Media literacy will prevent fake content: Prof KG Suresh
‘Factshala’ organised in MCU, Students learnt to identify fake news
Bhopal, 21 October 2020: Vice chancellor of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National Journalism and Communication University Prof KG Suresh said although it is difficult to prevent misinformation and disinformation, it can be prevented by creating awareness in the society. Media students have a social responsibility to stop fake news and provide right and factual information to the society. They should identify fake content and further inform this to the public.
Department of New Media Technology organised ‘Factshala’, a joint program of Internews and Dataleads and supported by Google New Initiative.
Prof Suresh said absence of true and correct information also puts a question mark on media credibility. Entire world is finding difficulty in identifying correct information. It raises the need for media literacy. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concerns over spread of misleading and incorrect information through social media in Covid-19 period. We here in the university, are planning to impart training to media persons on evidence based health reporting, because this is the area where fake news directly harm the life of common people.
In all, 278 students had applied for participation in the work and 92 of them were imparted training. Head of New Media Technology Department Prof P Sasikala imparted the training to participants. Registrar Prof Avinash Bajpayee proposed the vote of thanks. The similar training will be held on October 22 for university faculty.
