“Digital technologies are advancing every day and it seems almost impossible to keep track with these changes. Individuals committed to manipulating information and spreading disinformation seem to always be step ahead of us, journalists” Anisa Mahmutovic, a journalist from RTV Sapna, said at the beginning of the workshop organized as part of the EU project educating journalists and general public on digital media trends.
The first in series of 4 planned media trainings aiming to improve knowledge and skills of journalists, communication students and bloggers in digital journalism was held in Bijeljina. Over twenty journalists and social media influencers from Tuzla, Bosanska Krupa, Brcko, Srebrenica, Banja Luka, Sapna, Zvornik and Bijeljina took part in interactive sessions on techniques and tools they can use to verify facts and sources of information on digital platforms.
“Providing accurate and credible information today demands from a journalist to be able to verify a social media account, authenticity of online image or video, or credibility of a website they want to cite as a source. These workshops help journalists to become skilled at verifying such content”, said Maida Muminović from Medaicentar, one of the workshop organisers.
Global trends affecting media environment in EU and BiH, spread of disinformation in online sphere, operating models of the disinformation networks in BiH, were some of the topics explored during the workshop.
“Being aware of motives behind spreading and launching disinformation campaigns is essential when considering the role of journalists and editors in safeguarding the public interest. It is very important to both educate and engage media community in keeping up with trends affecting the credibility of journalism”, said Elvira Jukic-Mujkic, the training moderator.
Participants discussed the importance of learning about new tools and methods for fact-checking and content verification.
“This workshop is a great thing that helps us catch-up with developments, and these topics should be even discussed within education system. Very little attention is devoted to these topics, so this his was useful”, Anisa Mahmutovic told us at the end.
After Bijeljina, the workshop will also be organized in Trebinje, Sarajevo and Tesanj later this summer. Workshop are organized within the EU project “Educating Journalists and General Public about Digital Trends with the slogan #FactCheckingMatters or #NeVjerujNaPrvu.
