9mobile Spotlights Fake News, New Media in its 6th Edition of Capacity Building Session for Journalists

ALIMOTU SHADIAT

Nigeria’s telecom service provider, 9mobile, recently held another impactful virtual capacity-building session for journalists, aimed at strengthening and equipping them with relevant skills to improve their work process and make them more efficient in their assignments.

In attendance were journalists from both print and online news platforms.
This sixth edition of the capacity building session focused on two distinctive themes: “Storytelling: Embracing features in new media facilitated by Digital Strategist and Founder, Hybrid Tech, Adeoye-Wilson Kupolati, and Fake News: Uncovering the truth” facilitated by News Editor/Political Analyst, Kayode Ladeinde and both imparted on the participants significantly.

The Executive Director of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs at 9mobile, Abdulrahman Ado, represented by PR 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? We are pleased that the facilitators for this training have the pedigree and experience to point us towards the right answers.”

Amanfo noted that the knowledge imparted to the participants during the training would aid them to work smarter and even create room for collaboration with their colleagues seamlessly and professionally.

She commended the journalists for their consistent participation in the training and said the session indeed lived up to the expectation.

Ladeinde, in his presentation, educated participants on identifying elements of fake news and its sources. He shed more light on the negative impact fake news has had on society, admonishing 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, Ladeinde added.

On his part, Kupolati highlighted the opportunities available on new media platforms due to a concentration of both old and new generations of audiences, with the latter experiencing substantial proliferation.

He said, “There are new ways through which audiences consume news today, and it is important to think about how the audience is evolving with new media and technology.

The vast population these days is the new generation who consume new media, and the features on these new platforms have become attractive to the new audience.”

The 9mobile capacity building session is a quarterly training session to engage and train media professionals to improve their work.