for civil society organizations and citizens to engage with health journalists and health professionals. Internews increased citizen dialogue with experts and public officials by increasing the numbers of HIV/AIDS related call-in programmes by supporting talk show hosts in counteracting social stigma, confusion, denial and erroneous stereotypes concerning HIV/AIDS.

 If you get the media right, every other development impact goes better. If people have the information they need and are able to engage with it then shelter, water and education programmes all work better. By acting now to ensure that Internews is here for another 35 years to ensure that people have “their media,” not “the media”. With your help we can develop more projects like these that provide local solutions to create global change.