When 10-year-old Finn Randell made the decision to apply to become a news champion he was not confident he would be successful.
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The Dubbo resident knew only 20 students from across Australia would become champions and get the chance to take part in a national forum at the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra.
"The chances of me getting in, I really thought were quite slim," the news fan said.
Mr Randell's willingness to have a go and leadership potential helped him secure the news champion position and enabled him to represent Western NSW at the two-day forum, which explored democracy and the media.
In his new role as a news champion, Mr Randell said he would encourage more young people to be visible in the media and express their opinions about issues important to them.
The Central West Leadership Academy student also hopes to raise awareness of the role the media plays in communities and give people tips to identify fake news.
"Real and reliable information is really important to make accurate decisions to elect your politicians so they can represent you," Mr Randell said.
"Children are the future so we need to get the generation right now to be interested in news, to be actively seeking out news, to have the knowledge to combat fake news and seek out real and reliable sources otherwise what's going to happen in the future?"
According to Mr Randell, news consumers needed to question the veracity of information they access because anyone could publish information that is not factual.
"Does the article logically make sense? Has it been reported by other credible journalistic organisations? Is it backed up by facts?," he suggested news consumers ask.
Mr Randell, who produces his own podcast, said he was also able to build his news production skills at the forum.
"They taught us how to conduct an interview, how to conduct yourself when you're in an interview and how to design interview questions," he said.
Mandi Randell, the Central West Leadership Academy Principal, said Finn did an "amazing job" representing his community at the forum.
"All the students were offered an opportunity to pitch a story to the ABC as one of their first opportunities," she said.
"...They were trying to make it so that kids can actually start pitching stories to the Daily Liberal and having a youth voice and a youth perspective."
Mrs Randell suggested communities should "make a pathway and a forum for kids to understand that all of the news that is happening is relevant to their world".
"They are only years away from being adults themselves," she said.
