Sensitisation seminars on empowering journalists through combatting misinformation

Islamabad:In collaboration with Unesco and the National Press Club, The Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA) conducted two sensitization seminars aimed at ‘strengthening capacities of grass-root level journalists to promote media pluralism, diversity, and gender-responsive journalism.’

The seminars engaged more than 50 print and electronic media journalists, particularly women journalists, on key aspects of mobile journalism, investigative reporting, digital content production, privacy, safety, and countering disinformation/misinformation. 

The first seminar titled “Countering disinformati­on/misinf­or­mation and securing online safety and privacy”, was conducted as an initiative aimed at addressing the multifaceted challenges faced by digital journalists today. 

Sadaf Khan, a media development expert led a session on misinformation and disinformation which aimed at sensitising the participants about skills and techniques for countering disinformation/misinfor­mation.

Momina Mandeel, journalist and media development practitioner, conducted a session on securing online safety and privacy and combating online harassment. She also informed journalists regarding the kind of threats they might face by sharing their personal details on social media platforms.

A second seminar was titled “Digital Content Production and Storytelling”, which focused on themes such as mobile journalism, digital content production, digital storytelling and investigative skills for quality reporting. Badar Alam, senior journalist led the first session on Digital Content Production and Mobile Journalism, he emphasized on the importance of ethical journalism in the digital landscape.

Amel Ghani, conducted the second session titled ‘The Art of Digital Storytelling and Investigative Skills.’ She briefed the participants about reading the performance of their digital platform through Google Analytics and design their platform as per the trends on different social media platforms.

The seminars engaged participants in transformative learning, empowering digital journalists to not only withstand the onslaught of misinformation but also to secure their digital presence in an increasingly complex environment. The participants took active part in the discussions and shared their experience of working in the current challenging environment of media.