Google trains Kashmir scribes on fact checking, verification of online information

Srinagar, Oct 29: Search giant Google on Monday organised a workshop at Kashmir Press Club (KPC) Srinagar on fact checking and verification of online information for journalists in Kashmir, to safeguard them from falling prey to false stories and bogus data.
Journalists from across the Valley participated in the workshop and received hands-on training. The workshop was organised in collaboration with Kashmir Press Club and New Delhi based media organization named Data Leads.
“Google has started the initiative to guard journalists from falling prey to false news stories,” the press club, which is the local partner for the initiative, said.
The focus of this workshop was fact checking, online verification and digital hygiene for journalists.
We are really happy that we could organise this workshop. The aim of such events is to build capacity among our members and journalists working in the Valley.
“We thank Google for giving us this hands-on training and we hope to organise more such events in future, press club said.
Google, as part of its project for scribes, will train 8,000 journalists in English and other languages in India. For this, a network of certified trainers is being built who in turn will train more journalists across the country.
Leading trainers delivered lectures from Delhi on fact checking and the urgency of learning tools to debunk fake news stories and data, the KPC said.
The press club said a detailed training manual was shared with the participants of the workshop.
A detailed training manual was shared with the participants of the workshop
“It is building a network of certified trainers who in turn will train more journalists across the country,” said the trainer.
Besides apprising scribes about identifying fake news, pictures and videos on different social networking sites and web, they were also given practical lessons on the topic. “I learned a lot from the session. The tools which are used to differentiate fake and real pictures are worth,” said one of the participants at the workshop.
Surabhi Malik, who leads Google’s News Lab programme in India through video conference, explained the fact checking and online verification of the stories to the participants.