Misinformation spreads online faster than ever these days — and it knows no borders. That’s why MediaWise’s Teen Fact-Checking Network, the Poynter Institute’s media literacy initiative, continues its global expansion.
The TFCN is a group of young people who teach media literacy by debunking viral claims online. With active TFCN newsrooms across the Americas, Europe and India, the program is expanding its European reach. Taking the lead on the European expansion is the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur, known as dpa, which has operated the German Teen Fact-Checking Network since 2023.
“Empowering teens with media literacy equips them with the skills to discern fact from fiction online, helping their overall digital wellbeing,” MediaWise deputy director Brittani Kollar said. “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with dpa Germany to expand TFCN across Europe, ensuring more students have access to these resources in their own language.”
Forming a European-wide coalition, dpa, Verificat Spain and Teach for Bulgaria, with assistance from MediaWise, launched TFCN Europe in September 2024. Joining the initiative with dpa, Verificat and Teach for Bulgaria are Factcheck.bg, BAIT/Digitaler Kompass in Austria, Faktabaari in Finland and Poligrafo in Portugal.
“We are delighted to be partnering with MediaWise to take this great initiative forward in Europe and bring even more countries on board. Disinformation crosses borders — as does the desire of young people to stand up for facts and media literacy,” said Teresa Dapp, Head of Fact-Checking Editorial at dpa.
The program, supported by the European Media Innovation Fund, is based upon the MediaWise TFCN model that encourages peer-to-peer learning, which is proven to help boost engagement and retention among students. As it begins its second cohort, TFCN Europe provides students the opportunity to be a part of a global initiative, while learning from journalists in their own country, in their native language about topics and trends that are relevant to them.
Each partnering organization teaches young people tools and techniques for recognizing false information online and how to consume information through media literacy skills. Teens ages 14-19, who apply and are accepted into the program, go through a series of workshops and then produce fact-checking videos for social media on claims of their own choosing, with a focus on topics of interest to young people. The project is currently funded as an 18-month program where the students will produce at least 120 videos across all six countries.
Media Contact
Jennifer Orsi
Vice President, Publishing and Local News Initiatives
Jorsi@poynter.org
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About MediaWise
MediaWise is a social-first digital media literacy initiative of the nonprofit Poynter Institute. The program teaches people of all ages and backgrounds how to responsibly engage with online content in the age of information overload. MediaWise was created in 2018 to empower citizens to find trusted sources and make sense of the vast amount of information at their fingertips. MediaWise brings simple, yet effective, digital media literacy tools to people where they are — whether they’re on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, or in one of the 10 countries where MediaWise operates — and walk them through every step to determine what’s real and what’s not on the internet. Through MediaWise, everyone can do their part to reduce the spread of misinformation and elevate the facts.
Follow MediaWise on social media to learn how to debunk viral claims and be more critical consumers of online information. Explore programs and be part of the solution at poynter.org/mediawise.
About dpa
The German Press Agency (dpa) was founded in 1949 and is one of the world’s leading independent news agencies. dpa supplies media groups, companies and organisations with editorial content. This includes texts, photos, videos, graphics, radio reports and other formats. As an internationally active agency, dpa reports in seven languages. Approximately 1,000 journalists work from around 140 locations in Germany and abroad. Around 170 German media companies are dpa shareholders. The dpa editorial team works according to the principles laid down in the dpa statutes: independent of world views, commercial enterprises or governments. The central editorial office, headed by Editor-in-Chief Sven Gösmann, is located in Berlin. The executive board, headed by CEO Peter Kropsch, is based at the company’s headquarters in Hamburg. The chairman of the supervisory board is David Brandstätter, Main-Post, Würzburg).
More at www.dpa.com (German, English, Spanish, Arabic)
