Angelina turns the tables on fake news
WHILE THE WORLD was fixated on Brad Pitt’s reunion with Jennifer Aniston at the SAG Awards last month, Angelina Jolie was busy talking business with the BBC. In-between shooting forthcoming Marvel blockbuster The Eternals, Angelina is producing a new series aimed at children,
BBC My World. The show, which started airing on the BBC World Service last week, aims to explain the facts around news stories, free from spin and opinion. It promises to be an antidote to fake news, which Angelina believes is a profound issue facing all of us, but particularly younger generations.
‘Angelina wanted a programme she could sit down and watch with her kids,’ Nomia Iqbal, a co-presenter of the show, tells
Grazia, adding that she wanted to ‘address global issues that they were interested in’.
BBC My World delves into topics including the Amazon rainforest, climate change and video manipulation known as ‘deep faking’, in a way that is aiming to be digestible but not patronising.
Angelina is particularly interested in children’s media literacy, says Jamie Angus, director of BBC World Service. ‘She really has a passion for finding every possible way to improve the lives of children,’ Jamie explains, adding that Angelina wants children to have the tools to decipher between trustworthy and fake news. The actor has also enlisted Microsoft to help distribute the educational content from the show to teachers around the world.
Angelina, who was not paid for her work on the series, was motivated by the fact that the US, where her six children have grown up, has been hugely affected by the fake news phenomenon, with many blaming it for the rise in prejudiced attitudes and hate crimes. ‘Angelina is a really committed mother and parent. What I have noticed about her is that she shares insights from how her own children see the world. Part of her interest is that this is not solely a problem for countries where there is poor provision of public media – it’s a problem everywhere in the world.’
Jamie first worked with Angelina on a previous BBC project in 2016 about the migration crisis, and noticed how enthusiastic she was about educating children about news. ‘She was really fired up,’ he says.
It’s no surprise, then, that Angelina was very hands-on with the BBC My World programme. Grazia is told that Angelina attended meetings, pitched ideas and helped develop the editorial propositions behind the series.
Nomia says the actor has a ‘bold’ and ‘clear’ vision, with Jamie surprised by her level of involvement. ‘It amazes me how much time she has made for us – she’s been in touch constantly over email during the last six months,’ he adds.
She has also been meticulous about the finer details. ‘I think because she works in the movie industry – where there’s so much premium put on how everything looks – she’s very creative in how it looks on air,’ Jamie adds.
Angelina’s celebrity status, however, has played little part during her own involvement in this new project. When visiting a group of school children at BBC Broadcasting House, she told them simply, ‘Call me Angie.’