Author: newswriters

Here are 11 tips on how to report on the outbreak from Trudie Lang and Peter Drobac, two public health experts from Oxford University COVID–19 will be an all-consuming story for the next few months. It will require access to expertise and the ability to understand complex disciplines such as epidemiology and global health. It will also demand a considerable amount of resources from newsrooms that were already overstretched. Our Journalist Fellows spoke about these challenges with public health experts Peter Drobac and Trudie Lang in two virtual seminars chaired by Meera Selva. Peter Drobac is the Director of the…

Cristina Tardáguila Associate Director of the International Fact-checking Network “COVID–19 is the biggest challenge fact checkers have ever faced,” says Cristina Tardáguila, from the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance Cristina Tardáguila is the Associate Director of the International Fact-checking Network (IFCN), a unit of the Poynter Institute created in 2015 and dedicated to promoting basic standards and bringing together fact-checkers worldwide. Tardáguila recently talked with our Journalist Fellows on IFCN’s response to the global pandemic. “It’s amazing what the mixture of panic and the lack of good data can do to our brains and to our capacity to sort fact from fiction. COVID–19…

– डॉ वर्तिका नन्दातस्वीरें बहुत कुछ कहती हैं। तस्वीरें बिना शब्दों के भी हकीकत बयान करने की ताकत रखती हैं। यही तस्वीरें जब चलने-फिरने लगती हैं और बतियाती हैं तो इनकी ताकत को कुछ और पंख मिल जाते हैं। इलेक्ट्रॉनिक मीडिया के आने के बाद यही हुआ है। पंखों ने खबरों की खिड़कियां खोल दी हैं और हैरान करती फुर्ती के साथ दुनिया को एक नन्हें-से गांव में तब्दील कर दिया है।इस आधुनिक गांव में दर्शक के लिए बहुत कुछ है। यहां राजनीति, अपराध, फिल्म, खेल, मौसम, मनोरंजन – सब है। ब्रिटेन के एक सांसद ने बरसों पहले कह दिया…

डॉ. धरवेश कठेरिया |समय की तेज रफ्तार और सूचना की बढ़ती भूख ने फेसबुक जैसे सोशल साइट्स को जन्म दिया। फेसबुक के आगमन से अभिव्यक्ति की आजादी के साथ-साथ संवाद की गति भी तेज हो गई है। आज सूचनाएं अखबार, टेलीविजन से पहले फेसबुक पर आती है। 80 प्रतिशत फेसबुक यूजर का मानना है कि फेसबुक व्यक्तिगत सोच को सामाजिक सोच में परिवर्तित कर रहा है। 74 प्रतिशत लोगों का मानना है कि तकनीकी सुविधाओं ने वर्चुअल दुनिया को जन्म दिया है। हम अपने सगे-सबंधी से दूर होते जा रहे हैं। 51 प्रतिशत प्रतिभागियों का मानना है कि ज्ञान-विज्ञान की…

Credit: Jed Villejo on Unsplash Solomon Elliott Broadcasters have a unique opportunity to capture younger audiences who are increasingly on TV, considering it more trustworthy than social media In homes across the country, younger audiences are watching news programmes on their televisions more than ever. It has taken a pandemic to make this happen. The lockdown gives broadcasters a golden opportunity to develop their relationship with the audience of the present and future. A week before prime minister Boris Johnson ordered a lockdown, BBC News Channel has recorded its largest weekly audience since 2015. Newsrooms are rising to the challenge…

Rasmus Nielsen Advertising revenues are taking a massive blow. Some local publishers say they are down by 50%, some national titles by 30%. Online advertising revenues are further challenged by advertisers blacklisting coronavirus-related stories and by some platforms at least temporarily demonetizing coronavirus-related content ======================================================================= “A lot of news media won’t make it but this is an opportunity for some,” writes our Director Rasmus Nielsen The coronavirus pandemic will impact every part of our lives and societies, including our news media. Even in the best case scenario, there will be major disruptions in many countries for months, with economic and…

“During a global public health crisis, journalists play a crucial role in guaranteeing the right to information. They must be able to move about and communicate with their sources confidentially. And to cover the crisis, journalists may need to contact carriers of the virus. It is essential that the technological measures deployed by governments do not endanger this confidentiality”- Christophe Deloire, Secretary General, Reporters Without Borders When governments use mobile phone location and contact data to trace the recent contacts of coronavirus carriers with the aim of containing the spread of the virus, they must ensure that these measures are…

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash Meera Selva “Journalists are still doing extraordinary work, putting themselves at risk to report on a pandemic that is turning global systems upside down on an unprecedented scale. This pandemic must be documented, analysed and recorded. People’s stories must be told and politicians must be held to account if societies are to rebuild themselves. It is vital that journalism continues”- writes Meera Selva Journalists are writing the first draft of history, frantically typing out their stories on what it means to have societies go into lockdown, as governments use the crisis as an opportunity…

Access Now releases “Fighting misinformation and defending free expression during COVID-19: recommendations for states While misinformation, disinformation, and state-sponsored propaganda are not unique to COVID-19, in the context of an unprecedented health crisis, these phenomena have posed a serious risk to public health as well as public action The world has been fighting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since late 2019, and with it, the rapid growth of COVID-19-related misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech. In response to this “infodemic,” governments around the world have swiftly implemented measures that disproportionately limit freedom of expression and opinion. To support governments in fighting against…

Image Credit: unsplash JULIE POSETTI AND KALINA BONTCHEVA COVID-19 has spawned a flood of potentially deadly mis- and disinformation that directly impacts lives and livelihoods around the world. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres has described this as a “poison,” and humanity’s other new “enemy.” What is the disinfodemic? The term we have adopted to describe the falsehoods fuelling the pandemic is disinfodemic because of the huge viral load of potentially deadly disinformation. The disinfodemic often hides falsehoods amidst true information, and conceals itself in the clothes of familiar formats. It resorts to well-known distribution methods ranging from false or misleading…