Fifty years ago, the news industry was virtually unchanged from the previous 20, 30 or even 40 years. Fast forward 50 years, and although the fundamentals of excellent publishing and reporting remain intact, the overall news industry has changed substantially — even dramatically.
As it celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies continues as a dedicated supporter of journalists and a leading source of publishing innovation. During this disruption, contraction and reinvention period, Poynter has created and offers numerous services and programs to sustain its mission “to teach, inform, empower and convene.”
Neil Brown became president of Poynter in 2017 after seven years as the editor and vice president of the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times), which is part of the Poynter portfolio. Previously, he had many roles in Times Publishing, starting in 1988 as the managing editor of the Congressional Quarterly, a former Times affiliate company. He has served on many industry boards, including being elected co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2022.
His leadership put Poynter on the front lines of helping publishers, journalists and the entire news industry promote its value to the public, contributing to preserving our democracy and guiding the industry as it reinvents itself.
“Too many people may have lost sight of or never understood entirely the value of journalism. We think that value needs to be reinforced. Much of the work at Poynter is to continue to show the value and importance of journalism. We’re not doing it for our sake, but for the sake of everyone so they have some agency in participating in democracy and fighting against misinformation,” Brown said.
To be a highly respected news industry leader, Poynter must also be a good listener and a team of professionals with their ears to the ground, which is why owning the largest news organization in Florida is critical to Poynter's mission and work. The Tampa Bay Times is a direct link to the trends in news, general media and technology and the daily challenges publishers, journalists and editors face.
Strengthening the trust in journalism at the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership
Improving the journalism-reader relationship is a theme that drives much of Poynter’s work. It is central to the efforts of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership and its chair, Kelly McBride, who is also senior vice president of Poynter.
“Journalism must evolve to be relevant and in a way where democracy and the democratic needs of communities, citizens, voters and everyone are served. That’s the work I do, to help different news organizations, old and new, determine how to serve their audiences with relevant and independent journalism,” McBride said.
Because of its reputation for decades of educating publishers and journalists, news organizations of all sizes turn to the Center for custom training programs. McBride and her team examine deeply their news-gathering environment or business structure. They then create a very targeted program with content that will address the core challenges and present the action steps to reach the client’s goal.
McBride is also a member of Poynter’s AI Steering Committee. Once again, Poynter took a leadership role, training newsrooms in the ethical implications of using generative AI and guiding news organizations as they create ethical AI policies.
“Many journalists are feeling burned by technology, so they’re not embracing the use of AI. I think many of them are concerned it will make journalism weaker and make the jobs of journalists harder. AI will proceed as a disruptive technology, and as journalists, we must determine how to harness it to make our work better and stronger rather than just letting the tech companies drive that conversation,” McBride said.
Fighting misinformation with fact-checking
Even before the introduction of generative AI, misinformation had been inundating digital channels and platforms. Now that AI can create misinformation almost automatically, the fight to counter all that deceptive content has intensified, but again, Poynter is demonstrating its leadership.
For more than 17 years, PolitiFact has put politicians, pundits and media outlets' feet to the fire of factual accuracy with its highly regarded Truth-O-Meter. Originally a project of the Tampa Bay Times, ownership was transferred to Poynter in 2018.
Katie Sanders is the editor-in-chief of PolitiFact and leads a team of approximately 21 full-time employees and several contractors. Since late 2016, PolitiFact has expanded its work to social media platforms interested in fact-checking solutions for their misinformation problems. Much of that work is in collaboration with the Meta third-party fact-checking program. PolitiFact also partners with many newspapers, such as the Austin American-Statesman and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Although the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), headed by its director, Angie Drobnic Holan, is a separate Poynter program, PolitiFact has been a signatory to its principles since 2017. The mission of the IFCN is to support more than 170 fact-checking organizations across the globe with resources, training and events so those organizations can promote truth and transparency in their countries.
“Journalists come to PolitiFact because they love research, the nitty-gritty of policy and the thrill of accountability reporting. Our reporters are such skilled researchers and interviewers. They’re very good at finding the most relevant sources and studies and parsing it quickly to help us find consensus on our Truth-O-Meter ratings,” Sanders said.
Poynter’s 2023-24 Impact Report stated the PolitiFact website had 27 million page views, 1,484 total fact-checks published, 83,978 email subscribers and 4,061 donors — and 66% of them are recurring donors.
Sanders added that despite more harassment of PolitiFact reporters and journalists, they also constantly receive encouraging messages from readers. “Readers and donors tell us this work is essential in the current environment, and we’re very grateful for that. It does power our journalists more than the criticism, which is always louder in an election year. I can’t tell you the environment has improved, but our journalists know most reasonable people want these falsehoods covered and explained.”
With the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S., PolitiFact has created a Spanish-language version. According to Sanders, when PolitiFact visited many communities, citizens asked for PolitiFact reporting in Spanish. In addition to a PolitiFact en Español website, content is distributed on a dedicated WhatsApp channel with approximately 20,000 subscribers.
PolitiFact is also invested in its summer internship program so students can create a strong base for their reporting by learning how to dig below the surface and understand an issue front to back.
“We teach our interns the importance of the relevance and diversity of sources and thought. Students in our internship program leave with more muscular reporting. What helps them find early success is learning and using the PolitiFact style and our format for fact-checking,” Sanders said.
Mia Penner, a junior at Duke University studying public policy and economics, was a PolitiFact intern during the summer of 2024. “I had a terrific experience at PolitiFact. The most exciting part is that it occurred during a heightened political summer. I experienced much of that energy living and working in Washington, D.C. I did live fact checks of the Biden-Trump debate and the National Association of Black Journalists event where Trump was interviewed.”
Completing the circle with MediaWise
As much as Poynter’s leadership role and many programs support journalists and news organizations, maximum benefit is achieved when MediaWise offers the public its media literacy education. That education is directly linked to the missions of PolitiFact and the International Fact-Checking Network. Collectively, they are focused on teaching citizens to be wary of misinformation, recognize it and be more intelligent voters and supporters of democratic principles.
As director of MediaWise, Alex Mahadevan oversees an array of programs, including the MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network, The Poynter-Google News Initiative Misinformation Student Fellowship, MediaWise en Español, MediaWise for Seniors and MediaWise Ambassadors. One hundred million people have become “mediawise” with the online educational content MediaWise offers.
“Our goal at MediaWise is to introduce people to new technologies, such as generative AI. We’re developing courses, and I teach webinars to help people understand how these AI systems work. This pre-bunking introduces people to the variety of falsehoods and how they are created so people are prepared for it. Whenever we can share our digital media resources, people appreciate it,” Mahadevan said.
According to Mahadevan, there are some surprising differences in how older and younger adults respond to MediaWise educational content. Because older adults are more active in their communities and have more disposable income, they are more likely to be targets of scammers and political operatives. A bigger challenge is the massive shift in information ecosystems from three news networks and anchors they trusted to thousands of social media influencers.
“Although it can be more difficult to excite younger adults and teens about media literacy training, they want to know how to refute climate and LGBTQ information. Being digital natives, they have more experience online than older adults and may consider some content as humorous or satire instead of misinformation,” Mahadevan said.
The success of MediaWise in the United States motivated Mahadevan and his team to expand media literacy training globally through MediaWise International. Each country, however, may have different misinformation challenges, and their language and cultural distinctions require MediaWise to partner with local civic organizations and journalists who know what training will best serve their populations.
“We are very heartened by the interest of people who want Poynter to help them think through the next form of journalism or challenge. We want to be more forward-looking as we celebrate our 50th anniversary and share our knowledge by the good fortune of engaging with so many different journalists,” Brown said.
Bob Sillick has held many senior positions and served a myriad of clients during his 47 years in marketing and advertising. He has been a freelance/contract content researcher, writer, editor and manager since 2010. He can be reached at bobsillick@gmail.com.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here