VETERAN journalists called on campus journalists to educate the public on media literacy amid the spread of fake news websites in social media.
In a campus journalism conference at Adamson University last Dec. 10, Inquirer.net editor in chief John Nery said it was the campus press’ responsibility to debunk fabricated online articles by providing readers with more accurate information.
“When interacting with friends using social media, you should always provide affirmation to trusted sources, you should promote trusted sources. It should be your mission,” Nery said.
“We should be a credible source. Each of us should try to be trusted sources,” he said.
Inday Espina-Varrona, a contributing editor for ABS-CBN News, said campus journalists should “promote the need to be literate in media among your co-students.”
Campus journalists must learn to fact-check fake news websites, she said.
“Fact-checking is an important way of ensuring standards. You don’t need to tell anyone they are liars, you yourself can debunk the false information they are disseminating by fact-checking,” she said.
The conference, titled “Campus Journalism for Societal Change,” was the fourth installment of Plumang Bughaw, the Adamson Chronicle’s annual campus journalism fellowship.
