Vishvas News concludes a fact-checking and verification fellowship programme for 10 major newsrooms in India

The fellowship was launched by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in association with Meta.

Vishvas News, the fact-checking and media literacy training division of Jagran New Media (JNM) concluded a year-long training programme for 20 fellows from 10 major Indian news organisations. The fellowship was launched by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in association with Meta, with Vishvas News as the knowledge and training partner of the programme.

The ‘Fact-checking & News Verification Fellowship’ culminated with a day-long conference at the Meta office on November 30, 2022.

On the culmination of the programme, Bharat Gupta, CEO, Jagran New Media said, “It gives us great pleasure to have collaborated with Meta and IAMAI on the fact checking training for journalists of leading media groups through this programme. I am confident that the team of 20 fellows will catalyse the transformation into NewsRoom 2.0. We are delighted to assist media houses in scaling up their operations by imparting knowledge, information, tools, and strategies to these volunteers in order to identify, verify and combat the menace of misinformation that is disrupting the news ecosystem.”

Rajesh Upadhyay, editor in chief, said, “Vishvas News is synonymous with trust and it has been our endeavour at Jagran New Media to deliver reliable and trustworthy news to our readers. Through this training programme, we, along with our fellow media practitioners have learned and promised to identify, cross-check, and debunk the false news circulating in the community. I would like to congratulate all the participants and also our partners Meta & the Internet and Mobile Association of India for giving us this opportunity to make a difference and for bringing change in the way journalism is perceived.

This programme aimed to make the mainstream media houses running in India independent enough to identify, curb and understand the evils of mis/disinformation. From 10 shortlisted leading media organisations, two dedicated fellows were chosen to participate and train under international experts and trainers from Vishvas News. Various learning modules were used to conduct five-day workshops, followed by daily sessions for one year and the modules were tailored according to the individual trainees. More than 50 fact-checking tools were discussed and explained to the participants to turn them into professional fact-checkers.

Through this programme, Jagran New Media successfully trained 20 journalists from the media fraternity including The Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Asianet news, Manorama Online, Lokmat, Deccan Herald, Press Trust of India, Prajavani, and Mathrubhumi.