Poynter Institute fights fake news, misinformation in St. Pete’s Innovation District

Poynter Institute is a small organization with a huge impact on worldwide journalism. With just 36 full-time staff and an additional 60+ part-time trainers, the organization trains 100,000 journalists each year, through online and in-person offerings. Poynter is the “premiere training and thought leadership organization for the journalism industry, and that’s worldwide,” says VP Kelly McBride.

For an organization with such an extensive footprint, it’s hard to believe that many citizens of St. Pete don’t even know that it’s here. McBride says that more people are aware of Poynter outside of the St. Pete community than within. She says, “Most of the time when I tell people I work at Poynter, people are like, ‘Oh, what is that?’”

Poynter Institute is an entity we should all be aware of, not only for its proximity, but its vitality to our democracy. As McBride asserts, it is central to democracy to have leaders and organizations that are truthful, transparent, and honest, and journalists have to ensure that. Along those same lines, says McBride, journalism is essential, “for citizens to be able to get information that – first of all – meets the needs that they have and that allows them to participate more fully in their community.”

The world’s most prestigious newsrooms, including the The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and BBC  – newsrooms which have historically broken stories on our nation’s biggest scandals – look to Poynter. McBride and other thought leaders at Poynter routinely share expertise and guidance through tough situations in the field.

Poynter is seeking to give journalists the tools to rebuild trust with the public, end the spread of misinformation, and strengthen democracy by promoting transparency and honesty. They don’t take this role lightly. Through both the general public and the community of journalists it touches, Poynter is launching initiatives to combat these problems. In 2015, it launched the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), to support the fact-checking initiatives launched around the world.

Now, Poynter offers both in-person and online training in fact-checking, for journalists and citizens around the world. Their “Hands-On Fact-Checking: A Short Course” created by the IFCN is funded by the Google News Initiative, making the course available for free. According to the web page, the 90-minute course “demonstrates best practices developed and tested by today’s fact-checking journalists, who face particular challenges posed by misleading rhetoric from politicians and government officials, and the use of social media platforms as launching sites for viral misinformation.”

Learn more about Poynter’s work and sign up for the course here.