- First meeting of the Asia Pacific News Literacy Group brings together 40 news experts to identify new projects to support news literacy in the Asia Pacific. The group includes journalists, publishers, platforms, academics, non-profits, and policymakers
- Supported by co-hosts The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) with participation by leading news literacy experts including Gary Liu (CEO, South China Morning Post); Katherine Chen (Commissioner, National Communications Commission, Taiwan); Maria Ressa (CEO of Rappler); Karen Puno Igaya ( Head, Digital News Media at ABS-CBN), Hong Kong Legislator Charles Mok; Jacqueline Park (CEO of The Walkley Foundation); Professor Peng Hwa Ang (Vice Chairman, Media Literacy Council, Singapore); Edi Taslim (Chairman, Indonesian Digital Association)
The Facebook Journalism Project, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) convened the first meeting today of the Asia Pacific News Literacy Group.
The group brought together over 40 experts from newsrooms, publishers, platforms, education institutions and non-profits across the Asia Pacific, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines, Myanmar, Taiwan and Australia. The group will identify projects that will help build more informed communities.
The Asia Pacific News Literacy Group is a part of the Facebook Journalism Project which launched globally in January. The group aims to foster collaborative projects to connect newsroom leaders and top journalists from all over the world, and get their input and understand how they can better support local news organizations, promote independent media, and improve delivery of news on the platform. The Facebook Journalism Project hosted the first in a series of working groups focused on news literacy with a variety of journalists, publishers, platforms, educators, academics, third-party organizations, start-ups and non-profits at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in January.
“Our meeting this week is part of Facebook’s work to promote news literacy around the world and help people have the information they need to make decisions about which sources to trust,” said Campbell Brown, Head of News Partnerships at Facebook. “Asia is home to the world’s largest mobile and internet population, and has some of the most connected and least connected communities in the world. The Asia Pacific News Literacy Working Group’s ultimate goal is to support informed communities across the news ecosystem, not just on Facebook.”
S.K. Witcher, Chair of the Editorial Committee, The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) explained, “Newsrooms today are under pressure to uphold their editorial integrity and build trust. SOPA welcomes initiatives like the Asia Pacific News Literacy Group that help to raise the standards of all the players in the news ecosystem.”
“In this era of ’fake news’ and so-called alternative facts, groups like the Asia Pacific News Literacy Group are more vital than ever,” said Professor Keith B. Richburg, Director of The University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) Journalism and Media Studies Centre. “We are excited to be partnering with Facebook for this kickoff meeting. It is critical that the news media, educators and technology innovators work together to promote news literacy in this part of the world.”
The meeting discussed important topics for the region, including:
- How can we best use technology to distribute and promote news
- Developing media and fact-checking literacy at scale
- How to build credible media ranking
- Falling in love again — what will it take for audiences to trust newsmakers again
- The importance of news literacy for countries that are fast coming online
The Asia Pacific News Literacy Group is intended to connect publishers, journalists, academics, non profits, policymakers to identify projects and ideas aimed at improving news literacy.
The group will surface suitable projects to the News Integrity Initiative, a global consortium focused on helping people make informed judgments about the news they read and share online, which Facebook is a founding funder. It will exist beyond this initial event to discuss the evolution of news literacy and continue to identify potential projects, and it will also serve as a hub to promote and support journalism across Asia Pacific.
This is in addition to other areas of the Facebook Journalism Project, which include:
- Training. In-person newsroom training and a series of e-learning courses on Facebook products, tools and services for journalists. Facebook will expand these trainings to include nine additional languages, and partner with Poynter to launch a certificate curriculum for journalists in the months ahead.
- Tools. Facebook recently acquired CrowdTangle, a tool to surface stories, measure their social performance and identify influencers and is now free for our partners, read more on CrowdTangle.
- Helping with eyewitness media. Eyewitnesses who upload videos and images during breaking news events have become powerful and important sources for journalists. Facebook is a member of the First Draft Partner Network, a coalition of platforms and 80+ publishers, that work together to provide practical and ethical guidance on how to find, verify and publish content sourced from the social web. We have increased our commitment to First Draft, helping them establish a virtual verification community and more.
- Continuing efforts to curb news hoaxes. We recently announced improvements on our platform to further reduce the spread of news hoaxes — including new efforts to disrupt the financial incentives for spammers and help reduce clickbait.
