Journalism experts stress importance of ‘fact checking’ during three-day media workshop

Jul 24, 2017 News

With the advent of online journalism, the dissemination of news has become a fierce competition. This has translated, at times to some media entities opting to share the first bit of information they receive without seeking to verify facts.
Verification to ensure the authenticity of facts should always be the hallmark of any good news outlet. So says Multimedia Adviser to the Pan American Health Organisation in Washington D.C., Mr. Ary Silva.
Silva and a few other journalism experts recently shared their knowledge with members of the local media fraternity with a view to helping them enhance their use of multimedia in the online dissemination of news. The three-day workshop at the Marriot Hotel was spearheaded by the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. Representatives of several media outlets, including those from newspaper, television, radio and online, were in attendance.
During an interview with this newspaper, Silva underscored that “What worked like 20 years ago with the radio, newspaper and television is different today. There is less and less newspaper to get the news; even the television the new generation do not use as much for news.”
Silva noted that even radio, since the 1950s, was being viewed as a medium that would eventually become obsolete. He however noted that radio in particular has withstood the test of time, even though it may not be the most sought after. “The way people want to get their information is changing…the generation of today has less and less time. Sometimes you can get a good article of two or three pages but that was in the past. Today they want the information right away and in a concise way,” Silva explained.
With online avenues, there is not only the possibility of faster dissemination, but also pieces of attention grabbing information can be presented to satisfy the awareness needs of clients.

PAHO Multimedia Adviser, Ary Silva

“We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs…online news and there has to be a short way to put out what you would like to be the news. In most of the [online] news today there are only one or two paragraphs, and that is all the information you need to know about the subject. If people need to read more, there are links at the bottom that they can click to read the whole article and get more information,” Silva explained.
But swiftly getting the news out could at times prove to be problematic. It was pointed out at the recent workshop that while a news outlet could build its popularity by disseminating its news ahead of its competition, sometimes its integrity could be at stake if information is often found to be inaccurate.
“There is a lot of competition for what is new, what is not, what is dramatic…any kind of information, when you get it out, ensure it is the right information, because everybody only wants accurate information,” underscored Silva.
This was also emphasised by Silva’s colleague, career journalist Ljiljana Hoffman. She pointed out it is always important to fact-check before opting to disseminate even if this would mean that you would disseminate your information after your competitors.
This is particularly crucial for the fast-paced online news outlets, Hoffman explained. However, she like Silva said “newspapers [for instance], will be less but they are not going to go away.” But according to her, it is important for the print media to be able to recognize that there is a vast difference between print and online publications. This difference, she noted, includes the fact that the version of an article printed in a newspaper could be confined because of the space limitation, but additional information and even other interactive multimedia facets could be added online.