Dubawa Ghana organises training for selected Bloggers on how to combat fake news

We’re in the era where getting access to information is very fast. Unlike the ancient days when you’ll need to wait the next day to get a newspaper before you can update yourself on current issues, it has been made simple with the emergence of several news blogs.

As in every case, any good thing comes with its demerits — to which solutions must be provided for. Especially when these disadvantages pose danger to the communities where we live.

One serious problem that world leaders are doing all they can to tackle with how fast and easy information spreads is FAKE NEWS.

FAKE NEWS has caused war among ethnic groups, it has endangered the health of people who blindly follow ‘unsafe practices’ on online media platforms which they failed to double-check to prove its authenticity before carrying them out.

In pursuit of solving the above mentioned negative effects of false news which has engulfed our world, Dubawa Ghana, a leading international accredited fact-checking platform and KAS (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung) put together a two-day fact-checking seminar for a list of Ghanaian bloggers.

The two-day-fact-checking seminar which took place at the Accra City Hotel had in attendance a list of influential bloggers including Ebenezer Donkoh (www.nydjlive.com), Attractive Mustapha of (Modernghana.com and Attractivemustapha.com), Adeyemi Adeboye, Baba, Gerrard-Israel Amenyanyo, Ellis Ferdinand, Edward Blagogee, Vanessa B. Nordzi, Seckloawu Bless, Qwame Benedict and Monte D. Collins.

Facilitators including Dapo Olorunyomi, Chief Executive/Publisher of Premium Times Services Limited and Adedeji Adekunle (Programme Manager with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism) took turns to speak on various aspects of blogging and journalism including transitions of media, creating content, distribution, financing, information disorder and many others.

Legal practitioner and lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Zakaria Tanko Musah also touched on media law and ramifications of information disorder.

Participants, at the end of the seminar, were equipped with tools to help in fact-checking. They also announced their commitment to helping curb ‘fake news’ as a social responsibility before, during and after Ghana’s general elections in December 2020.

The main goal of Dubawa Ghana is that by virtue of them training the aforementioned Bloggers, they can also use their various platforms to transfer all the knowledge gained to the masses.

It’s also expected of the Bloggers to teach other members of their teams the various ways by which they can identify false news and debunk them accordingly.

Dubawa believes that tackling FAKE NEWS isn’t the sole responsibility of just one entity but a collective effort of everyone that plays a role in how information gets to ‘consumers’ thereof.

Ref| ModernGhana.com