The mission of this initiative, launched in April 2018, is to restore trust in media & fight misinformation by building connections between the many, many anti-misinformation initiatives that continue to pop up, in order to make sure that none of their valuable work is duplicated, overheard, or lost.
The Council was set up by the Ethical Journalism Network, European Broadcasting Union, Global Editors Network, Global Forum for Media Development, Online News Association, and the World Editors Forum within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
These organisations represent hundreds of broadcasters and publishers across the globe and they will unite on this single issue to facilitate realistic, practical and workable solutions to build trust in media and fight misinformation.
Across the world, newsrooms and journalists have been on the front lines in the fight against misinformation and the preservation of trust in media — not just for months but for decades. They have solutions because they wouldn’t have survived without them, but those ideas rarely get heard, let alone have the chance to be merged with other ideas from people in similar situations.
The Council will be non-political and will come together around the core issues of information sharing, innovation, collaboration and co-ordination of initiatives and ownership of our own narrative in the wider ecosystem.
The Council’s Goals
1. GLOBAL TRUST AND MISINFORMATION REPOSITORY
- To create a repository of all resources and initiatives in the fight against misinformation.
The first action of the Council is to work together on a repository of resources and map initiatives from across the industry to better inform the global journalism community of ongoing efforts regardless of size funding or location. This repository will be added to through the strong networks and memberships of the founding Council members as well as public submissions.
2. GLOBAL TRUST AND MISINFORMATION NETWORK
- To connect individuals, organisations and initiatives across as wide a network as possible.
The next stage of the Council’s activities will be to connect individuals, organisations and initiatives from across their respective networks with anyone who could add to or benefit from them. Also, awareness of complementary work or initiatives will allow funding to go further and avoid unnecessary duplication from within the community.
3. GLOBAL TRUST AND MISINFORMATION INNOVATION
- To innovate at a global scale in order to identify workable solutions for the many, not just the few with a clear end-goal in site.
4. A VOICE FOR THE INDUSTRY
- To create a space and ability for the news industry to control its own narrative and conversation on this issue.
For more information please visit https://globalmis.info where you can learn more about the mission of the Council, view the proof of concept repository, submit additions and sign-up for updates.
Read the interview with Fergus Bell, coordinator of the Council, to find out what drove him to set up this effort, whether voice interfaces can engender trust, and why we should spend less time defining ‘fake news’ and more time fixing the problem.
