Dignitaries in unison batted for news sans any sensationalism and urged all to decry fake news and yellow journalism
POST-TRUTH
- The relevance of fake news has increased in post-truth politics
- Confirmation bias and social media algorithms like those used on Facebook and Twitter further advance the spread of fake news
- An analysis by BuzzFeed found that the top 20 fake news stories about the 2016 US presidential election received more engagement on Facebook than the top 20 election stories from 19 major media outlets
BHUBANESWAR: The state-level National Press Day programme was organised by the I&PR department at Geet Govind Bhawan here, Saturday.
The event was attended by I&PR minister Raghunandan Das, senior columnist and journalist Pradosh Patnaik and PR Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Singh, and was hosted by Sucheta Priyadarshini.
Speaking on the occasion, minister Das said, “It’s imperative to publish responsible news rather than fake news for mileage or TRP. If the press becomes aware about its responsibility then people will be benefited with the right and precise information.”
Commissioner Singh stressed on the need to give media the freedom of expression “without violating rules.” He said, “I&PR department follows the 5-T ‘sutra’ to deliver the right information to the people. Media should realise its power and it doesn’t require any Laxman Rekha or regulations. Nowadays, every citizen is a journalist with the wide power of social media.”
Senior columnist Pradosh Patnaik said, “The rat race to become the most popular entity in the news world is literary pushing various news organisations to become slaves of yellow journalism where sensational and fake news are being published and served.” It is time to follow the path of true journalism like the way Pandit Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das did, he urged. “Let’s kill the snakes of corruption, yellow journalism with truthful facts as news.”
On the occasion, several college students took part in a debate competition on ‘News presentation: An abhiyan’ topic.
Director of I&PR, Krupasindhu Mishra, also stressed on the need for observance of National Press Day and particularly on the role of media. At the end, a vote of thanks was offered by joint director of the department Subhas Supakar.
