Actress Angelina Jolie has announced plans to produce a BBC show that will teach children how to identify fake news and make up their minds on world issues by examining facts and reputable sources.
Jolie will serve as an executive producer for BBC My World, a program aimed at teaching children over 13 how to interpret the news. The series will be co-produced by Microsoft Education and will include reporting from the BBC World Service.
“As a parent, I am happy to be able to give my support to a program that aims to help children learn more about the lives of other young people around the world, and connect to them to each other,” Jolie said in a statement.
“I hope it will help children find the information and tools they need to make a difference on the issues that matter to them, drawing on the BBC World Service’s network of thousands of journalists and multiple language services around the world,” the Maleficent: Mistress of Evil star said.
The show is particularly aimed at teenagers growing up in the digital age, many of whom come across news content on social media but do not know how to distinguish it for bias, reliability, or overall quality of content.
According to the BBC, the program aims to “fill a global gap in reliable and trusted information for young audiences in this age group, who are legally allowed on many social media platforms but poorly served by adult news content, and susceptible to the dangers of poor quality ‘fake news’ and disinformation. They are an age group keen to understand more about how trusted news is made and the values that stand behind it.”
The program will run for half an hour every week on the BBC World News channel, airing at 11:30 eastern each Sunday. The show will be available on YouTube and the BBC iPlayer service soon afterward.
In August, Jolie launched her own YouTube channel aimed at showcasing her political and humanitarian work, fueling growing speculation that she may be planning a future political run. The 44-year-old, who has served as the Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2014, told People magazine last April that she would “never say never” to such an opportunity.
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