Masato Kajimoto

Professor of Practice

Twitter: @MasatoKJ
Instagram: @MasatoKJ
Email: kajimoto@hku.hk

Masato Kajimoto specialises in news literacy education, fact-checking practice, and misinformation ecosystem research in Asia.

In 2019, he founded a not-for-profit organisation called ANNIE (Asian Network of News and Information Educators) to develop teaching and learning materials in news literacy specific to the media, political landscape and socio-cultural environment in the Asia region.

As part of the initiative, he is currently running the student-led fact-checking newsroom Annie Lab at HKU Journalism. Annie Lab is a verified member of the Code of Principles by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute and also a member of the World Health Organization’s Vaccine Safety Net.

In March 2024, Masato was elected to serve on the IFCN’s advisory board. He also teaches a course on Infodemic Management at the School of Public Health under the Faculty of Medicine at HKU.

Before his teaching and research career, Masato worked as an online reporter and “specials” editor (web producer) for CNN.

Born and raised in the Japanese city of Nagoya, Masato earned his bachelor’s degree in English and American literature at Chuo University in Tokyo. 

He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia in the United States. He obtained a PhD in sociology from the University of Hong Kong.