By Susana Mas, TFCN Manager
Welcome to the first, bilingual (English - French), Teen Fact-Checking Network in Canada!
The Teen Fact-Checking Network (TFCN) is an internationally renowned program that brings together teenagers to learn about digital media literacy with a focus on fact-checking skills. The program was started in 2018 by MediaWise, a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative of the Poynter Institute in the U.S. The program expanded to Brazil, Germany, and India in 2023, and to Spain, Canada, and Bulgaria in 2024.
In Canada, MediaWise partnered with MediaSmarts – Canada’s bilingual centre for digital media literacy and a registered charity – to launch North America’s second Teen Fact-Checking Network with the support of the Google News Initiative. The bilingual program started in the spring with 16 teenagers, 11 in the English cohort and five in the French cohort of the Réseau vérif ado, who were accepted after a competitive application process. The selected participants demonstrated strong writing and video skills, as well as a keen interest in learning what they could do about ‘fake’ news online.
Over the course of four months, the teenagers, who are between the ages of 13 to 18 and who come from different schools and cities across the country, received digital media literacy training where they learned critical thinking skills to tell what is true online. The teens learned how to find the source of a claim online, how to verify whether the source is trustworthy, how to check other sources to find out if they are biased or whether a story is true, and how to use fact-checking tools such as a reverse image search. Equipped with these four quick and easy fact-checking steps, the teens set out to look for popular claims spreading widely across their social media feeds before putting their new skills into practice.
They found a range of social media posts with claims that were false or misleading, as well as claims that seemed improbable but, once fact-checked, turned out to be true! In the process, the teens learned how to pitch an idea for a claim to fact-check, how to write a fact-checking script and how to produce a fact-checking video. In doing so, they also learned how to work collaboratively in a virtual environment — in addition to meeting the demands that came with school assignments and final exams, as well as extracurricular activities. For their time and effort, each teen will be receiving an honorarium and a certificate of completion.
The fact-checking videos have been produced by teens for teens. They are the result of curiosity, creativity and hard work. The viral claims they chose to fact-check touch on a range of topics from the environment, health, science and food to beauty products, social media trends and even presumed “weird” local bylaws that caught their attention. The videos also include a media literacy tip for their peers so they, too, can learn how to fact-check information online. Adults may also benefit from their advice!
Please join us in applauding the 16 young fact-checkers that have formed the first, bilingual, cohort of the Canada Teen Fact-Checking Network! Their videos will be published primarily to the MediaSmarts and HabiloMédias social media accounts throughout the summer. You can watch, like and share the videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Well done and congratulations to the inaugural class of the Canada TFCN 2024!
Visit the TFCN page on our website for more information or contact info@mediasmarts.ca with any questions about the program.