{"id":13180,"date":"2020-07-02T10:32:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T08:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/?post_type=news&p=13180"},"modified":"2020-07-02T10:32:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T08:32:17","slug":"a-toolkit-to-tackle-covid-19-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/news\/a-toolkit-to-tackle-covid-19-disinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"A toolkit to tackle COVID-19 disinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The spread of COVID-19 has been accompanied by a rise in disinformation, making it even more difficult to protect citizens and prevent the spread of the virus. But many journalists are not equipped to counter the false information and rumours that spread rapidly online. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recently approached RNTC to develop a toolkit that can equip journalists and bloggers in Uzbekistan with everything they need to effectively tackle disinformation around COVID-19.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Louise Rasmussen<\/em><\/p>\n

As early as February, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned: \u201cWe\u2019re not just fighting an epidemic; we\u2019re fighting an infodemic\u201d. The sheer volume of coverage has made it difficult not just for the public but also for journalists to distinguish correct information and trustworthy sources from misleading ones as Brandon Oelefse, Director of Learning Programmes at RNTC explains.<\/p>\n

A lot of journalists are seeing stories or information spread online and civil society is seeing things spread online, often without thinking critically about it. Things with higher amounts of views and high traffic are assumed to be true and are used to create stories, but there\u2019s often something in these stories that\u2019s incorrect or inherently untrue.<\/em><\/p>\n

Different types of false information may complicate the task of verification even further for journalists on the ground:<\/p>\n

Misinformation is false information that is passed on unknowingly \u2013 by someone unaware that it is false information. Disinformation is also false information, but is passed on with an intention to do harm. And malinformation is part true, but is used in a tactical way to do harm. So it\u2019s partly true, partly false, and it intends to do harm.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Brandon Oelofse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The infodemic toolkit<\/strong>
\nRNTC has developed an infodemic toolkit in collaboration with OSCE and Mass Media Uzbekistan to help journalists tackle this combination of dis-, mis-, and malinformation in order for them to report responsibly on the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

RNTC\u2019s infodemic toolkit is a free, interactive online course that has been developed in Russian<\/a>, Uzbek<\/a> and English<\/a>. The course consists of interactive 6 modules, based on videos, and explanatory text that are designed to help journalists understand what the \u2018infodemic\u2019 is about, how to verify information, debunk false news, avoid amplification of disinformation and learn how to access trustworthy information online in times of lockdown. The toolkit also includes a \u2018Debunkers database\u2019, which aims to create a community around the users of the toolkit, and to raise awareness of fake stories that are circulating online:<\/p>\n

People who\u2019ve gone through the course can write blogs or contribute to our content. Obviously it\u2019s peer verified and it\u2019s checked before it\u2019s posted. But the purpose of that is to provide a database on debunks that people have come across. An example is: There was a picture going around of a person lying dead in a square in China, but when it was reverse image searched, we found out that this was actually an art project from 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n

Expert input
\n<\/strong>RNTC has drawn on a large network of experts. The videos in the toolkit include interviews with Craig Silverman, who is BuzzFeed\u2019s media editor and the author of the Verification Handbook, and Aidan White, Founder and President of the Ethical Journalism Network, talks about the ethics of reporting during COVID-19. A number of investigative journalists who are specialised in online investigations, as well as Russian and Uzbek journalists have also contributed with their experience and expertise.<\/p>\n

Professional skills for citizen journalists
\n<\/strong>Journalists, bloggers and citizens in Uzbekistan face a number of issues related to false information, leading the OSCE to suggest that there is a particular need for the infodemic toolkit in the country, especially because toolkits like RNTC\u2019s have not yet been developed in Uzbek says Oelefse:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a focus along the Eastern European belt on disinformation and fake news, but when it comes to Central Asia, there\u2019s almost no focus on these things. But journalists in Uzbekistan are faced with issues of verification; many journalists were spreading disinformation and misinformation, not knowing that they were actually spreading \u201cbad\u201d information.<\/em><\/p>\n

While citizen journalists play an important role in spreading information, they often lack the necessary skills and resources to verify the accuracy and sources of that information:<\/p>\n

Many journalists and bloggers don\u2019t have university degrees or haven\u2019t studied the techniques of effective journalism. They learn them on the go. We see more and more that journalists are not career journalists. They have an interest in spreading information, but don\u2019t necessarily have all of the experience or education of a journalist. So the toolkit is an accessible way to give people some practical skills to make their work and information better.<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/strong>
\nEven though the OSCE only planned to have an Uzbek and Russian version, Oelefse explains that RNTC considered it important to develop the toolkit in English as well:<\/p>\n

We have large digital communities across the world who are all grappling with issues of how to report during the pandemic, so we see that journalists in our networks could use these tools to improve their work as well. We also anticipate that there might be a second wave, and with it will come more disinformation.<\/em><\/p>\n

RNTC has aimed to provide a broad take on misinformation, disinformation and malinformation based on what civil society actors as well as journalists and bloggers on the ground have experienced:<\/p>\n

The toolkit remains relevant even without the frame of COVID-19. The same techniques should be applied to all information gathering and reporting; it is general good journalism practice,<\/em> according to Brandon.<\/p>\n

RNTC will offer a course<\/a> later this year on how to counter disinformation, which will also include lessons that are covered in the infodemic toolkit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The spread of COVID-19 has been accompanied by a rise in disinformation, but many journalists are not equipped to counter this online. RNTC has developed a toolkit to equip journalists and bloggers in Uzbekistan with everything they need to effectively tackle rumours and fake news around COVID-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13180","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rnw.media\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}