MediaWise for Seniors: Self-Directed Fact-Checking Course

In this online course, you can take it at your own pace. Christiane Amanpour and Joan Lunden will help you improve your media literacy. You’ll also learn how to fact-check what you see on the internet.

In a self-directed course, you can start and stop whenever you like, progressing entirely at your own pace and going back as many times as you want to review the material. The training consists of videos, readings, activities, and quizzes. It should take between six and eight hours to complete all of the learning material.

As engaged citizens and consumers, older Americans are often the target of online misinformation. This thorough, hands-on course from MediaWise for Seniors will teach you how to tell what is true and false online. That includes an in-depth look at how social media platforms work, techniques like reverse image searches for identifying false information and lessons on how to be a responsible news consumer, and a frank chat about how to talk to family members who share misinformation.

Christiane Amanpour and Joan Lunden — our esteemed MediaWise for Seniors Ambassadors — will also pop in to share their advice as world-renowned journalists and help you protect yourself against misinformation.

We will not be telling you how to feel about topics or issues. Instead, we will teach you how to identify misinformation and disinformation online. Our goal is to help you make decisions that impact your life and your health based on reliable, trustworthy information.

With ongoing misinformation about COVID-19, falling for false information on the internet is truly a matter of life and death. Protect yourself by improving your media literacy with this self-paced course.

By the end of this in-depth course, you will be able to:

Spot the seven types of misinformation and explain why someone shared them

Verify the images and videos you encounter on the internet

Identify and consume online news responsibly

Fact-check social media posts using the tools and techniques professional fact-checkers use

Report false information on each social media platform

Operate as a good digital citizen and explain to others the pitfalls of sharing misinformation

Teach loved ones how to fact-check on their own.

The Poynter Institute is a global leader in journalism. It is the world’s leading instructor, innovator, convener, and resource for anyone aspiring to engage and inform citizens.

Poynter champions freedom of expression, civil dialogue, and compelling journalism that helps citizens participate in healthy democracies. We prepare journalists worldwide to hold powerful people accountable and promote honest information in the marketplace of ideas.

Poynter is an inspirational place and a practical one, connecting the varied crafts of journalism to its higher mission and purpose. From person-to-person coaching and intensive hands-on seminars to interactive online courses and media reporting, Poynter helps journalists sharpen skills and elevate storytelling throughout their careers.

We bring together Poynter faculty and industry experts to explore the intersection of journalism, technology, and public interest.

From personalized coaching and hands-on seminars to interactive, online courses, Poynter teaching is designed to sharpen your skills, elevate your career, and ignite your imagination. Led by our faculty and the industry’s brightest minds and most accomplished journalists and educators, the Poynter experience connects you with skilled teachers and with other students of the craft.

We teach those who manage, edit, produce, program, report, write, blog, photograph, and design, whether they belong to news organizations or work as independent entrepreneurs. We teach those who teach and students in middle school, high school, and college—the journalists of tomorrow. And we teach members of the public, helping them better understand how journalism is produced and how to tell for themselves whether it’s credible.