At a time when widespread misinformation makes doing journalism harder, the Melbourne Press Club is offering a special Masterclass with the former Google Teaching Fellow and current AAP Newsroom Innovation Trainer Neil Varcoe on the tools to help navigate this complex challenge.

Download event flyer

This special session will provide tips, insights and fresh perspectives that can help working journalists deal with the rising tide of misinformation.

The training aims to advance baseline digital skills while encouraging engaging, fact-based journalism. This deep dive trains journalists to spot synthetic and manipulated media and verify content that seems too good to be true. The focus is on Google Search and Open Source Intelligence tools and techniques.

Neil Varcoe is a journalist, lecturer and trainer with more than 20 years of experience at the bleeding edge of newsroom innovation.

He has trained thousands of journalists through various roles, including his world-first appointment as a Google Publishing Fellow, as a lecturer at Australian universities, and during stints with major news organisations such as the ABC and News Corp.

Neil also worked at X, formerly Twitter, as its Editorial Curation Lead in Australia, spearheading major news coverage and fighting disinformation. He launched the online verification start-up Storyful in Australia and led the Online News Association in Australia.

AAP is delivering digital training to journalists around the country with support from the Google News Initiative.