New partnerships with news organizations to support journalists

I’m thrilled to be back in the beautiful city of Perugia, Italy, for the 17th International Journalism Festival.

Every time I attend the International Journalism Festival, I learn something new, make new connections and feel inspired by those I meet. This week, our team is participating in sessions ranging from digital verification and new voices in news, to making use of new messaging technology and YouTube Shorts for reaching new audiences.

In my conversations with journalists at this week's festival and beyond, I’ve heard repeatedly that there is a need for better tools, collaboration and training on three particular topics: climate reporting, AI in the newsroom and the fight against the spread of misinformation online.

Today I’m sharing a few updates on our partnerships across these topics with leading European news organizations.

Collaboration for climate reporting

Today we’re sharing a series of new partner-led programs, supported by the Google News Initiative, to provide journalists with training resources to help better understand and report on the climate crisis. This includes:

• AFP launching its first climate reporting lessons in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. You can find more information on their website.)
• The European Journalism Centre is announcing the creation of a new Climate Journalism Award. Applications will open soon and winners will be announced at the 2023 News Impact Summit. With this new Climate Journalism Award, the EJC aims to showcase the variety of journalistic formats being used to inform audiences about the world around us.

With support from Fathm, an independent news consultancy, we will host an in-person workshop for 20 journalists from across Europe on new tools and techniques to advance climate reporting. The training event takes place in Bonn, Germany next month, and you can find more information on their website.

Continued support for Polis at the LSE’s JournalismAI project

The JournalismAI project, supported by the Google News Initiative, has evolved over the past five years from research into the early applications of AI in news, to training and fellowship opportunities that provide real-world experience on applying AI to journalism in the newsroom. Today, JournalismAI is announcing additional efforts to advance their work:

• Research: JournalismAI will update their global survey of journalism and AI. The report will provide a comprehensive survey of the state of AI in global news media; it will identify key cases of innovation and forecast significant areas for future expansion including analysis of developing editorial and ethical issues and trends.
• Education: The initiative’s newest program, called JournalismAI Discovery — an interactive self-guided course that will help journalists understand what AI technologies can do to improve their work. The course will run a second iteration for journalists and registration will open in May.
• Practical experience: JournalismAI is continuing its Academy for Small Newsrooms and Fellowship Programme. Last year, the JournalismAI Fellowship helped build 10 projects to showcase Fellows’ innovative ideas using AI technologies to empower journalism. Watch this video to hear some of their stories.

New techniques to combat the spread of misinformation online in Europe

Sifting through all the content available on the web can feel overwhelming, especially when you're trying to determine what information is accurate and which may be misinformation. We're sharing some new techniques people can use to fact check information.

For instance, ‘pre-bunking’ is a one of the new methods for reducing the effectiveness of misinformation campaigns before individuals ever encounter them by warning individuals of attempts to manipulate them. After a successful pilot in Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, Jigsaw and Google will launch a prebunking campaign in Germany this summer, partnering with German nonprofits, fact checkers, scientists and disinformation experts.

Journalists are under tremendous pressure, and often find themselves covering increasingly complex and critical topics. These new initiatives aim to equip European journalists with the technology and tools to help them do their jobs. I’m grateful to each of our partners for working side by side with us to deliver these new initiatives and to everyone we met with at the International Journalism Festival this week.