As part of our Safe Spaces London project, we had Headliners (UK) Trustee and New York Times Journalist, Eshe Nelson, lead a workshop on Identifying Truth in News. During this session, the young people outlined the different places they obtain news, discussing why they use these platforms and whether these platforms can be trusted. This led into discussions of misinformation, disinformation, and how to avoid fake news.

The young people then moved into groups to take part in an interactive mock-newsroom activity in which they investigated a topic of their choice and identified who the sources they would use if they were to write an article. All groups then presented this pitch to the room and discussed how they could research these sources further.

As part of their OCN Interviewing Skills module, the young people were then tasked with interviewing Eshe about journalism and her career. Some of the interview questions included “How do you feel financial journalism differs from traditional journalism?” “How easy is it to see if your source is giving you reliable or unreliable information?” “How long would it usually take to write an article?” 

Of the workshop, the young people stated:

“I would like to carry on looking into the different sources you can find. I enjoyed seeing how fake journalism can affect the public. I would improve by looking at the different types of journalism in depth” – Axel

“I enjoyed having a personal conversation with a professional” – Sophie

“I learnt about mis and disinformation. I liked the group task presentations. [I’d like to] carry on learning about avoiding fake news” – Deshana