MIL Workshop in Balti: Media Skills Are Fundamental for Distinguishing Disinformation and Manipulation

Journalists’ responsibility for the information spreading in the public space, the part played by the media, and the need to develop media education skills in the current environment, as well as recognition of disinformation and manipulation by the media were some of the topics discussed during the Media and Information Literacy workshop (MIL) organized by the Journalism Independent Center (IJC). The event was held at Alecu Russo State University in Balti Municipality on April 29.

At the beginning of the workshop, Victoria Tataru, IJC program coordinator, mentioned that media education was one of the permanent priorities of the organization, which kept concentrating its efforts on developing knowledge, skills, and analytical abilities among various categories of people (such as pupils, teachers, young people, and elderly persons) for the last decade.

„At the lectures, workshops, or training programs, during the activities we implement, we would like to attract the attention of media consumers, content creators, as well as young journalists and future opinion makers that a person who is informed correctly is better protected and less likely to be misguided by manipulations. In fact, media skills are fundamental for working as a journalist and contributing to helping the public become informed, aware, and responsible,” Victoria Tataru mentioned.

Diana Railean, workshop expert, discussed the advantages of the profession they had chosen with the future journalists, and also mentioned the challenges they might face. „From your lectures, you have probably learned that a journalist’s essential task is to rigorously check any sources and facts before publishing any materials. You will also have to be impartial and transparent while covering any events. Journalists can and are supposed to contribute to making the public trust for media outlet they represent. Actually, if sources or content are left unverified, due to rapid interactions and online virality of information, such an approach  can result in proliferation of fake news,” Diana Railean said.

The journalist provided several examples of fake news for the participants to demonstrate how the public could obviously be misled, misinformed, or manipulated. „Manipulating the public is quite easy nowadays, especially via the social networks, if some photos are used. It happens when only a part of the image is presented, the part people would like to see. I would like to ask you to double-check any information and to ask yourself whether you have really seen it all. In fact, you can be given only part of the information someone intends to provide,” Diana Railean explained.

She also told the young people what bots (or chatbots) are, how they could be identified, and why it should be done: currently, they are being discussed in the context of spreading misinformation online. „A robot (or bot, if we abbreviate this term) is an application/a computer program which works online or in a network and can fulfill various automated tasks, as well as interact with the other users automatically, simulating a human conversation. Bots were generally created with good intentions. However, bots are also used for misinforming people online. Therefore, since a bot’s responses are programmed, it can generate some posts or interact with the public on social media, spreading lots of fakes in a very short time. As soon as a bot with an international name/surname sends you a message or leaves you a suspicious comment, you can be sure that there is someone behind it who has certain interests,” Diana Railean explained.

During the workshop, the participants analyzed several examples of messages and photos from the media which were used for manipulating the audience.

„Social networks, news websites, and online platforms play a crucial part in the rapid spread of disinformation in the Republic of Moldova. As we are journalists, it is our role to help the public identify disinformation by means of education and developing a critical attitude,” Diana Railean warned the participants.

During the session, the young people were issued informative leaflets (in Romanian and Russian) and were informed about the media education resources (developed by the IJC) which they could use for their work as young journalists. The participants were also told to be guided by the Journalist’s Code of Ethics and to remain incorruptible in any situation in order to remain a mainstay of ethical and responsible journalism in the world of disinformation.

At the end of the workshop, the young people from the Faculty of Philology, the specialty of Journalism and Media Processes, shared their impressions with us.

Vlada Medvedi, 1st-year student

During today’s workshop, I have improved my theoretical knowledge in the sphere of journalism that I accumulated during the lectures at the University and at the Nordnews.md news portal where I had my internship. Today’s training has demonstrated to me that only experience genuinely reveals how to deal with challenges related to manipulation and disinformation. Meeting professional journalists helps me improve my training as a young journalist and counter disinformation in the media and public space.

Valeria Glavan, 1st-year student

All the information I have learned today is useful to me. Although it was not completely new to me, such meetings are useful, and we think they are welcome. In the future, I would be glad to get more tips on how to act in more specific cases, and how to avoid fake news and propaganda. Such topics are unlikely to be exhausted soon.

Artur Pezencov, 3rd-year student

I think I have spent the time usefully. I was interested in learning how images could be manipulated/distorted to convey certain negative emotions and also to misinform and to manipulate the public. For the future, I would like to hear more about specific examples of journalistic investigations. Previously, I attended some courses on disinformation at RISE Moldova, and I appreciate the fact that the workshop was based on specific facts/examples.

Artiom Sereteanu, 3rd-year student

I was interested in the topics discussed, and I agreed with everything that was said. The examples of photo manipulation demonstrate very obviously how the media manipulates the public and how consumers could be easily misguided. I would like such workshops to be organized for students and also for the other categories of the population who actually need media literacy and have to develop their critical thinking in order to obtain high-quality information and to be able to limit spreading fake content, especially circulating on online platforms.

The MIL workshop was also attended by the students from such specialties as Romanian language and literature and foreign languages, the Faculty of Philology of Alecu Russo State University from Balti Municipality.

The MIL workshop was organized within the READ – Responding, Expanding and Acting on Disinformation” project jointly implemented by the International Media Support (IMS) and the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) with the financial support of the European Union.

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