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JANUARY 2019-JANUARY 2020
INDIA TRAINING NETWORK
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JANUARY 2019-JANUARY 2020INDIA TRAINING NETWORK
The Google News Initiative India Training Network was launched in July 2018 with an aim to
support journalists across India in their fight against misinformation. With the support of its partners — Internews and DataLEADS — the network has
so far trained 15,600+ journalists, media educators and journalism students in at least 10 languages across India, benefiting hundreds of newsrooms and universities. The network’s activities have also led to the launch
of many key fact-checking initiatives, helped them become a signatory to the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) and resulted in an exponential surge in number of fact-checking stories across languages and platforms.
India is dealing with a growing tide of ‘fake news’. Misleading and fake content is spread by legions of online, with dangerous impact. Many people
have lost their lives in mob violence fueled primarily by fake messages circulating on the internet. Until the first half of 2018, battling this sea of
misinformation were only a handful of fact-checkers with limited reach. The mainstream media often found itself ill-prepared to tackle this new challenge
and even fell for ‘fake news’ on several instances. This left millions of internet users in India no way to find out if news that was sent to
them was true. The GNI India Training Network hopes to be able to change this by training journalists all across India on
fact-checking and online verification.
THE HARM CAUSED BY MISINFORMATION AND ‘FAKE NEWS’ ON SOCIAL MEDIA HAS INCREASED DUE TO THE GROWTH OF THE INTERNET USERS IN INDIA, WHICH HAS RISEN FROM 137 MILLION INTERNET USERS IN 2012 TO OVER 550 MILLION IN 2019. TODAY INDIA ALREADY IS THE SECOND-LARGEST ONLINE MARKET WORLDWIDE.
PAN-INDIA FACT-CHECKING INITIATIVE
15,600+journalists, media
educators and journalism students trained since
June 2018
KEY MILESTONES OF GOOGLE NEWS INITIATIVE INDIA TRAINING NETWORKThe network is training and empowering a new generation of journalists to identify and debunk misinformation, distortion and manipulation. Over the last two years it has become the largest fact-checking network in India.
5000+ editors, reporters, educators and journalism students trained across India since July 2018. At least 200+ newsrooms and universities benefited from participating in these trainings till date.
MAY2018
JULY2018
First ToT was conducted on July 30, 2018, followed by six more ToT in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi, onboarded 241 trainers.
DECEMBER2018
PollCheck: Covering India’s Election’ – a pan-India training series launched right before 2019 elections. 28 roadshows conducted in 28 cities in 33 days training 1800+ participants.
FEBRUARY2019
JULY2019
SEPTEMBER2019
OCTOBER2019
OCTOBER 21,2019
JANUARY2020
The project starts with a curriculum sprint meet to develop course material for the fact-checking training on May 21-23 at Google offices, Gurgaon.
9862+ journalists, journalism educators and students trained in 236+ workshops across India in the year 2019, benefitting at least 1500+ Indian newsrooms and universities. Overall 15,600 journalists, media faculty members and media students trained since July 2018.
IFCN Meet held in New Delhi to share with participants details about IFCN’s work and code of principles. The meet was attended by IFCN certified and non-certified organisations.
13,500+ journalists and journalism students trained since July 2018 in 350+ workshops conducted in at least 10 languages across 85+ cities in India, benefitting at least 1,300+ newsrooms and universities.
Data Verification Boot Camp conducted for the network trainers and others selected journalists on September 11,2019.
10,500+ journalists, journalism educators and media students trained in 270+ workshops in 10 languages across 70 cities since July 2018.
T I M E L I N E : M A Y 2 0 1 8 - J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0
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The Google News Initiative India Training Network scaled new heights in the year 2019. Launched in July 2018 with an aim to support journalists across India in their fight against misinformation, the network has trained 9862+ more journalists and journalism students in 2019. The network conducted 236+ workshops in newsrooms, colleges and press clubs in at least 10+ languages across 83+ cities in India, benefitting at least 1500+ newsrooms and universities in all. The network trainers also conducted training in remote parts such as Leh, Aizawl and Itanagar among others to ensure journalists in these places also have a chance to learn verification skills. Many news organisations have now created a separate team which monitor social media, identify and combat ‘fake news’ and help fight misinformation across various platforms in India. This has been widely supported by the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) and resulted in pan-India movement against the tide of misinformation in the world’s biggest democracy.
JANUARY 2019-JANUARY 2020INDIA TRAINING NETWORK
HERE’S A REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE NETWORK IN 2019
POLLCHECK: COVERING INDIA’S ELECTION
9 MarchCHANDIGARH
9 MarchJAMMU
30 MarchDEHRADUN
26 FebruaryDELHI
9 MarchAHMEDABAD
15 MarchJAIPUR
15 MarchMUMBAI
16 MarchPUNE
16 MarchINDORE
17 MarchBHOPAL
23 MarchPANAJI
2 MarchKOCHI
8 MarchBENGALURU
11 MarchCHENNAI
13 MarchHYDERABAD
23 MarchVISAKHAPATNAM
9 MarchBHUBANESHWAR16 March
RAIPUR
4 MarchLUCKNOW
1 MarchPATNA
2 MarchGANGTOK
9 MarchGUWAHATI
12 MarchRANCHI
6 MarchKOLKATA
16 MarchAGARTALA
16 MarchSHILLONG
9 MarchAIZAWL
23 MarchIMPHAL
2 MarchKOHIMA
n Special Events and Activities: The Google News Initiative, in partnership with DataLEADS and Internews, organised an election roadshow in India — ‘PollCheck: Covering India’s Election’ — to support journalists covering the general elections in the country in the month of Feb-March 2019. 28 roadshows were conducted in 28 cities across the country, in only 33 days. A total of 1836 attendees participated in these trainings that were conducted in at least 10 different languages including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Bangla, Kannada, Gujarati, Odia, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi.
*Disclaimer: This map is a generalized illustration only, and is not intended to be used for reference purposes.
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FACTUALLY YOURS, A WEBINAR SERIES: The network has initiated an online webinar series with OSINT Expert Eoghan Sweeney to help trainers get verification mentoring from the best in the business. The webinar has conducted difficerent topics related to online verification and fact-checking including a webinar for trainers on social media monitoring and geolocation, how to keep training material updated and best practises of archiving and preserving online content. Also, a series of at least 18 webinars was also conducted by different trainers to help trainers deliver the Pollcheck trainings.
‘Mind Your Data’, GNI India Training Network’s Data Verification
Boot Camp was held on September 11,2019. The day-long data hands-on verification boot camp was conducted for journalists and journalism educators to help them learn how to fact-check numbers and verify claims and statements made by politicians and public figures. Topics covered during the workshop included verification of data of different types, cleaning and analysing data, bulletproofing stories, using RTI to collect and verify data and generating data-driven story ideas.
‘The network hosted ‘Meet The IFCN’ session on October 21, 2019 at the India International Centre in New Delhi. It was attended by IFCN’s Director Baybars Orsek,
who shared with participants details about the IFCN, its work and activities, code of principles and also the growth of the fact-checking movement globally. The meet was attended by IFCN certified and non-certified organisations.
FACTWATCH-NEWS BULLETIN: The GNI India Training Network sends out news bulletin covering key stories from the fact-checking world, expert write-ups on important issues, a roundup of trainings conducted by network trainers, new tools for fact-checking and also enlists some examples which can be used for future trainings. This in-house newsletter is called ‘The FactWatch.’
G O O G L E N E W S I N I T I A T I V E I N D I A T R A I N I N G N E T W O R K I N N U M B E R S
NUMBER OF TRAININGS DONE ACROSS INDIA Andhra Pradesh: 9, Arunachal Pradesh: 1, Assam: 11, Bihar: 4, Chhattisgarh: 1, Delhi: 37, Goa: 3, Gujarat: 4, Haryana: 5, Himachal Pradesh: 2, Jammu & Kashmir: 7, Jharkhand: 6, Karnataka: 9, Kerala: 8, Madhya Pradesh: 2, Maharashtra: 25, Manipur: 1, Meghalaya: 5,Mizoram: 2, Nagaland: 3, Odisha: 4, Punjab: 9, Rajasthan: 10, Sikkim: 1, Tamil Nadu: 10, Telangana: 1, Tripura: 3, Uttar Pradesh: 41, Uttarakhand: 2, West Bengal: 8
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355ASSAM
306KERALA
426WEST BENGAL
136BIHAR
135CHHATTISGARH
288HARYANA
1167DELHI
271JAMMU & KASHMIR
336MADHYA PRADESH
1011MAHARASHTRA
107UTTARAKHAND
409PUNJAB
115ODISHA
385ANDHRA PRADESH
414RAJASTHAN
1610UTTAR PRADESH
72TELANGANA
342KARNATAKA
577TAMIL NADU
111GUJARAT
95GOA
20SIKKIM
34ARUNACHAL PRADESH 118
HIMACHAL PRADESH
189NAGALAND
20MANIPUR73
MIZORAM
243MEGHALAYA
85TRIPURA
412JHARKHAND
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS TRAINED ACROSS INDIATOTAL PARTICIPANTS TRAINED
9862
TOTAL HOURS OF TRAINING
IMPARTED
786CITIES WHERE
TRAINING OFFERED
83
STATES WHERE TRAINING OFFERED
29TRAINERS
ON-BOARDED
241 ACROSS 7
DIFFERENT ToTS (MALES: 159, FEMALES: 82)
PARTICIPATING NEWS ORGANISATIONS
900+ (INCLUDING ALL
MAJOR ONES ACROSS THE 10 LANGUAGES)
NUMBER OF DIGITAL SAFETY SESSIONS CONDUCTED
120NUMBER OF PRESS CLUBS AS HOSTS
23
ELECTION ROADSHOWS CONDUCTED
28 IN 28 CITIES
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, IN 33 DAYS
PARTICIPATING UNIVERSITIES
605+(INCLUDING MANY TOP JOURNALISM COLLEGES
IN THE COUNTRY)
NUMBER OF YOUTUBE SESSIONS ORGANISED
29NUMBER OF WEBINARS
CONDUCTED BY THE NETWORK
22
EXTERNAL EVENTS COVERED
30(LIKE DATA VERIFICATION
BOOT CAMP IN GURUGRAM, MEDIA RUMBLE IN
DELHI, IFCN MEET IN DELHI AND TALK JOURNALISM
IN JAIPUR)
TOTAL TRAININGS CONDUCTED
236(65 NEWSROOMS, 23 PRESS CLUBS, 125 COLLEGES,
23 EVENTS)
JANUARY 2019-JANUARY 2020INDIA TRAINING NETWORK
*Disclaimer: This map is a generalized illustration only, and is not intended to be used for reference purposes.
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T R A I N I N G AT N E W S R O O M S , P R E S S C L U B S A N D C O L L E G E S
Amity University, Noida MERC, University of Kashmir Mumbai Press Club
Assam University
Prabhat Khabar Newsroom, Ranchi Network18, Kolkata
Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi Amity University, Rajasthan
Maharashtra Digital Times Newsroom, Mumbai Shivaji University, Kolhapur
JECRC, Jaipur
NDTV Newsroom, New Delhi
Press Trust, Shimoga
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241 MALES
159FEMALES
82TRAINERS ON-BOARDED ACROSS 7 DIFFERENT ToTS
ASHOK KUMAR THOTA
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ANKITA DESHKAR ABHIJIT DASAMJAD BADSHAHAMRITA
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JISHA KRISHNANHARIPRIYA SURESH
SATHISH KUMAR
PEERZADA ABRAR
SACHIN KALBAG
RENUKA PHADNIS
COREENA SUARES
SHALU AWASTHI
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NIVEDITA MANPOONG
GANGADHAR PATIL
LALITHA RANJANIM.P.RAVISANKAR
ARADHITA SARAF
ROHIT KUMAR SINGHSUSHMITA GOSWAMI
UMESH RAGHUVANSHIC.R. JAYAPRAKASH
THIRAMAL REDDY
CHELLIAH MUTHSAMY
SAMUEL MERIGALA
PRASANNA JOSHI SNEHA MEHENDALEMURALIDHARAN AKONKARAGOUDA KAKADE BALAMURUGAN GP.GANGAREDDYSULAGNA
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SYED MOHAMMED
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SOCIAL BUZZ
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It has been nothing short of extraordinary to
be part of the GNI training program. From meeting a lot many scribes and scholars who are interested in combating misinformation to arming myself with tools and tricks to become a better fact-checker, and thus journalist, it’s been a great year looking back. Through the past year, I trained and helped my colleagues to tackle ‘fake news’, especially ahead of the Indian general elections, which unarguably was the most fact-checked elections in the country’s history.”
—SHELLY WALIA, Senior News Editor, The Quint / Webqoof
I was part of the first batch of GNI Training
Program in Delhi. With the learnings from this workshop, we at Factly strengthened our line of work in debunking fake news. We were able to expand our fact-checking team and train them on fact-checking process. In addition to training internal teams, I have also trained trained Police officials in Telangana, media partners of YouTube at News Workshop in Hyderabad, participants at BBC’s Beyond Fake News conference in Hyderabad, Journalists at GNI PollCheck session in Visakhapatnam and a few other Government officials during the election season on debunking ‘fake news’. We have also launched a video series on debunking ‘fake news’ in both English and Telugu languages.”
—BHARATH GUNIGANTI,
Fact-Checker, FACTLY
Google News Initiative
India Training Network on fact-checking and verification was very enriching experience for me as I was able to conduct training programs on fact checking and verification for journalists, media students, media educators and officers from the armed forces as well. I also conducted a workshop on ‘Advanced Social Media Insights and Fact checking for the Ministry of AYUSH. It was an honour to receive Web Wonder Woman award from the. Ministry of Woman and Child Welfare for creating awareness on Fake News and Misinformation. The fact-checking and verification is now a part of Journalism and Advertising and Public Relations Curriculum at IIMC.”
—PROF. ANUBHUTI YADAV, Head Department,
New Media and Information Technology at
Indian Institute of Mass Communication
I want to take this opportunity to applaud the team of GNI India Training Network for their efforts to keep us abreast with the latest in the world of fact checking.
The highlight of my fact-checking classes was training regional media and students from vernacular medium. I believe with the continuous encouragement from the network I’ll learn more and will train more people about fact-checking.”
—PURNIMA SURYAWANSHI, Freelance Journalist, Mumbai
TESTIMONIALS
The Google News Initiative-India Training Network
has been a pioneering step towards fighting the massive misinformation and disinformation ecosystem. As a participant of the Train the
trainer boot camp, I got a thorough access into the mechanism in which ‘fake news‘ thrives and I also honed fact-checking skills. I look forward to continue my association with the initiative and contribute to train more journalists, journalism students and people at large to equip them with fact checking skills.”
—GHAZALA YASMIN, Assistant Professor and Head (Officiating), Department of Journalism and
Mass Communication, Aliah University, Kolkata
The ToT program immensely helped us make a roadmap for our fact-checking initiative. It helped us sensitise the entire editorial team of India Today
Group about the fundamentals of fact checking.” —BALKRISHNA, Editor - Fact Check, India Today Group
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I was among the first 40 journalists to be part of the ToT programme for fact checking and verification tools organised by Google News Initiative India
Training Network in 2018. I found the training to be very useful. That learning has continued even after the training through webinars and meetup sessions. But the most rewarding experience has been in passing on the learnings to my fellow colleagues within NDTV and journalists working in other newsrooms, as well as journalism students from different universities. So far I have trained nearly 300 people and look forward to training more. After over 20 years in this profession, I look at it as an opportunity to give back to journalism and help spread awareness about one of the biggest challenges facing society today that of misinformation and disinformation.”
—SONIA BHASKAR, Head, TV-Web Synergy, NDTV Convergence
With advancement of new
problems, we journalists need new training. It is rare in India to have new journalism trainings regularly and that too adds into bad state of media. So this training was empowering. It gave me awareness about ‘fake news’, taught me tools and techniques to identify and debunk ‘fake news‘. The ToT has made bigger and necessary difference.”
—IRENE LALRUATKIMI Asst Professor,
Mizoram University
The online verification of news has not only opened a new stream of work for me but has also made me confident about my capabilities as a journalist and a
lecturer. Year 2019 was full of action for me as it started with Poll Check workshop in Ahmedabad, followed by a newsroom workshop just before state elections. Three workshops at journalism institutes in Mumbai added to my mission of training more and more youth in this field. The network training has
given me courage to think out of the box and constantly work as a Truth warrior.”—SHWETA BHANDRAL, EX-Senior Editor- News Features &
Social Media, CNBC Awaaz, News18
TESTIMONIALS
I’ve conducted more than 10 trainings in the key tribal belt of India comprising of the state of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and one in Chennai. The GNI Indian Training Network has naturally moulded me into a fact-checker
and trainer. I really appreciate the opportunities and partnerships the network created with the newsrooms and journalism schools in this [Northeast, India] region. All the credit goes to the network team in entrusting me as a trainer and giving me an opportunity to be a part of this mission to combat ‘fake news‘.”
—JAIKISHAN SG, Assistant Professor, Don Bosco Assam
In the times where newsrooms are struggling hard to restore their
credibility, GNI’s Fact Check and Online Verification training programme could not have been better timed and placed. My association with GNI as a certified trainer for the past year and a half
has helped me look at present day challenges to journalism in a completely new light. It’s been highly motivating and gratifying to train journalists and journalism students.”
—DR SHILPI JHA, Associate Professor, Times School of Media, Bennett University
After undergoing the GNI network fact-checking training,
I took many initiatives in our fight against misinformation. I launched Vishvas News, which is a fact-check initiative of Jagran New Media, and it has received certification from IFCN. I also established a separate and dedicated team of fact-checkers and currently we fact-check in four languages - Hindi, English, Urdu, Punjabi.”—RAJESH UPADHYAY, Editor-in-Chief & Vice President,
Vishvas News & Jagran New Media
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FEEDBACK AND SUGGESTIONS FROM TRAINERS AND PARTICIPANTS
BUILDING NETWORKOur ToT trainers are keen to stay engaged and train more participants. There has been a suggestion to build a kind of alumni (membership) community of GNI India Training Network trainers in order to build an effective and robust network of India’s fact-checkers.
DATA VERIFICATION BOOT CAMPSThe network’s data verification boot camp which was organised on 11th September 2019 received huge response. There has been request to conduct more such boot camps in other parts of India.
WORKSHOP ON PERSONNEL WELLNESSGiven fact-checkers as part of their daily work monitor and review graphic, violent and disturbing content, there has been suggestion to conduct a counselling workshop/masterclass on personnel wellness to provide trainers ways and strategies to approach and interact with graphic content.
RESOURCE CENTREThere has been suggestion that the network should continue developing training resources that can help the network trainers to be updated about new tools to identify potentially harmful false content.
MORE LOGISTIC SUPPORTTrainers are keen to do more trainings in remotes areas to equip rural journalists in fact-checking and online verification. They also seek more logistics support to conduct trainings in far-flung areas.
FACT-CHECKING COURSESJournalism institutes and colleges are keen to explore opportunities to build dedicated courses in fact-checking for undergraduates and post graduate media students. Few journalism institutes and universities including IIMC (New Delhi) and Kurukshetra University (Haryana) have started fact-checking courses.
LEGAL ADVISORY SUPPORT FOR THE TRAINERSThere have been requests that we should offer legal information to our fact-checking trainers on different aspects of online verification and the media laws in India.
MORE TRAINING IN SOUTHERN INDIAThough GNI India Training Network has done series of trainings in the southern states in the last two years, there is demand of more trainings at district level in South Indian states. There is also a request to conduct a kind of refresher course for network trainers who are based in the southern part of the country.
MORE WEBINARS There have been requests of conducting more webinars including on new challenges such as spotting deep fakes, forensic image checking tools and archiving content.
TRAINING IN MORE LANGUAGES, URDUTraining content in regional languages is another ask. We’ve been receiving requests that the network should also offer training in more Indian languages including in Urdu which has 70 million speakers in India.
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