Hyderabad: National conference on Countering Disinformation held at OU

Hyderabad: US Consulate General Hyderabad, Public Affairs Officer, David Moyer has called upon journalists to strive to disseminate uncontaminated information because the responsible citizenry forms opinions based on the information supplied by the media.

Delivering the keynote address at a national conference on Countering Disinformation, jointly organised by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Osmania University (OU) and the US Consulate General Hyderabad, here on Saturday, Moyer said “Misinformation poses the greatest threat to democracies. Journalists help responsible citizens to form an opinion on contemporary issues,” he maintained.

“Unfortunately, sometimes the disinformation comes from legitimate media outlets. Not out of malice, but because we are swimming in a sea of information – some of which is true and some of which is false,” he observed.

OU Registrar Prof. Lakshminarayana underlined the need of countering disinformation and misinformation for the common good. DataLeads, founder and CEO, Syed Nazakat urged participants to apply critical thinking techniques to sift facts from the flood of information.

BoomLive, News Editor (South), Nivedita Niranjankumar emphasised observational skills over overdependence on tech tools. Prof. K Narender, Dean, Social Sciences and Prof. K Stevenson, HoD, Journalism and Mass Communication, also spoke.