Sensitising youth on ill-effects of fake news through Satyameva Jayate
Satyameva Jayate campaign seeks to curb fake news and sensitise the youth on bad effects of misinformation
Fake news has turned out to be a menace. The phenomenon of fake news and its ever growing trend has occupied web and social media spaces, and have assumed prominence in an irritatingly sad manner. Even after efforts to curb the spread of fake news have been undertaken from various quarters, the nuisance doesn’t seem to wane.
It is in this context that the need to sensitise the younger generation on the ill effects of fake news assumes much significance. In a bid to tackle the menace of misinformation and towards sensitising the youth and college students, a campaign has been rolled out.
Christened the Satyameva Jayate Digital Media Literacy Campaign, the efforts are now being extended to all higher education institutions in Kerala. As part of the initiative, a two-day workshop for selected college teachers, who will be the master trainers, was launched on Tuesday in the state capital.
Satyameva Jayate, one of CM’s 10 Point Programmes
Satyameva Jayate is one of the Chief Minister’s 10 Point Programmes, and had been lined up as a comprehensive information literacy initiative that aims to tackle the spread of fake news and misinformation. This is the first of its kind initiative by a government in the country.
Dr. R Bindu, Kerala’s Minister of Higher Education, launched a Media Literacy Boot Camp for teachers so as to give the efforts at tackling the spread of misinformation a leg up. The Media Literacy Boot Camp organised by the Higher Education department in association with Delhi-based DataLeads is being seen a major step in this direction.
The Department of Higher Education is spearheading the Satyameva Jayate Digital Media Literacy Program at the college level.
Safe use of digital media
The programme aims to create awareness among students and youth about the safe use of digital media and ways to recognize fake information on the web.
The master trainers who will be imparted training at the camp would lead the further training for more college teachers across the state. The two-day training will cover topics such as tools to identify fake information on the internet and social media, fact checking and data analytics.
