One of Nigeria’s telecommunication service providers, 9mobile, has held a virtual capacity-building session for journalists, to educate them on fake news, new media and on relevant skills that will improve their work.
According to a statement, the sixth edition of the capacity-building session focuses on two distinctive themes, “Storytelling: Embracing features in new media,’’ facilitated by the founder of Hybrid Tech, Adeoye-Wilson Kupolati, and “Fake News: Uncovering the truth,” facilitated by Kayode Ladeinde.
The Executive Director of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs at 9mobile, Abdulrahman Ado, represented by Public Relations lead, 9mobile, Chineze Amanfo, while highlighting the importance of the themes, said, “Fake news is something that has become rampant in these times, making it more crucial to ask the question, how do we uncover fake news and separate the truth from mistruths? These are the questions we ask.”
Ladeinde, in his presentation, noted that there were negative impacts fake news has had on society and admonished media practitioners to be guided by the principles of the profession.
He said, “Breaking news remains an essential ingredient in the journalism business; a misleading piece of news can cause a big damage and ultimately break the brand you may have worked hard to build.
“Some platforms to verify fake news include, ‘About this Result’, ‘Fact Check Search item’, and ‘Google Reverse Image Search.’ The easiest way to identify fake news is to subject the news headline or its keywords to Google search verification.”
