One should read a piece of news, verify a source and authorship, and request the authorities to give an official commentary or refutation until eve. This was a home assignment for the webinar “School of Fact Checkers: Identifying Fakes and Countering Disinformation” which was held on May 28-29 by the Academy of Ukrainian Press with the support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
“Fakes became an information component in our society. The more information we have, the more fakes will arise. Our goal is to introduce the ways of identifying fakes according to the key markers and to counter their spreading,” believes Prof. Valeriy Ivanov, Doctor of Science, President at AUP.
In a two-day period, the participants practiced following the markers for identification of fakes. Trainers and participants discussed using these markers in daily life. Everybody passed the final test on identifying fakes and manipulations in news.
“Fakes live on popularity, even if they are spread just for fun, not for making harm,” told Oleksandr Horokhovskyi, ‘Bez Brekhni’ (Ukr.: ‘No Lies’) project manager, “These are contemporary threats and challenges one should cope with in the information environment.”
“Our webinars are focused on practical usefulness in daily life,” shared his idea Andrii Kovalenko, AUP’s executive manager, “It is not a secret that single users only verify news, but we hope our training will help underline particular elements which make false information look conspicuous, even if it happens subconsciously. Then, tools can be used: verification of sources, the first source, references, experts, etc.”
“We believe in our Foundation that democracy is impossible without free press,” told Kateryna Bilotserkovets, Foundation’s project coordinator, “Citizens are in need of facts, information and ability to distinguish between truth and lies at all times. There must be an opportunity to access different points of view on events around us. A demand on reliable and thoroughly verified information is especially rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Next webinar “School of Fact Checkers: Identifying Fakes and Countering Disinformation” is sheduled for June 8-9, 2020. Join us!
The Academy of Ukrainian Press promotes critical and informed media consumption, encourages following the standards of journalism, and explains the fundamentals of media literacy to teachers, children and adults. You are welcome to join the AUP’s webinars at out Facebook page and on the website.
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