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Information experts have called for collaboration to advance Media and Information Literacy (MIL). As part of DUBAWA’s WeekForTruth campaign, which started on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, it held an X Space on Thursday, Oct 31, 2024, to discuss the role of MIL in safeguarding elections in Africa.
The WeekForTruth campaign is a yearly programme to educate and advocate for MIL.
Earlier in the week, journalists, fact-checkers, and volunteers took the MIL gospel and the essence of news verification to local communities and schools in English-speaking West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
The experts featured on X Space include Aurelia Ayisi, a lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana; Sadibou Marong, Head of Reporters at Sans Frontiers Sub-Saharan Africa; and Hannah Ajakaiye, Executive Director of FactsMatterNG.
The conversation was moderated by Silas Jonathan, Digital Investigations Manager, Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID), and Edem Kunkpe, Project Assistant, DUBAWA Ghana.
Starting with Ms Ajakaiye, Mr Jonathan asked her to discuss how MIL has steered the course of elections, the scope of fact-checking, and how she has managed it as an executive director.
Ms Ajakaiye stated that MIL is being championed by only fact-checking organisations, with the mainstream media doing little or nothing about it. This, she described as a “loophole” that needs to be addressed because a large populace is still quite ignorant of the activities of fact-checking organisations.
“Right now, you have a lot of fact-checking organisations investing efforts in the Media and (Information) Literacy initiative project. Fact-checking organisations, not just within Nigeria but across West Africa, do a lot of work in educating people on how to verify information, how to recognise fake news websites, and how to be more critical consumers of information so that they can make informed decisions,” Ms Ajakaiye highlighted.
The FactsMatter Executive Director, asserted sadly that MIL contents seldom reach the exact audience they are intended for and even via social media platforms, some fact-checking organisations remain crippled at trying to get their content across to the audience that needs it. She believes this is because most people are not favourably pleased to consume hard news.
Ms Ajakaiye advised fact-checking organisations to adopt other mediums of communicating MIL contents to the public while acknowledging the likes of Africa Check and DUBAWA, who have adopted social media reels and entertainment content to communicate MIL.
Ms Ajakaiye also pointed out the need for conscious collaboration between fact-checking organisations, mainstream media, and the older generation of journalists because the public must be oriented to evaluate information critically. She referenced the Nigerian Fact Checkers Coalition (NFC), an assembly of diverse fact-checking organisations in Nigeria that operate together during public events such as elections and town halls to verify and debunk false information as a collaborative example.
Speaking on the extent of Ghana’s preparedness for the upcoming elections, the mechanisms that the academia adopted in fostering MIL, Ms Ayisi stated that Ghana is indeed prepared as fact-checking organisations are committed to verifying and debunking news items ahead of the election as well on the Election Day.
“I want to believe as a country, we are very prepared. I am saying that because of numerous interactions with journalists and fact-checkers at the forefront, not only of fact-checking but on reporting on election-related issues,” she said.
“A lot of the time, when we talk about elections, I think our minds immediately go to the day of election or voting, but (I) have seen a lot of work that is going into the entire election cycle. I mean the days and events that lead up to the elections, and the sort of work I have seen is fact-checking and debunking that a lot of fact-checking organisations are doing,” the communications studies academic divulged.
Ms Ayisi also stated that many capacity-building trainings have been conducted, even for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), journalists and fact-checkers, to equip them to verify news content efficiently during the election.
On the efforts of the academia regarding MIL in the elections, she explained that the academia has recently been engaging with information ecosystem players such as social media influencers because young people no longer consult foundational media such as radio and television for information but lean towards online sources, of which these influencers are at the forefront.
Ms Ayisi agreed with Ms Ajakaiye, on the obvious digital divide between MIL content made by fact-checking organisations and their intended audience. She pointed out that while training students in secondary schools in Ghana, she discovered some worrying concerns where information access varied according to geographical location. This means that when young people came across a piece of information that was not “clean,” they did not have the skills to assess its authenticity.
Ms Ayisi believes there is still much work to be done regarding the skills needed to combat the myriad of issues connected with safeguarding Ghana’s elections and largely Africa.
Addressing the limited resources fact organisations in Africa own and have gainfully utilised to sanitise their audiences’ digital spaces, she recommended that more human and digital resources be used to foster the existing efforts that have been employed.
Ms Kunkpe, the co-moderator, asked Mr Marong, the Head of Reporters at Sans Frontiers Sub-Saharan Africa, to highlight the position of MIL in Senegal, especially during the election, and what the expectations are in the National Assembly elections in November.
Mr Marong stated that before the 2024 election, there was a communication gap since Senegalese could not communicate in French but mostly in their local languages so they have used available technology tools to communicate these contents in the West African nation’s different local languages.
“With regards to what fact-checking organisations are doing, it is tremendous work. With what we have seen, in terms of innovation, we have been trying to work with a (technological) organisation to use local languages like Wolof,” he informed.
He mentioned that journalists have faced several repressed actions against them from political state players, which has greatly hampered press freedom but MIL is being used to amplify vital information devoid of falsehood.
Ms Kunkpe asked Ms Ayisi if any measure had been considered while training future newsroom personnel and journalists to spread MIL content to people not keen on receiving heard news.
The academic responded by advocating that MIL be treated as a core part of educational learning from the basic level of education. She said that when young people begin to use digital devices, MIL should be infused into their educational curriculum.
