A troupe of social media creators will be sent to the digital frontline tasked with helping audiences identify and combat misinformation.
Social media platform TikTok is teaming up with the professional fact-checkers at Australian Associated Press to equip five Australian and New Zealand creators with tools to recognise and debunk misinformation.
The creators will share the lessons with their subscribers in a series of informative but entertaining TikTok videos.
“It’s a really innovative campaign – where expert journalists are linking with expert creators,” a TikTok spokesperson said.
Rudy Rigg and Hannah McElhinney have amassed more than 450,000 subscribers on their TikTok channel, Rainbow History Class, which features bite-sized stories of the LGBTQI community across history.
“When we look at historical recollections of events, we found it can be hard to get to the bottom of things and get to the truth of the matter,” Rudy Rigg said.
“We always want to tell the full story and so working with TikTok and AAP on this is such a great alignment.”
The world-first collaboration will launch as a pilot project during Global Media and Literacy Week, which runs from October 24-31, with content coming from creators specialising across topics including LGBTQI history and astrophysics.
Partnering with TikTok creators allows AAP FactCheck to impart its fact-checking knowledge to a wider section of the public, factcheck editor Ben James said.
“They know their craft, they know their audience, and they’ve cultivated a very loyal following,” he said.
“Having TikTok creators share media literacy messages in their own voice and style helps to get the message across to audiences AAP FactCheck may not have direct access to, and that’s hugely beneficial.”
The recent Reuters Institute Digital Media Report found trust in news had fallen in 21 of 46 news markets around the world, including Australia.
More than half of respondents said they were worried about not being able to differentiate between what was fact and fiction online.
“There is distrust in the mainstream media among some people … but having creators advocating for critical thinking and promoting simple fact-checking skills in their own authentic voices is important,” Mr James said.
In the fast-paced world of TikTok, all it takes is a few seconds to lose a user so making sure the message comes through can be challenging.
“It’s all about being relatable, it’s about being to the point, and it’s about being honest,” Rudy Rigg said.
Australian Associated Press
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