Jakarta – Friday, June 11th, 2021, LSPR Communication & Business Institute along with Liputan 6 held a Webinar Series with the theme “Covid-19 Pandemic Until When? Keeping Sanity, Fighting Hoax and Stigma” through the ZOOM platform at 15.30 to 17.00 WIB. This webinar invites dr. Syafiq B. Assegaff, MA, CBM, IAPR as a LSPR Senior Lecturer, Drs. B. Sri Tunggul Pannindriya, M.A as a LSPR Senior Lecturer, Elin Yunita Kristanti as a Deputy Editor in Chief of Liputan6.com, and Adyaksa Vidi as a Fact Checker at Liputan6.com.

Nadya Laras as the host and all speakers

This webinar was opened by Nadya Laras as the host by explaining the topics that will be discussed in the webinar, including: The role of the media in fighting Covid-19 hoaxes and removing stigma, overcoming mental fatigue and long Covid-19, as well as tips on identifying hoaxes or fake news using fact-checkers.

Entering the webinar session, Mr. Syafiq said that we are now living in a world full of information overload. “Now it’s called info-besity, the information we receive and entered our brains is overloaded, so it’s like we are poisoned by information and tends to be difficult to process the information,” said Mr. Syafiq. Due to the explosion of information today, it is difficult for us, the receivers of the information, to make decisions.

dr. Syafiq B. Assegaff, MA, CBM, IAPR, LSPR Senior Lecturer as speaker

Mr. Syafiq shared about infobesity

Nadya Laras then posed a question to Mr. Syafiq regarding special protection for fact-checkers, who in this case are academics and the media as practitioners, against hoax producers, “The government’s obligation must be present, not only limited to fact-checkers, but they must disclose facts for the public interest by telling the truth ‑ if they are not protected, where can the public get the truth from? So the state must be present and protect journalists”, answered Mr. Syafiq.

Mr. Tunggul as a journalist assessor then added, “Now the challenge for the media is the speed of news dissemination”. He also explained that the responsibility of the media in the current digital era is heavier and it is very challenging to present accurate information.

Mrs. Elin explained about new names for the Covid-19 variant

Discussing stigma, Mrs. Elin said “The stigma can last even after Covid-19 has passed”. Explaining the material, Mrs. Elin explained that WHO recently announced new names for the Covid-19 variant, namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. She said that what was done by WHO in order to remove stigma around Covid-19 was a good step.

Closing the webinar session, Vidi as a fact-checker shared his tips on how to not get caught up with hoax news. He said, “We must always be suspicious whenever we receive information. Verify, check the facts, then we spread the information. If there are no facts, don’t spread them to anyone first. So that we don’t end up spreading hoaxes.”

 

Article by: Velika