AFCN organises a “Global South Information Disorder Masterclass”
November 30, 2023
Within the framework of the 16th Arij Forum, entitled “cross-border collaboration in a fragmented world“, from 1 to 3rd of December 2023, the ARIJ’s AFCN organised a “Global South Information Disorder Masterclass” meeting in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which took place from November 28-30. This study about the information disorder in the Global South will last for three years (2023-2025) with the participation of the Arab Fact-Checkers Network from ARIJ.
A total of 13 researchers from the global South (Africa, Middle East, West Asia and Latin America) participated in the meeting in addition to a visit to the Canadian Embassy in Amman, followed on the third day by a public event that brought researchers together with fact-checkers and organisations that are interested in information disorder.
On the first day, led by Professor at Stellenbosch University, Herman Wesserman, and the assisting research team DECI-2 project, the researchers presented the findings they had reached during the first year of the study. The researchers Rasha Faek and Dr. Arwa Kooli from the AFCN team discussed the findings that they had from the first year of the research. Focus groups were organised to further share experiences and give reviews of methodologies.
On the second day the researchers divided into groups by geographical distribution and discussed the challenges they faced in working on the study, how they overcame it and how it can be avoided in the coming stages of the study. Part of the research team at the end of the day visited the Embassy of Canada in Jordan for an interactive panel on addressing the challenges of information disorder and gender-based violence online.
During the panel, AFCN manager Saja Mortada, presented AFCN efforts in fighting information disorder in the Arab world.
On the third day, there were interactive sessions between researchers and guests from fact-checkers and organisations interested in information disorder and presentations led by the Director of IDRC, Caroline Ford.
