Media Matters for Democracy held a day-long session with the teams of Geo News’ Election Cell and Geo Fact-Check. The purpose of the training was to equip the respective newsrooms with the skills and technical knowledge of countering disinformation in online spaces.
The MMfD team shared the TrendsMonitor toolkit with the newsrooms and ensured its proper installation. The session focused on familiarizing the participants with the toolkit and giving them hands-on knowledge of using the toolkit to conduct their investigations into disinformation campaigns.
The Toolkit comprises a set of tools developed by MMfD to help newsrooms monitor social media platforms for organised disinformation on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and WhatsApp (public groups), and analyse trends to help them proactively fact-check misinformation.
The resource will allow journalists to stay abreast with the rising misinformation on platforms and will be deployed in selected newsrooms in Pakistan. MMfD has been working to help newsrooms and journalists cope with ever-increasing misinformation on digital platforms and has been developing solutions and building skills to improve journalistic fact-checking.