Subscribe to our newsletter to receive business tips, learn about new funding programmes, join upcoming events, take e-learning courses, and more.
Take the first step to successfully starting and growing your business.
Join for free)
Posted: Mon 22nd Jun 2026
11 min read
Enterprise Nation exclusive: Journalists Jennifer Sieg and Hayley McKenna are building a new kind of media and AI literacy organisation – one that teaches young people not just how to consume news, but how to create it.
When Jennifer Sieg spent four years interviewing over 500 founders for City AM, her colleagues had a running bet that she'd eventually start her own business – so clear was the 27-year-old journalist's enthusiasm for every start-up she covered.
Jennifer, 26, started her career as a journalist covering the start-up landscape at City AM, and now – having spent the past four years interviewing over 500 founders – she's decided to start her own business, much to the delight of former colleagues who saw it coming all along.
Jennifer, who co-founded The Fact Studio with fellow journalist Hayley McKenna, says:
"I used to say all the time, if I wasn't going to spend my career writing about start-ups, I was going to start my own. But it had to be something I was passionate about. Life came together and gave me the right idea."
That idea emerged from the fact that if two trained journalists were struggling to spot fake news in their social media feeds, what hope did the average 14-year-old have?
According to Ofcom, 81% of 10-12-year-olds are already on social media, yet only 11% can identify misinformation when they see it. With the UK government pushing ahead with under-16 social media bans and potentially lowering the voting age to 16, an entire generation risks being thrust into democratic participation without the tools to navigate today's complex media environment.
Jennifer explains:
"We're in this constant state of consumption. There's no conversation happening. Young people are consuming their news on social media – it's the biggest form of news consumption for them.
"If they don't have access to that responsibly, and they might be able to vote at 16, at what point are we giving them access to a world perspective that will allow them to become responsible citizens?"
The Fact Studio's idea is to teach young people not just how to consume media, but how to create it to really understand how to fact-check, rather than just accept things as correct.
"When you know how to create media, you know how to consume it," says Jennifer, drawing on her journalistic background.
"As journalists, when you see a headline, you know why that headline was written. You can dissect it because you've written headlines before. Instead of just lecturing people about what they should consume, we want to give them creative space to make positive content."
The organisation is developing a multi-pronged approach: in-person workshops where young people collaborate on and publish magazines, hackathons with brands and companies, and a forthcoming digital ‘sandbox’ tool – a simulated social media environment where students can safely learn content creation skills without the risks of exposure to actual platforms.
"If social media is banned and kids can't be on it, but they can vote at 16 and get a job at 16, we're creating a skills gap," warns Jennifer. "Right now, 16-year-olds are incredibly well-skilled for marketing jobs because of social media experience. What happens when we take that away without replacement?"
It’s an important question. Recent research from the IPPR suggests the ever increasing drip feed of bad news could also be toning down young people’s ambition and expectations for their career in the bleak world they view through their phone. It suggests that only one in four 16 to 29-year-olds agree that everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their talent and hard work will take them.
Even more shockingly, the research suggests only 20% of 16 to 21-year-olds think they will succeed, and 80% think they will be long-term unemployed.
Interestingly, The Fact Studio recognises that media literacy isn't just a young people's problem. Parents, having not grown up with social media themselves, still often struggle to have constructive conversations with their children about online content – crucially about whether it’s actually true or blown out of proportion.
"It's your parents that are sometimes spreading the most misinformation on Facebook," notes Jennifer. "There's this huge intergenerational divide because people aren't talking to each other about it. When you grow up on social media but your parents haven't, it's completely different."
The organisation is developing tools for parents and hosting community meetups to foster these difficult conversations.
"How can we help parents have healthy conversations at home?" asks Jennifer. "School is only half a child's life. If they're learning this stuff in school but going home and watching their parents scroll on social media, that's their prime role model."
Working with an active WhatsApp community and conducting extensive research, The Fact Studio is developing what it calls a "creative methodology" for media literacy – one that can be embedded into any subject, from history to sports.
"A young person might not be interested in news, but they might be interested in sports, culture or arts," explains Jennifer. "You give them something to channel their creative interest into, and they're still learning the ropes of media literacy – research, information gathering, communication.
"When you regurgitate that information, it sits differently with you."
The organisation is exploring partnerships to help young people create professional-quality content.
"AI tools aren't going away," says Jennifer pragmatically. "But you need to help young people learn how to responsibly use them. It's not about AI versus humans – it's about what we can co-create."
For US-born Jennifer, whose family background is steeped in entrepreneurship, the transition from chronicling start-ups to building one feels both natural and surreal.
"I'm the first of my family to go to university and get a regular job," she laughs. "And then I spent my day job writing about people like them who don't have regular jobs."
It's clearly an irony that’s not lost on her. Having spent years amplifying the voices of ambitious entrepreneurs, she now struggles with the same challenge they face – telling her own story.
She says:
"I've interviewed and written about over 500 founders, but I cannot write about myself. It's so different when you're on the other side."
Yet it’s this very insider-outsider perspective that gives The Fact Studio a unique advantage. Jennifer understands both the media ecosystem and the start-up landscape. She knows what makes a good story and what makes a viable business.
As traditional media continues to struggle, Jennifer sees an opportunity for reinvention.
"I have friends who say, 'I'm never going to use AI in my work,'" she says. "But then you're not going to have a job tomorrow. It's not going away. If we keep saying it's this or that, we're stuck in this middle void."
Instead, she envisions a future where media literacy is a lifelong learning process, where young people grow up with the skills to be responsible digital citizens, and where the next generation of journalists might look very different from today's.
"Aaron Parnas – he's a lawyer who's now the biggest news influencer in the US with 3 million Instagram followers," she notes. "He gives me news faster than any publication. Attention is the new currency. As long as you can responsibly carry that audience, that's what matters."
Operating as a limited company with a social mission, The Fact Studio is currently in its research phase, developing partnerships with schools and organisations whilst maintaining a freelance journalism arm. The team is exploring funding opportunities for their ed-tech tools whilst running pilot workshops.
"We're trying to create this curiosity, this innate urge to uncover something," says Jennifer. "Whether that's your own creative interest or a movement within your community. If people can have that, maybe journalism isn't going to die – maybe it's just going to change."
For young people drowning in AI-generated content and extreme algorithmic echo chambers, The Fact Studio offers something increasingly rare: the tools to think critically, create thoughtfully, and participate meaningfully in democratic society.
As Jennifer puts it: "Social media is a tool for good, not just bad. The more you use it as a tool for good, you're fuelling it with positive fire. You can't just keep AI slop out there and learn how to consume it. You've got to combat it with positive creation."
This article is part of Enterprise Nation's ongoing coverage of innovative social enterprises addressing contemporary challenges.
