PHOTO: Students from the schools and facilitators pose for pic after the workshop
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
A Liberian group, Campaigners Against Misinformation and Disinformation has conducted a day-long Digital Media Literacy Workshop for 6 Senior High Schools In Rural Montserrado County.
The head of the group, Taweh Johnson said the aim is to solidify sustainable peace in Liberia, ahead of the October 10 presidential and legislative elections.
Eighteen senior high school students attended the event from the six schools, and they were educated on two topics: Communicating and sharing reliable and credible digital content and finding and consuming reliable and credible digital content. The workshop was held at the Orange Digital Center in Congo Town on February 24, 2023.
Few weeks ago, Campaigners against misinformation and disinformation hosted a two-day Media Literacy awareness campaign with over fifty students of the Communication and Media Studies Department at the University of Liberia. The organization taught the University students how to verify the information by following three steps: stop, reflect and verify.
Speaking at the one-day training workshop, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iCampus Liberia, Mr. Luther Jeke presented on the topic ” Finding and consuming reliable and credible digital content”. During his presentation, he said the Digital Literacy Workshop helped to educate Liberian youths ahead of the much-publicized October 10 Elections on how to stop the spread of fake news on social media platforms.
The CEO of iCampus Liberia informed the students that they should be cautious in sharing information on social media.
Mr. Jeke added that Liberian youths should learn some basic skills of technology to be cognizant because the Internet has given rise to several social media platforms which will enable them to differentiate inaccurate information from reliable and credible information.
“Too often as young people we just feel that the Internet as a whole is just for social purposes but the Internet enables you to learn anywhere, anytime at your own pace, there are so many skills out there you can learn from the Internet. You can take a whole course on the internet on how to source credible information, how to search on the internet, how to do research, how to find the right information on the internet,” the iCampus CEO informed the students.
“Misinformation and Disinformation is not a new topic. Social media like Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms now help to spread misinformation and disinformation very fast. This particular era is very critically important as young people not to just get news and run with it. You have to check other reliable sources when you see a picture or information,” Mr. Jake added.
The Co-managing Partner of STAGE MEDIA Liberia, Ms. Joyclyn Wea presented on “Communicating and sharing reliable and credible digital content”. In her presentation, she told the students that the Digital Literacy Workshop was mainly intended to educate them on how to share accurate digital content, verify information and share digital content on social media platforms.
Ms. Wea explained that sharing digital content is different from credible content. According to her, the students need to be able to verify before sharing accurate digital content.
There are several platforms like scamdoc, Google Image search, Chat GPT, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp that are used to verify credible digital content, she explained.
“We are going to elections. You will have people sharing a lot of different fake news about each other especially politicians. You don’t have to rely on what people will say but you need to use different tools to establish what they have said. There are instances where people go on Facebook and create accounts in other people’s names,” Ms. Wea said.
“We want to ensure that we fight against misinformation and disinformation. We are depending on you as Ambassadors to be able to help us go about sharing accurate digital content online, she said.
For his part, the Executive Director of Campaigners against misinformation and disinformation in Liberia, Taweh Johnson made brief remarks saying that the organization was founded to sustain the peace in Liberia because disinformation and misinformation can cause violence, chaos and instability in any country. Taweh Johnson said that the organization’s mission is to sustain the peace in Liberia by educating citizens ow to verify information before sharing it.
“With the support of members of this organization, Campaigners against misinformation and disinformation has conducted public awareness on Media Literacy at six schools in Rural Montserrado County. The schools include: Confidence School System, Kingsley Lington Academy in Fendell, Montserrado Technical Institute, Lucy B. Gibson in Mount Barclay, New Jerusalem School, and Careysburg Public High School in Careysburg with over 500 Senior High school students in attendance. It took place between October and December 2022. Students of those institutions are present at this Digital Literacy Workshop today. This organization has also conducted a two-day Media Literacy Awareness with Students of the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Liberia”, Mr. Johnson asserted.
Moreover, the Executive Director of Campaigners against misinfo and disinfo in Liberia, Taweh Johnson lauded Orange Digital Center for allowing them to use their State-of-the-art facility free of charge to have the Digital Literacy Workshop. Students who attended the training have become knowledgeable about spreading credible and reliable digital content online. Mr. Johnson indicated that their organization looks forward to building a sustainable partnership with Orange Digital Center.
At the end of the Digital Literacy Workshop, the eighteen (18) students were certificated for actively participating in the Digital Literacy program.