The Department of Multi Media and Mass Communication organised an informative online workshop on ‘Google News Initiative- Fact checking’ on 28th August 2021. The guest speaker for the session was Ms. Archana Kumari who is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication and New Media at Central University of Jammu, Bagla. The session was organised in the presence of the department coordinator, Dr Meena Bhargava and other faculty members of the department.

Ms. Archana Kumari is a Fact-Checking Trainer and has conducted over 20 fact-checking workshops all over India in various states like in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Delhi etc. She has worked with various media organisations such as Hindustan Times, All India radio and Sahara TV . She is also associated with the media literacy campaign FactShala as well as Vaccine Misinformation drive Vax Check to generate awareness towards fake news and how to overcome its repercussions.

In the beginning of the session Ms. Kumari introduced the Google news initiative and discussed the importance of fact-checking in journalism. She also talked about local news, inclusive journalism and emerging technologies in India. In her further presentation , she touched upon the tools used in verification of news such as Google reverse image search engine, photo verification, Google translate extension, TinEye, smart keyword search etc.

The session was enlightening and insightful. There was a lot of engagement from the side of the students who asked her several questions on citizen journalism, social media and fake news. She concluded the session with an explanation on how to check the authenticity of a photo or a video which would help the students in future.