The Media Foundation for West Africa(MFWA) has organized a training session for selected journalists on fact-checking.
The journalists were asked to consciously try as much as possible to change the narrative of peddling falsehood through news items.
In a two-day workshop held in Accra on Thursday and Friday, the over 25 media practitioners from Accra and other parts of Ghana were equipped with ways to combat ‘mis-disinformation’ while learning basic but vital ways of fact-checking information.
The journalists were told to pay extra attention to every bit of information shared or published as it plays a key role in informing the decisions of citizens in the country.
Dr. Gilbert Tietaah, a lecturer at the University of Ghana revealed how easily media practitioners mislead a chunk of followers either intentionally (disinformation) or obliviously (misinformation).
In his lecture, it was noted that over 60 websites have deliberately been set up with the intent of misleading several people who easily consume and believe almost every content on the internet.
He advised that, even though the nature of the job demands breaking the news as fast as possible, it is incumbent to go through five major steps to decipher what is fact from what is not.
“Sometimes, getting the information from a particular site alone makes you confident but it is important to also read the content to be sure the headline doesn’t contradict the news itself” Dr Tietaah said.
He added that, apart from knowing the source and the content, journalists should confirm the facts as well as the date of publication. Finally, knowing yourself as a reader or a consumer of the news is important to help avoid biases in judging content.
Programs Officer for MFWA Krobea Asante further trained the journalists on how relevant tools can be deployed to verify and fact-check contentious information.