With the twin objectives of promoting exchanges between journalism students and strengthening the fight against disinformation, CFI has supported the MédiaLab Francophonie project
Related project
MédiaLab FrancophonieInitiated by the Ecole de Journalisme de Tours (EPJT) and co-constructed with CFI, the implementation of the MédiaLab Francophonie project was possible thanks to a CFI grant.
The EPJT, with the support of several French-language journalism schools, brought together 26 students from seven journalism schools from the Théophraste network (Belgium, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Romania and Senegal) in Paris, from 2 to 6 October 2024, to cover news from the Francophonie Summit, Village and Festival through journalistic pieces for social media.
The students were first hosted by France Médias Monde for a tour of the RFI and France 24 newsrooms, followed by a discussion with journalists, and then by CFI for a meeting with Thierry Vallat, CEO of CFI.
Mentored by a teacher from each school and under the supervision of an EPJT team, which acted as the editorial board and provided logistical coordination, the students, divided into inter-school pairs, worked under conditions very similar to those of a newsroom. They successfully met the requirements in terms of the quality and veracity of the information disseminated, and demonstrated their creativity in overcoming the difficulties inherent to any shoot.
37 videos were posted on the social media of the EPJT, Théophraste and CFI.
On the back of this success, the EPJT and CFI decided to repeat the experience by organising a new student editorial team for the 2nd European Agora for Journalism, which took place from 20 to 22 November 2024 on the theme of: Artificial Intelligence, the media, Europe and me.
Around twenty articles, most of them in the format of reports on the workshops, round tables and conferences, as well as a few portraits and a survey, were published in French and English over the two days, on the factoscope.fr website and its Agora for Journalism section, as well as on social media.
The strengthening of the Factoscope.fr platform, the second component of the project, has afforded greater visibility for this tool that serves many journalists in the French-speaking world, thanks to the posting of new content and educational videos produced by Nothing2Hide, a Factoscope partner. 21 fact-checking articles were produced and published by commissioning freelance pieces from Factoscope.fr media contributors.
Webinars before and after the Francophonie Summit allowed students from Théophraste network member schools to acquaint themselves with the resources available and the platform’s challenges.
Finally, the Factoscope.fr Fact-Checking Prize was awarded to five of the 39 media outlets that entered the competition, under the categories of: Political statements, Recontextualisation of images, Debunking rumours, Disinformation impacting women and Jury prize.
