Google News Initiative in collaboration with Amity School of Communication organizes a workshop on ‘Poll check: Covering India’s Election’
Raipur. March 16th. Amity School of Communication in collaboration with Google News Initiative organized a one-day workshop on ‘Poll check: Covering India’s Election’, which is a training series to support the journalists covering upcoming elections across the country.
In the inaugural session of the workshop the welcome address was delivered by Prof.(Dr.) S.C. Nayak, Head of Institution Amity School of Communication. Prof. Nayak payed his gratitude to the Chief Guest of the occasion Hon’ble Higher Education Minister Govt. of Chhattisgarh Mr. Umesh Kumar Patel and Guest of Honour Mr. P.C. Hota, Editor News 18 Chhattisgarh for sparing their precious time for this workshop.
In his presidential address Prof. (Dr.) R.K. Pandey, Vice-Chancellor Amity University Chhattisgarh impressed the importance of social media in our day to day lives and the responsibility that users have over the interpretation and propagation of information available online.
While addressing the session, the Guest of Honor Mr. P.C. Hota, Editor News 18 Chhattisgarh said, “…the job of the journalists is that of gatekeeping, which is being repeatedly endangered because of the unverified flow of information over the internet.” Mr. Hota congratulated Google and the Media School for organizing this need of the hour workshop.
The Chief Guest of the occasion Hon’ble Higher Education Minister Govt. of Chhattisgarh Mr.Patel said, “…any information is harmless as long as it is factual. But the adulteration of the facts is what creates fake news and it is a huge drawback for our society.” Hon’ble Minister further added that, “fake news is one of the biggest challenges faced by the media today and this workshop is a great step towards tackling this major issue”.
The vote of thanks for the inaugural session was delivered by Dr. S.C. Mukhopadhyay, registrar Amity University Chhattisgarh.
Over the span of the work shop there were three sessions conducted by senior google trainers Mr. Raj Vardharajan and Mr. Amjad Badshah on - ‘Verification and Fact Checking’, ‘YouTube for Election Coverage’ and ‘Digital Security and Safety’. Over 150 leading Journalists, Media Academicians and Journalism Students from across the state participated in the day long workshop. The workshop concluded with a cultural programme where in students from various schools of the university showcased their hidden talent in the form of wonderful performances.