Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiFact-Checkers training for media professionals in Nigeria (ID: 22206053)

Endorsment from Ogundele1 (talk)

This is a project to ensure quality informations on Wikipedia. I strongly support.

--Ogundele1 (talk) 03:08, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsment from JoshuaOpemipo20 (talk)

• This project is trying to close a wide gap between information dissemination ie instead of publishing what sells to publishing what really matters at the time. And chosen approach will yield positive since the major infleuncers in the media sector will be on-board.

• "One of our strategic approaches to solving this problem is to have a one-day conference with stakeholders in the Nigerian media including diverse editors and publishers"

--JoshuaOpemipo20 (talk) 08:51, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsment from Jesugbog0 (talk)

I endorse this training because media professionals have more access to correct information due to their profession and there is need for them to learn how to affirm its validity on Wikimedia spaces. This is what the aim of the training highlights.

--Jesugbog0 (talk) 09:10, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsment from Prithee P (talk)

--Prithee P (talk) 10:38, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsment from James Rhoda (talk)

--James Rhoda (talk) 11:17, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

This project will further help teach Wikimedian how to fact-check information found on Wikipedia and online  Strong support

Endorsment from Obawinner (talk)

--Obawinner (talk) 13:48, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

This project will aid the inclusion of media proffessional in improving the wikipedia space

added description Obawinner (talk) 13:51, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsement from Ebubechukwu1

This project Is targeted at training media professionals on how to fact check information to ensure reliable information are been disseminated to the general public using wikimedia projects. Ebubechukwu1 (talk) 17:14, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsement from B.Korlah (talk)

 Support Fact checking is a cool idea

--B.Korlah (talk) 21:26, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Not Funded

Hello semmy1960, thank you for applying for the rapid fund grant. We reviewed and decided not to fund this application at this time as the impact objectives are not clear. A few recommendations for how you might strengthen the plan;

•   In the proposal target participants are identified as authors, journalists, writers, and broadcasters, consider providing some details on how you plan to engage them effectively. It would be good to know what strategies you might have for reaching out to these professionals, understanding their needs, and tailoring the training content to specifically address their challenges and interests. This could involve conducting pre-training surveys to identify their specific knowledge gaps and expectations, which will help you design training modules that resonate with them.

• It is unclear if you have a plan for tracking or following up to ensure that participants remain engaged  after the training. Does the team intend to maintain communication and support for participants post-training? This could involve regular follow-up emails, virtual meetups, or even ad-hoc mentorship opportunities to address any challenges they might face while contributing. Also, you might want to consider including metrics for the engagement of participants after the training, such as the number of follow-up activities attended or the frequency of continued contributions.

• Do provide specifics regarding what types of content will be created or improved on each Wikimedia project (Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, Wikidata), and how these contributions align with your project's goals. This is currently unclear.

Best regards, (On behalf of the Middle East and Africa regional funds team) ~~~~ YPam (WMF) (talk) 18:45, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

@YPam (WMF) thank you for the work you do and for the feedback. I am so sorry i didn't respond till now, i was trying to understand what to do and how to respond but i was told i can tell you my plan and my challenges and how the team can support me. My name is Kemi Makinde and i have been a Wikipedian since 2021 and i am a trained journalist and factchecker and a Wikipedia trainer of trainer for Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom. I saw the challenges we have with writing content on Wikipedian as an African because i understand how the media works and how Wikipedia works. So i started a group called WikiFact-Checkers to bring media professionals together to work on the reliabilty of content on Wikipedia while also trying to close the content deficit in the media space which has affected greatly especially in Africa proper content creation with references. We have issues with references in Africa. It is a huge challenge i have observed and i realise that part of the way to solve this problem is to bring the media onboard, so that is why myself and other Wikipedians who are also media professionals have come together to create the WikiFact-Checkers group. We are working to keep the community by training all the media professionals on how to use and contribute to Wikipedia,Wikidata, Wikicommons and factchecking tools. We have 60participants who have joined the community who are active, we have the training platform with 124 participants where we were only able to train 40 participants on the Wikifact-checking course which we started earlier this year.

When i talk about media professional, i am saying journalist, writers, factcheckers.

I really don't know if our community can be supported by the team to build it and also ensure it is sustained. Your views on what to do and how to hold our community will be appreciated. Thank you for giving we volunteers the opportunity to serve and we in turn appreciate your great work and dedication.Semmy1960 (talk) 09:58, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

Hello @YPam (WMF) I sent a mail to you and you said I should respond to all your questions.

In the proposal target participants are identified as authors, journalists, writers, and broadcasters, consider providing some details on how you plan to engage them effectively. It would be good to know what strategies you might have for reaching out to these professionals, understanding their needs, and tailoring the training content to specifically address their challenges and interests. This could involve conducting pre-training surveys to identify their specific knowledge gaps and expectations, which will help you design training modules that resonate with them.

Answer:

We had training this year for media professionals, which was supported by the WikiCred Team. The aim of the training was to improve the credibility of Wikipedia articles and information in the media space. A signup form was sent to media professionals across different media groups, platforms, and media houses, and we had signup interest from 155 people showing interest in knowing how to verify information online and how to contribute to Wikipedia. To achieve this, we partnered with Code for Africa to support us with training.

The first training was in February, and 40 people were trained. A community of 100 interested participants has been formed. We have a WikiFact-Checkers community of media professionals who are interested in contributing to Wikipedia and improving the verifiability of information on Wikipedia. We already have the professionals; we already have a community; and some participants are waiting to be trained. They are already members of the WikiFact-Checkers community.

As for tailoring training content for these professionals, we are tailoring:

• Wikipedia training
• Wikidata training
• Wikicommons training
• Fact-checking and archiving training

Question:It is unclear if you have a plan for tracking or following up to ensure that participants remain engaged after the training. Does the team intend to maintain communication and support for participants post-training? This could involve regular follow-up emails, virtual meetups, or even ad-hoc mentorship opportunities to address any challenges they might face while contributing. Also, you might want to consider including metrics for the engagement of participants after the training, such as the number of follow-up activities attended or the frequency of continued contributions.

Answer:

Yes, we have a metrics plan.

We will have seven online trainings, and three physical training

We will carry out three evaluation surveys to monitor the progress of participants

1. Pre-event survey
2. Mid training survey
3. Post training survey

We will offer continuous mentorship and support for participants

We will ensure participants join the WikiFact-Checkers Community

As for metrics, we will use the event metrics dashboard to monitor contributions:

• Wikipedia article creation and minor edits 200
• Wikidata item creation 300
• Wikicommons upload 50

Question:

Do provide specifics regarding what types of content will be created or improved on each Wikimedia project (Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, Wikidata), and how these contributions align with your project's goals. This is currently unclear.

Answer:

This is a group that is creating new articles, adding text and references to Wikipedia articles. We are closing a content gap: our focus is to improve the content on the Documentation of Nigerian Legislators.. We are also creating Wikidata items for those legislators. Finally, we are adding pictures of the legislators to Wikimedia Commons.

We have a list of Legislators who were in the 9th assembly that is yet to be published. We will be working on just the 9th assembly but also the 10th assembly members which is the present assembly.

On a final note the WikiFact-Checkers is a group of media professionals. We already have a group.

Things the WikiFact-Checkers group are working on

After the first training, the creation of the WikiFact-Checkers group has made it possible to follow up with the group. We partnered with the WikiLoves Lagos project as media professionals to promote the tourism, culture, and heritage of Lagos State using the mainstream media and Wikipedia and its sister projects.

This is the media report link for the project:

https://theinsight.com.ng/oloja-of-lagos-elect-chronicles-kosokos-struggle-to-ascend-the-throne-of-oba-of-lagos/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wikifact-checkers_wikifact-checkers-linkedin-activity-7113651789438029824-h7mz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://thenationonlineng.net/why-we-should-preserve-kosokos-legacy/

This is the meta page for the WikiLoves Lagos project:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Lagos.

I will like to submit this grant again after responding to all questions. Thank you!Semmy1960 (talk) 22:00, 8 January 2024 (UTC)