You’re receiving this email because at one point you signed up to receive more information about our network. We are a group of like-minded individuals working in the field of journalism education and media literacy across Asia.

After a few years of hiatus, mostly due to the political turmoil in Hong Kong and the COVID-19 pandemic, we are finally gearing up for a real start.

1. What is ANNIE?

The Asian Network of News & Information Educators, or ANNIE for short, is a not-for-profit organisation registered in Hong Kong.

We aim to facilitate a network of educators, journalists, media professionals, policymakers, academics, and other stakeholders in the field of news, media and information literacy across Asia.

The name is new, but this initiative has been around for a decade. It is a renewed effort of the international collaborations we started at the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong in 2012.

2. Do you have a website?

Yes, we made one, finally. Please check it out and tell us what you think.

URL: https://annieasia.org

3. Is the fact-checking media Annie Lab your project?

Yes. We launched a student-driven, fact-checking organisation called Annie Lab in late 2019.

It is now a Verified Signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

Student reporters work Monday through Friday on campus and are supervised by four journalists-turned-educators/academics.

We are now compiling our teaching material, tips, and resources that we have accumulated through this experience. We will be sharing all of them through our network, hopefully in late April this year.

4. What’s up with all those colours in the logo?

Our logo is inspired by how a prism separates a beam of light into different colours. A prism slows down the light passing through it, making different wavelengths of light bend at different angles, transmitting a spectrum of colours as a result.

When thinking about it metaphorically, it illustrates a way of looking at things we encourage our learners to practice. While news and information may appear to be ‘black and white’ at first glance, the reality is often much more nuanced.

Our mission is to explore better ways to teach journalism, media and information literacy, fact-checking tools and techniques, and other related skills and concepts so that learners will see the influences and perspectives that shape our understanding.

5. What’s next?

The Advisory Council members gathered in Singapore in December last year. We discussed so many ideas together but after some consideration, we decided to focus on two projects in the first half of 2023:

Help develop school-based fact-checking initiatives;
Share teaching and learning material and activities we’ve developed over the years.

Advisory Council members and observers met in Dec. last year. Yep, it was fun!

1. School-based fact-checking initiatives

We are in the process of securing funding for this project. Selected partner teachers/schools will receive a kick-start fund to build it.

Drawing on our experience at Annie Lab, we would like to help in any way we can. Please stay tuned for the announcement, which is likely to be in late March or early April.

2. Educator’s toolkit

Meanwhile, we began working on this resource website. It is still pretty much under construction, but the Table of Content is ready for you to know what to expect. We are planning to add enough materials to most units by the end of April.

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So that’s the wrap! Thanks for reading such a long email.

We hope you would stay part of the ANNIE network to exchange ideas and build a culture of connected instructors and inquisitive learners together.

Wishing you all good health and progress,

Masato

P.S.
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Beginning is always hard