A one-day workshop on “Fact-Checking and Verification” was held at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Nagaland University, Lumami on 20th September 2024. The resource person was Dr. Moalemba Jamir, Associate Editor of The Morung Express and certified Google News Initiative (GNI) India Training Network Trainer. The objective of the workshop was to educate supporting journalists, media educators against misinformation.
In addition to mentioning that the world is currently dealing with the challenges of countering the spread of fake news, the resource person led an exercise to test the group’s awareness of fake news and to determine how vigilant the group was about identifying false information.
He noted that stopping the spread of false information is a challenging task for the modern society. Highlighting that pictures and videos make up the majority of fake news, he said that fake news has the power to draw attention and create a lasting impression that may influence a person’s decision-making and behaviour.
Dr. Jamir emphasized the several tricks that individuals use to spread false information, such as whataboutism, name-calling, emotional language, and conspiracy theories, as well as the features of fake news itself, such as propaganda and click bait. Focusing on the issue, he stated that technology has made it simpler to produce convincing, false images, which has led to the visuals being simple carriers of misinformation.
Additionally, he showed how to validate visual information using a variety of essential tools, such as Google Reverse Image Search, Invid tool, Google Transcribe, Pinpoint, etc. Dr. Jamir concluded that the best practices for fact checking are using a variety of methods for verification, cross-checking information from different sources, critically assessing material, taking context and metadata into account, and verifying information before sharing. He also said that Artificial Intelligence is useful but not always accurate. And AI should be utilized as a tool, not a master for fact checking.
It may be mentioned that, the GNI India Training Network, led by Google, Internews, and Data LEADS, has successfully trained over 71,000 professionals across India since its inception in 2018, providing comprehensive training in digital tools and fact-checking practices. In Nagaland, Dr. Moalemba has conducted workshops aimed at enhancing the fact-checking, verification and other related skills with journalists at the Kohima Press Club and the Eastern Mirror newsroom, as well as the media students at Patkai Christian College (Autonomous) and St Joseph University.
