NEWS LITERACY WORKSHOP: DECONSTRUCT (MISINFORMATION) ON SOCIAL MEDIA DURING #UMBRELLAREVOLUTION IN HONGKONG

Thank to Dr. Masato Kajimoto and FPT University, a news literacy workshop focusing on the case of Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong has been successfully delivered on 8th November 2014. We have welcomed respectively 70 participants with various background including journalists, university lecturers, researchers and students.


BELOWS ARE FEW KEYNOTES & EXAMPLES EXCERPTED FROM DR. MASATO KAJIMOTO'S PRESENTATION

• NEWS LITERACY
  News Literacy education is a pedagogical effort to conceptualize methods of news consumption. It aims to teach critical thinking skills to assess the credibility of each piece of information in news reports so that news audience can make informed decisions and judgments.

• ACTIVE NEWS AUDIENCE
  • We are no longer passive news consumers. We actively take part in the news cycle.
  • We, not news organizations, control story distribution. What we like, share, tweet, post, write, etc, has a real social impact and consequences because what’s trending on social media has strong news values.
  • Journalists get realtime feedback on news stories. They are increasingly more aware of what their audience wants.
  • The power and responsibility rest on both the media and the internet users to set the agenda for the society.

• OBSERVATION DURING #OccupyCentral & #UmbrellaRevolution in Hong Kong
  • Facebook and WhatsApp became the platform for communication as well as source of the latest 'news'. Twitter and Reddit also a go-to place for English speakers. Live news coverage on TV was ‘too slow’ and ‘fixed’.

• • Protesters, anti-protesters, journalists,government officials, observers — i.e. everyone — were producing, distributing and exchanging news, views, rumors, hoaxes, conspiracy theories, satires with images and video clips.