Training Journalists and Editors on Editorial Fact-Checking

Background:

The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT (KSJ@MIT) is dedicated to promoting science journalism that serves the public interest. To achieve this goal, KSJ@MIT teamed up with SciComm X to deliver a series of workshops and webinars aimed at improving the accuracy and credibility of science journalism. The program focuses on editorial fact-checking training, and seeks to advance and improve the practices of science journalism by offering several workshops open to the larger science journalism community.

The Challenge:

The challenge in this project was to conduct effective online training workshops and webinars on editorial fact-checking. However, this posed several challenges, including planning and promoting the event, attracting attendees, and executing the workshop with technical proficiency. The success of the project depends on overcoming these obstacles and delivering the training workshops to the highest possible standard.

The Goal:

The goal of this case study was to equip journalists and editors with the skills and knowledge necessary to fact-check editorial content, with the aim of raising the standards of science journalism globally.

Methodology & Approach

To achieve the goal of providing effective online training workshops on editorial fact-checking, a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach was implemented, including:

Developing an outreach strategy to reach science journalists worldwide.
Creating a marketing strategy and launching a marketing campaign to attract journalists from the science media industry.
Leveraging the team’s expertise and innovations capabilities.
Utilizing SciComm X’s extensive network.
Evaluating the online training platform and providing training for the trainers to familiarize them with the tool.
Executing and delivering the workshops.
Providing ongoing technical and informational support to ensure the success of the training.

Key Results:

Key Results of Delivering Online Training on Editorial Fact-Checking..

Five 7-hour training workshops were successfully delivered, each attracting over 200 participants.
Six webinars were successfully executed and attended by more than 3,000 journalists.
Positive feedback was received from both clients and attendees, indicating the success of the workshops.

Learn more about the KSJ@MIT program by clicking here.

Client Testimonial

Over the course of two years, SciComm X helped me run several KSJ@MIT workshops -- each serving hundreds of journalists, editors, and fact-checkers from around the world. Thanks to Saad and his team, with their technical expertise and attention to detail, each of the events went without a hitch. And most importantly, our workshop attendees had a seamless and fun experience.

Brooke Borel

Project lead at the Fact-Checking Project at the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT

SciCommX has produced online workshops and webinars for the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT for several years. Their work is consistently high quality in terms of both production values and client service and we commend their services.

Deborah Blum

Director, Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT