Department of Mass Communication, St. Xavier's University, Kolkata (SXUK) organised a fact-checking workshop for its students on March 7, 2024 in the university campus.

The resource person was Mr. Joydeep Das Gupta, a trainer with the Google News Initiative India Training Network and the BBC Young Reporter India Programme.

Mr. Das Gupta, an expert in combating misinformation and disinformation, shared his insights and enlightened the students in the two-hour-long session. He discussed differences between misinformation and disinformation like hoax, satire, parody, imposters, etc.; its perils, and ways to combat the looming threat.

He emphasised the term 'infodemic,' coined in 2003 by David Rothkopf. The term rose to prominence in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic after being used by the World Health Organization (WHO). It refers to the abundance of information, including false or misleading information, in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak, as seen during the global pandemic.

He also discussed uses of efficient tools like Google Lens, Fireshot, Invid and Yandex for verifying content online. Students learned about fake memes, misquoted news headlines of opinion leaders, viral videos, fact-checking of live political speeches, etc. An interactive session took place at the end. Students found the workshop highly enriching.

Dr. Reshmi Naskar