Students are empowering the Gainesville community with tools and tactics
Five students at the University of Florida are campaigning across the community to educate and empower the city’s residents to determine the credibility of news claims.
The CommuniGATORS are partnering with the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for their “Get the Facts Before You Act“ campaign, which launched Feb. 6 with an 8-foot installation in UF’s Turlington Plaza. Students voiced how they have been impacted by misinformation and pledged to check the credibility of information before sharing it.
Since their launch earlier this month, the team has visited a number of events and organizations in the community, with interactive presentations and testimonials.
“It’s been great to see the community’s response to our presentations,” said team member Adriana Dos Santos. “People have been sharing their own personal experiences with misinformation, and we’ve been giving them tools to evaluate the information they see online.”
The team has presented workshops on news literacy across student and civic organizations within the community, from the Greater Gainesville Young Professionals to the City of Gainesville. In this fully-integrated community campaign, the team is also urging social media users to evaluate the veracity of news they see online.
In the final stages of their campaign, the students will be holding a panel discussion with professors and experts on news literacy.
Help the CommuniGATORS create a movement of people who care about news literacy. Visit www.factbeforeyouact.com to get the tools you need to stop misinformation.
Via a press release from the CommuniGATORS.