Fact-Checking to Improve Media Coverage of the Arctic in Europe
- Priority Area Boosting Fact-checking Activities in Europe
- Funding Round / Action Types 2nd Funding Round – Scale-up Projects
- Year 2022, 2023
- Country United Kingdom
- Project Status Completed
The Fact-Checking to Improve Media Coverage of the Arctic in Europe project by Polar Research and Policy Initiative (United Kingdom) will promote greater understanding of the Arctic within the spheres of policy, industry, civil society, media and the general public through more accurate and more nuanced reporting. It will achieve this by bringing together subject matter experts, fact checkers, researchers, journalists, and Indigenous and Northern voices within the scope of three main activities aimed at improving media coverage of the Arctic in Europe through fact-checking. First, it will publish fact-checked content about the Arctic through its own digital platform The Polar Connection, the world’s largest platform for Arctic analysis and commentary and the first port of call for news outlets seeking stories from the Arctic. Second, it will provide fact-checking services as well as fact-checked content for the entire gamut of regional Arctic media outlets, including its partner platforms Arctic Today and Arctic Business Journal. Third, it will organise media literacy initiatives, such as providing media briefings, a media hotline, as well as virtual seminars, for European and international media outlets seeking to fact-check news stories, verify details or request analysis about the Arctic prior to publication. The project will also involve training local residents across the Arctic to report or fact-check news stories that concern their region, and recruiting more Russian speakers and Russian subject matter experts in Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as Russia, to verify stories and photographs.