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Lyceum Students in Ungheni Trained to Identify False Information in the Media

05 October 2016
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The cycle of media lessons organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) continued on Tuesday, October 4, in Ungheni. This time, a group of 33 students from the local “Mihai Eminescu” lyceum met media expert Viorica Zaharia in order to find out how to defend themselves from information manipulation.

Young people learned to filter the information they consume and found out what criteria they should use to distinguish between professional and manipulating news stories.

The journalist pointed out that, especially during election campaigns, but not only, they should be careful with the information that appears in the media, because they can be easily influenced by it. “Most often, manipulation has the goal to create chaos is society, to impose a certain opinion and make us ignore issues that are important to us, but uncomfortable to those who give orders. If a news report is made from a single source, if it lacks the reaction of the people it refers to, and the language is full of adjectives and appreciations or truncated quotes belonging to obscure organizations or experts, then we should question its truthfulness,” said Viorica Zaharia.

“Mihai Eminescu” lyceum students in Ungheni actively participated in discussion, mentioning that the topic is most important to them in the context of numerous media appearances that distort facts.

Loredana Sava, one of the participants in the discussion, thought that young people need such lessons in order to identify false information in the media and help them correctly look for information and “know who spreads information and what their purpose is.”

“By participating in this activity, I learned how to correctly look for information and have a critical attitude to journalistic products. Since some televisions have influential people behind them, often politicians, we must be aware that we can be anytime manipulated by means of television and must be cautious,” said Cristina Creanga.

Her classmate Cristian Toma mentioned, in his turn, the main thing he learned at this media lesson: “A news story must reflect reality objectively, and any journalist with self-esteem must abide by the Code of Ethics.”
 

The “Promoting Media Literacy and Professional Standards in the Media for an Informed Public” project is being implemented by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) with the financial support of Soros-Foundation – Moldova/Media Program.

The Independent Journalism Center (IJC) is the first media organization that provides aid to journalists and media outlets in Moldova, having the goal to contribute to strengthening free and viable press via projects that offer training in the area of journalism and public relations, media campaigns, advocacy, research and media education.