THE JOURNAL’S FACTCHECK team has won the Media Literacy Media Champion award at this year’s inaugural Media Literacy Ireland Awards.

The team was recognised for providing good information to the public to make the best decisions on matters that impact their lives and society, and for providing tools for citizens to identify suspicious content and to seek out quality information for themselves.

The awards aim to raise awareness of the importance of media literacy, and recognise existing media literacy work being undertaken in Ireland.

The judging panel specifically acknowledged the FactCheck team’s “use of innovative content and outreach to address some of the most complex media literacy issues today and its work in improving public understanding of news media by engaging people with the process of making news and the importance of good information hygiene”.

The Journal's FactCheck team collecting the award today Maxwell Photography Maxwell Photography

Journal Media Managing Editor Susan Daly noted that when FactCheck was founded in 2016, it focused on examining politicians’ claims during the general election campaign of that year.

“We could not have foreseen the value those skills of fact-checking and debunking would have in coming years, from adding context and clarity in contentious national referendum debates, to fighting a tide of disinformation and misinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic, immigration, the climate crisis and more,” she said.

“We also have learned that fact-checking alone is not enough to bring the power of informed decision-making to our audiences and beyond.

“At all points, we strive to explain what we fact-check, how we do it, and share our processes and tools for spotting poor quality information online and in real life with the public so they can do it for themselves.

“This award is a welcome recognition of this effort, and our thanks go to Media Literacy Ireland for all that organisation does to try to encourage critical thinking, education and partnership in this space.”

You can read more about The Journal’s FactCheck work here and read our previous FactCheck articles here.

There were four other winners at the awards, which were presented at Coimisiún na Meán today.

The TY Media Week project, an initiative of Learning Waves that involved training transition year students in media literacy and giving them the opportunity to research, produce and present radio on local stations, won Best Best Youth-Led Media Literacy Intervention.

Alva’s World, an animated show by Kavaleer Productions that sought to create a new canon of fables for the digital age, won the award for Best Media Literacy Intervention.

Webwise, a website promoting the autonomous, effective, and safer use of the internet by young people through information and awareness strategies, was awarded the Media Literacy Ireland Member Special Contribution prize.

And Joseph Hoban, RTÉ’s Head of Brand Projects, Partnerships, and Events, won a Special Recognition Award for his contribution to the promotion of media literacy in Ireland, via his role in the development of the national Be Media Smart campaign.