A renowned journalism training centre is to help lead the fight against ‘fake news’ after landing a £300,000 grant from Google.

City University journalism researchers are to build a web-based app which is designed to enable journalists to fact check andf verify information.

The app, called DMNIR, will be trialled in 30 newsrooms across Europe and combines machine-learning and artificial intelligence technologies.

Development work is being funded from Google’s £150m Digital News Initiative (DNI) designed to support and stimulate innovation in digital news journalism between now and 2020.

Leaders of the big data verification project say it aims to develop a “technological solution to a growing problem in journalism.”

They believe it also has potential applications for investigative journalism by sorting and finding connections in so-called ‘big data’ such as police, government and environmental data, and company records.

Tom Felle, Senior Lecturer in Digital Journalism at City, said: “As more and more information is stored and made available electronically – by governments; public bodies; supra-national organisations and others – sifting through mass data has become increasingly difficult.

“Few newsrooms have the capacity to undertake digital investigative journalism because of a lack of skills, resources and access to digital tools, yet this sort of accountability and public service journalism is vitally important for democracy.”

“Separating the news from the noise is key to the verification of digital information. DMINR serves to empower journalists by supporting them in identifying and making sense of connections in large, complex datasets.

“It will allow journalists to take the lead in breaking original news, build trust and engagement with audiences, combat false information and provide a counter-balance to infotainment and so-called ‘churnalism’.”