Mumbai: Jagran New Media’s internationally awarded and trusted fact-checking wing, Vishvasnews.com, launches “Sach Ke Sathi: Seniors'', a media literacy campaign to help senior citizens learn how to detect online misinformation, protect themselves from deepfakes and access trustworthy news and information.
SKS Seniors - the seventh edition of Jagran New Media's flagship media literacy effort Sach Ke Sathi - has been launched by Vishvasnews.com in collaboration with MICA as its Academic Partner, and is supported by the Google News Initiative. Two other fact-checkers - Fact Crescendo, and News Meter have also joined hands with SKS Seniors as its language partners to take the initiative forward in local languages. The campaign focuses on imparting media literacy training to senior citizens, who are more vulnerable to false information and aims to impart skills to better navigate the digital information landscape.
SKS Seniors will go live in 50 cities, covering 15 states in seven languages and will host 70 training sessions - 40 on-ground and 30 online. In addition to this, SKS will also launch a first-of-its-kind micro-learning video course on media literacy and promote media literacy through its print editions.
Commenting on the launch, Jagran New Media CEO Bharat Gupta said, "The collaboration between Vishvasnews.com, Google News Initiative (GNI), the fact-checking community, and MICA fulfils our objective to address the critical issue of media literacy specifically within the senior demographic, with a focus on digital safety and fact-checking. Built upon shared synergy, the 7th edition of Sach ke Sathi will enable us to collectively prioritize the advancement of media literacy among seniors and create a robust foundation for a digitally literate society. It has been our endeavour at Jagran New Media to follow the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that underline our dedication to this important cause.”
Jagran New Media editor-in-chief Rajesh Upadhyay added, “We are thrilled to continue another chapter of Sach Ke Sathi and elevate the initiative’s standards by tailoring the approach to address many unique challenges faced by senior citizens in the age of misinformation, like limited digital literacy and fact-checking skills. The main focus is on providing senior citizens with essential tools and knowledge for awareness of digital safety and misinformation/disinformation through various training done by the fact-checking community and our academic partner, MICA. A well-devised communication and outreach plan has been implemented to ensure that the programme effectively reaches its intended audience, with a range of measurement approaches to assess the programme's impact at various stages.”
Google News Lab lead in India Surabhi Malik said, "Sach ke Sathi Seniors is a much-needed collaborative media literacy effort that will empower senior citizens with critical thinking skills, help them detect misinformation and also prepare them to tackle deep fakes. Mis and disinformation is a serious problem that clogs the information pipeline and prevents the flow of trustworthy & authoritative information, which is all the more crucial during elections. We are proud to support this collaborative initiative that will help participants better assess the credibility of information available online.”
MICA associate professor, Head of Media and Entertainment Management Area and Centre for Media and Entertainment Studies (CMES) Santosh K Patra added, “As the academic partner of Sach Ke Saathi Seniors, we see it as an opportunity to address the issue of digital information literacy with Vishvas News. We have designed a curriculum by adopting an interactive and learner-centric pedagogy that not only imparts knowledge but also fosters critical thinking skills to tackle the challenges of fake news, misinformation, disinformation and misinformation which is prevalent like a menace in our society today.”
Sach Ke Sathi was launched in 2019 by Vishvasnews.com and Jagran New Media with a mission to combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation. SKS won Wan-Ifra’s Best Trust Initiative Silver Award in 2023 and IAMAI’s 2022 Bronze for best content campaign.
The previous six editions dealt with crucial subjects such as Health Fact Check, Bihar Elections, Yes for Vaccine, Assembly Elections 2022, FactsUp, and more. Over the years, Sach ke Sathi has achieved significant success in raising awareness about the societal effects of misinformation and fake news, as well as providing the tools and training needed to identify misinformation at a larger level.
