MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Google News Initiative (GNI) launched a COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund, open to all news organizations globally including the Philippines.
While the COVID-19 infodemic has been global in nature, misinformation has also been used to target specific populations. Some of the available research suggests that the audiences coming across misinformation and those seeking fact checks don’t necessarily overlap.
The Open Fund is accepting applications from projects that aim to broaden the audience of fact checks, particularly with those who may be disproportionately affected by misinformation in mind.
Google will prioritize collaborative projects with an interdisciplinary team and clear ways to measure success. For example, eligible applications might include a partnership between an established fact-checking project and a media outlet with deep roots in a specific community, or a collaborative technology platform for journalists and doctors to jointly source misinformation and publish fact checks.
A global team of Googlers will review applications. The jury that will choose grantees is composed by the following:
- Theresa Amobi, Senior Lecturer, University of Lagos
- Ludovic Blecher, Head of Innovation, Google News Initiative
- Renee DiResta, Technical Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observer
- Susannah Eliott, CEO, Australian Science Media Centre
- Gagandeep Kang, Head of the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, Christian Medical College
- Alexios Mantzarlis, News and Information Credibility Lead, Google
- Syed Nazakat, Founder & CEO, Data Leads
- Ifeoma Ozoma, Founder and Principal, Earthseed
- Baybars Örsek, Director, International Fact-Checking Network
- Andy Pattison, manager of digital solutions, World Health Organization
- Angela Pimenta, Director of Operations, Projor
- Amy Pisani, Executive Director, Vaccinate Your Family
- Yamil Velez, Associate Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
- Brian Yau, Promotion & Engagement Lead, Vaccine Safety Net at WHO
The Open Fund builds on support that the GNI has provided to news efforts fighting pandemic misinformation in April and December 2020. Selected projects will benefit from GNI-supported research that looks into the formats, headlines and sources that are most effective in correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
Please visit the Open Fund’s website for more information and to apply.
