Punjabi university Journalism department organises virtual webinar for its students
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in / Chandigarh
Press Information Bureau (PIB), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India and Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, Punjabi University, Patiala together organized a webinar
This webinar was organized under a series of webinars started by Press Information Bureau ( PIB) with various departments of communication of various universities. This was first webinar under this series organised in collaboration with the Department. Additional Director General (North Region, Ministry of I&B, GOI) Devpreet Singh, in her keynote address to the participants introduced about the role of effective communication
to deal with misinformation and disinformation during pandemic.
She specially focussed on various aspects of communication during COVID-19. She said that we should be aware that most of the information these days is not accurate as it is coming from everywhere due to social media. She especially advised the youngsters to be careful while forwarding the fake messages in the
times of this pandemic . Director (North West Region), ROB, Chandigarh Ashish Goyal gave a detailed presentation about the role of various media units under the Ministry. Interacting with the media students he said that this is a difficult phase due to COVID-19 and we should be careful while posting any information on
social media platforms. He also talked about various paradigm shifts on the communication front due to emergence of social media.
Talking on the advantage of social media, he said it makes communication two-way as it becomes easier to get feedback from the public. He highlighted that infographics have become an important part of the social media communication nowadays. He further explained about the various communication challenges faced by the communicators like rapid pace of technological change with new emerging technologies like AI, Big data etc. and also highlighted the new opportunities in the field for young journalists.
Deputy Director, ROB, Chandigarh, Anuj Chandak, discussed social media Communications and fake news. He drew attention on the fake, forwarded messages and both on Whatsapp and Facebook. He said that we have
been trying to tackle fake information by adopting various measures. from Lockdown 1 to Unlock 2. He added that while during the lockdown period focus was on ensuring adherence to the guidelines and national directives
with emphasis on message of Staying Home, during the Unlock, the focus now has shifted to adopting of The New Normal Behaviour.
He informed the participants about setting up of a Regional Fact Check Unit at PIB Chandigarh to check the spread of fake news related to central government in the entire region of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh.
Dr. Happy Jeji, HoD, Journalism & Mass Communication (JMC), Punjabi University Patiala said there has been a paradigm shift on many accounts. Presently we are struggling with not only pandemic but infodemic also. Excessive amount of information through social media about COVID-19 is most of the times proving incorrect leading to fear, anxiety, social disharmony and unrest. It even goes to the extent of challenging human dignity. She expressed her concern that we are increasingly becoming very impulsive and forwarding the posts without giving a second thought to it. She said despite the authentic information provided by the government to counter fake news, Self-Regulation at the receiver’s end is the need of the hour.
Dr. Nancy Davinder Kaur talked about blurring lines of journalism due to social media. The webinar was attended by nearly 50 students of the department and research scholars. Students participated actively in the webinar.
Assistant Director, ROB, Chandigarh, Sapna presented a vote of thanks and wished more such interactions with the students of this department. The other senior officers, who joined the webinar included Field Publicity Officer, Field Outreach Bureau, Rajesh Bali, Gurmeet Singh, Anil Datt Sharma and Deputy Director, (News) All India Radio Chandigarh Shantanu Partap Singh, Assistant Director, PIB Hitesh Rawat, PIB Chandigarh and
Himanshu Pathak, PIB, Shimla.
July,8,2020
