The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), through its fact-checking initiative, DUBAWA, has trained Ghanaian non-urban journalists in Koforidua on enhanced digital journalism skills, verification techniques, and fact-checking practices.
The training, organised in partnership with the Google News Initiative, was held on March 25 and 26, 2024, at the Baca Hotel in Koforidua.
The first day of training featured sessions led by experts like Kyere Bekoe Nathaniel, a Fact-Checker at DUBAWA, and Gadugah Nathan, an Editor at DUBAWA. The sessions covered “Understanding Information Disorder” and “Fact-Checking: steps and Methodology,” respectively. Dr Ayisi Aurelia, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, also led participants through a session on digital safety and security for journalists.
Day two of the training commenced with a session on digital verification skills and tools facilitated by DUBAWA Fact-checker Brako Augustine. The Programme Officer of DUBAWA, Ahiable Roselena, then took participants through two sessions on using Google tools for fact-checking, research, and reporting with emphasis on tools like Google Alerts, Google News, Google Trends, Google Maps for geolocation, Flourish, Google Pinpoint, and others.
Musah Zakaria Tanko, a legal practitioner and lecturer at the University of Media Arts and Communication Institute of Journalism, also facilitated a session on “Using the Right to Information Act in fact-checking.” The training concluded with a final session facilitated by Gadugah Nathan on “Elections Reporting, Fact-checking, and Observer Networks: Leveraging Lessons for upcoming elections.”
Participants from the training expressed their appreciation, indicating the importance of fact-checking in their journalism practice. Armah Paulina from Radio 1, stated,
“The workshop training has met my expectations, and I looking forward to more. I am very impressed with the sessions as well. I have learned that as a journalist, you have to fact-check and cross-check before you publish anything or come out to say anything because, as journalists, we are educating the public.”
Eastern regional editor for Daily Graphic, Wunpini Haruna, also highlighted the workshop’s significance, stating, “This particular workshop, if I had not had the opportunity to attend it, I would have lost a lot of opportunities because I wanted to come and also learn… All of us in our offices use the term fake news for unauthentic information, although we have not done any background checks on it.
“Now, due to this workshop, I have been taught not to describe news like that as fake, especially when you have not done any background check, because there are processes you have to go through to detect if a piece of particular news is ‘fake.’ Even with that, it is termed as information disorder, not fake news. We should not use the term ‘fake news’ as a Fact-Checker.”
