Media bootcamp arms Filipinos to fight fake news

The training provides an overview of how fake news works as well as techniques to spot and debunk it. Pic/AFP

A room full of Filipino police and soldiers stares intently at headlines projected on a screen, the latest students of a media bootcamp aimed at fighting their nation's flood of fake news. Scores of people ranging from girl scouts to government workers have already received the same innovative instruction in the Philippines, ranked the world's top user of social media.

"Which one is real?" asks class teacher Rowena Paraan, a veteran journalist with the top Philippine TV network ABS-CBN, as she stands in a sweltering gym on a military base. Her lesson is part of the channel's long-running citizen journalism training programme, which since late-2016 has shown some 25,000 people how to fight the fake news spike that accompanied President Rodrigo Duterte's rise.

The training, which is delivered free-of-charge to groups who request it, provides an overview of how fake news works as well as techniques to spot and debunk it. It is one of several similar efforts that have sprouted up since Duterte's election, including one run by the news website Rappler, known for battling with the president over his brutal drugs war.

25k
No. of people who have participated in the camp

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