Desinfox Niger
Goals
A project
Supported by
Presentation
In a growing number of African countries, misinformation is now considered to play a major role in social disorder. In an effort to combat this phenomenon, a number of governments are introducing strict measures, which increasingly include blocking communication tools or adopting digital codes that restrict certain freedoms.
This trend, which is a threat to African democracy, makes it even more essential for media sector stakeholders to have recourse to tools and techniques for fact-checking, a journalistic discipline that is still in its very early infancy in most editorial offices in Western and Central Africa.
CFI has been providing African journalists with fact-checking training since 2020 through its Desinfox Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal) and Desinfox Chad projects. The new Desinfox Niger project offers the selected media outlets the opportunity to participate in an advanced educational programme aimed at training journalists in fact-checking and helping them to produce content that combats misinformation.
Project beneficiaries
- 18 journalists from six media outlets in Niger
Files to download
Actions
Basic fact-checking training
- Provides information on how misinformation is created;
- Explains how social and online media work (going "viral", filter bubbles, echo chambers, algorithms, clickbait etc.);
- Provides information on how to detect misinformation on social media, e.g. by identifying trolls* and supporters;
- Details how to verify fact-checking sources and bases;
- Covers how to produce fact-checking content;
- Highlights ethical considerations for the verifier.
