Prerequisites

• One year of experience in journalism and media.
• A high school diploma, preferably a university degree in journalism, media or humanities.
• Good knowledge of various digital platforms.

Course Description

While misinformation and fake news are not new phenomena, their rapid spread through social media platforms and messaging apps has made verification more critical than ever. In today’s open-source information landscape, journalists, researchers, and media professionals must be equipped to assess the accuracy and credibility of the content they encounter—regardless of its origin. This course provides participants with practical tools and techniques to verify digital content, monitor media sources, and build structured workflows for news verification.

Course Objective

By the end of this course, participants will:
• Assess and verify news content from a range of open sources and platforms.
• Use news gathering and verification tools.
• Implement a clear and effective workflow for verification in professional media contexts.

Course Outline

• The news system in this era:
- Misinformation in the news.
- Sensitive contexts: elections, natural disasters, protests.
- Importance and need for news verification.

• Newsgathering and verification from open sources and verifying news:
- Basic skills for discovering and verifying content.
- Digital tools and resources.
- Monitoring and gathering news from social media platforms and verifying news.

• Workflow development:
- Identify newsroom needs.
- Identify roles.
- Designing a workflow plan, selecting and training the relevant team.

Course Benefits

• A graduation certificate by Al Jazeera Media Institute.