On Wednesday, a project was launched in Lagos, Nigeria titled CrossCheckNigeria, with the main vision of creating a virtual newsroom among various media houses in Nigeria to collaborate against fake news ahead of the 2019 general elections.
CrossCheck Nigeria, powered by a United Kingdom organization, First Draft is a collaborative effort between 18 media houses who will work together to verify information as part of global efforts at fighting misinformation and fake news.
The official launch of the project in Ikeja on Wednesday came after a two-day training of representatives of participating collaborating media houses who have all signed on to the cause of joining forces to combat fake news and misinformation especially in view of the forthcoming election in the country.
The project in Nigeria will be coordinated by an independent, not-for-profit news agency in Nigeria, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) with other members which include News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc, (publishers of the Tribune titles and Tribune Online), The Guardian, Punch, Daily Trust, The Sun, Thisday, The Nation, Sahara Reporters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Channels Television, Freedom Radio, Premium Times, The Cable, The Niche, The Code and Dubawa.
46 journalists participated in the two-day boot camp and were all taught the rudiments of the application that would be used to verify information. The boot camp named “Nigerian Verification Project” focused primarily on ways of to combating misinformation, fake news and other information disorders that might have a negative impact on the polls by improving the quality of information available to the public and debunking misinformation by journalists that were empowered with required skills and technologies of verifying information.
The First Draft team led by Jenni Sargent, the Managing Director of First Draft News stated that the project not only aims at improving the quality of information available to the voting public but will also help to debunk misinformation and fake news while sanitising the media space in the run-up to the elections, adding that the bootcamp was designed to teach the participants about the new verification technology to be deployed for the project and how to work in the media coalition.
According to her, First Draft has developed a reliable technology that will be used to verify information to nearly 100 per cent accuracy, adding that the technology which just launched in Nigeria had already been put to use in Brazil and France and had been used to research the trend of misinformation and fake news in some other countries like India.
“We really want this project to be driven and owned by Nigerian journalists and media houses who are in a better position to know their audiences and political context better,” Phoebe Arnold, the First Dtaft International Project Coordinator added.
Executive Director of ICIR, Mr Dayo Aiyetan, stated that it is worrisome that people use information as a weapon to either deceive the public or injure the reputation of opponents, noting that recent local elections in the country had shown that the social media, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, have become avenues for politicians to spread misinformation, rumour, falsehood and fake news.
According to him, “journalists need to learn the skills to verify and fact-check such misinformation and debunk them before they mislead people or cause harm.”
At the official launch, there was also a panel discussion with eminent media and communication experts which includes the Chairman of Channels Television, Mr John Momoh represented by Ronke Raji, the Executive Editor of Guardian, Mr Martins Oloja, the Publisher of the Niche, Ikechukwu Amaechi, the Executive Director of ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan and Professor Abigail Ogwezzy, the Head of Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos.
The panel while discussing misinformation and strategies to curb it all agreed that fake news is real and will continue especially with the upcoming elections, adding that it can only be curbed when media practitioners no matter how little must maintain professionalism for fake news to be combated.
Facts according to them are sacred and should be upheld irrespective of whatever situation a journalist might find himself, adding that contextual reporting can also be a problem. The panelists also stated that credibility should be upheld as any media that loses credibility is on its way to the grave.
The post With CrossCheckNigeria, 18 media houses confront fake news appeared first on Tribune.
Source Tribune
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With CrossCheckNigeria, 18 media houses confront fake news
Description : On Wednesday, a project was launched in Lagos, Nigeria titled CrossCheckNigeria, with the main vision of creating a virtual newsroom among v...
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