• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 26, 2024

Here is a statistic that should dishearten journalism professors: 62% of content creators do not check their facts before sharing.  

But 73% want training in this skill, although they won’t necessarily go into debt to finance a master’s degree in journalism. 

To help them, UNESCO is working with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas to offer a global month-long course to help content creators deal with disinformation. To date, 9,000 people from 160 countries have enrolled in the four-week course. 

According to UNESCO, participants are learning to:

• Source information using a diverse range of sources 
• Assess and verify the quality of information 
• Be transparent about the sources that inspire their content
• Identify, debunk and report misinformation, disinformation and hate speech
• Collaborate with journalists and traditional media to amplify fact-based information
  

This news is tied to the release of a study from UNESCO: Behind the Scenes—Insights From Digital Content Creators. 

Why do creators bother posting content on social media? They say it is to: 

• Share my knowledge with others—26%
• Make money—23.8%
• Entertain people—23.4%
• Express my opinion and emotion on a subject—13.8%
• Promote my work/career—6.2%
• Advocate for a certain cause—5.8% 

How do they determine credibility of online sources? The factors include: 

• Number of likes and views of online content—41.7%
• Shared by a trusted friend/expert—20.6% 
• Publisher/author reputation on the subject matter—19.4%
• Documentation and evidence used to support the claim or argument—17% 
• Other—1.3%

On the positive side, serious news is way down the list of content genres, so presumably that means less political damage, although one does not want to see disinformation in any subject area: 

• Fashion/lifestyle—39.3% 
• Beauty—34% 
• Travel and food—34% 
• Gaming—29% 
• Comedy—27.1%
• Shopping/product reviews—26.3% 
• Sports and fitness—24.4%
• Photography—21% 
• Animal and nature—14.9%
• Current affairs/politics and economy—12.2% 
• Parenting—11.5% 
• Other—6.5%

The takeaway?

“Digital content creators have acquired an important place in the information ecosystem, engaging millions of people with cultural, social or political news,” says Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO. “But many are struggling in the face of disinformation and online hate speech and calling for more training.”