As part of efforts to address the growing challenge of misinformation and hate speech, FactCheck Africa has developed a comprehensive curriculum to combat the menace.
The curriculum is tailored for journalism, media and other communication programmes in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
According to the convener of FactCheck Africa, Abideen Olasupo, the curriculum was designed to equip students with the necessary tools, including the use of artificial intelligence to fight the spread of fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech across various platforms.
The rise of digital media, he noted, has amplified these concerns which undermines public trust and poses threats to democratic process and social harmony.
He said the curriculum which was developed by a team of researchers, communication experts, lecturers and professional fact checkers also contains teaching of AI for Media among other courses,
Olasupo noted that these courses were designed to build skills in media literacy, critical thinking, digital literacy and information literacy among others.
The FactCheck Africa boss explained that the outcomes of the organisation’s research and advocacy efforts across different communities in Nigeria informed the development of a robust fact-checking education curriculum for higher institutions in the country.
He said: “In the last one year, with the support of our partners, we have conducted several studies to examine the current landscape of fact-checking education around the globe.
“This was done by identifying best practices and benchmarks from 133 universities across various continents and then compared it with what is currently obtainable in Nigeria”.
He said they however observed that Nigeria has several courses related to information disorder but requires a more comprehensive and dedicated curriculum.n in many grassroots communities.
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