KHYBER: Young and budding social media activists and citizen journalists were advised during a daylong seminar in Bara on Sunday to strictly abide by the journalistic ethics and avoid disseminating fake news.

The seminar was organised by the newly-formed Bara Citizen Journalists Forum with educationist Mohammad Jamil and communications practitioner Younas Afridi as the main speakers.

In his opening presentation, Mr Jamil talked in detail about the purpose and importance of citizen journalism with special focus on understanding the basic principles and fundamentals of social media.

He regretted that the majority of youth wasted their precious time in misuse of social media due to their limited knowledge about this modern platform of communication, networking, sharing of knowledge and disseminating credible and authentic information.

He stressed the need to strictly avoid the misuse and disuse of social media as both could prove detrimental for the promotion of principled and dignified journalism.

Mr Jamil told the young citizen journalists that positive use of social media could result in enhancing their own credibility, improving their knowledge of local affairs and issues, sharing of thoughts and enhancing awareness about social issues with better connectivity with like-minded groups and organisations of journalists.

Communications practitioner Younas Afridi in his presentation said that social media had of late emerged as a serious challenger to the mainstream media as it was providing fast news in real-time instead of waiting for the mainstream media to disseminate the same information much later.

He advised the young citizen journalists to strictly rely on truthful, secure, positive and verified information before posting any news story on their digital platform.

He said that the world was swiftly shifting to use of social media as the mainstream media had become subservient to the whims and desires of its powerful owners with a rapid increase in undesirable censorships imposed on it.

He advised the young participants to use short, clear and authentic material for their stories so that it was easily understood by the viewers, listeners and readers.

“Try to avoid that your news story is influenced by political, religious and ideological thoughts as the objective of impartial journalism is to promote truthfulness while strictly abiding by the principle of impartiality,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2024