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Good morning. People often ask why fact-checkers are needed. Isn't journalism=fact-checking? Read this edition to know how mainstream media outlets also misreport at times.

🔖 This week of International Center for Journalists' (ICFJ) Empowering The Truth Summit in partnership with BOOM, saw podcaster and journalist Amit Varma sharing tips and hacks on how podcasts can be used to amplify facts.

Here is a TL;DR of what happened during the session.

Why Podcasts?

👉 It's a captive audience that you cater to.

👉 For example, if you are jogging, you have decided what you want to hear for the next 1 hour.

How is podcasting different from other forms of audio?

👉 Radio tends to be broad since it has to cater to larger audiences at the same time.

👉 License fees are so high that radio can't cater to a niche.

👉 Discovering the niche is another challenge.

👉 Meanwhile, podcasting is a voice in your head, it's intimate.

👉 The audience feels they know you so well, they can come and talk to you.

👉 Engagement is incredibly high for audio podcasting.

👉 Podcasting doesn't have entry barriers.

👉 The tech is advanced and affordable, you are limited only by imagination.

You can start with a mobile phone!

Do's/ Don'ts

👉 Don't confuse the listener with complicated sentences

👉 You don't have to dumb it down, you just have to present it in an easier way.

👉 Build the story with small nuggets: one at a time.

👉 Show, don't tell!

👉 Do your research.

👉 Respect your guests, don't interrupt them while talking. Get them to be comfortable. If you interrupt them, they are back to the surface shallow level. Just let them be, let that magic happen.

👉 Have the discipline to just sit and listen.

✅ Misinformation This Week 

This week, BOOM published a total of 23 fact-checks. The most prevalent nature of the claims is Political (26%), followed by Sectarian (22%).

Read our Twitter thread to know the detailed analysis by Debraj Sarkar. 👇

📢 Free Workshop Alert 

Join us this International Fact-Checking Day for a hands-on online verification workshop for news desks. The workshop will take you through the basics of fact-checking including verification of images, videos and text before reporting them. This and a lot more in the one-hour workshop specially curated for news desks.

Register Now

💸 Threatening Calls, Money Gone: What Does One Do When Duped Online?

🔖 Aakash Yadav, a 22-year-old resident of the Vasai area of Palghar Mumbai was checking his eligibility criteria to avail short-term loans. On Instagram, he stumbled upon an app - Financial Wallet.

He downloaded the app and as soon as he entered his phone number, his account was credited with some amount.

Later, Yadav received a call from an unknown number asking for repayment. He told the caller that he had not taken any loan. But the unknown caller insisted that he took the loan on 8 March and needed to return the amount. Even though he returned the money, the calls didn't stop.

On 13 March, Yadav’s morphed photos were sent to his father’s WhatsApp number.

He has been desperately attempting to call the cyber helpline number 1930 to complain about the harassment calls. The victims of online fraud that BOOM spoke to complain that the helpline service has remained unavailable when they needed help.

Read this explainer where BOOM's Kaisar Andrabi spoke to experts and victims to explore more about what people can do if the helpline isn't available.

Read More

What Happened At A Hindutva Rally In South Mumbai Alleging 'Land Jihad'

🔖 The quiet lanes of fashion street in South Mumbai were filled with communal slogans on a Friday afternoon. A group of around 300 to 400 saffron-attired men, women, and some children, carrying posters and flags were part of a Hindutva rally, protesting against what they call "Land Jihad".

"Nahi chalega, nahi chalega Gad-durg pa Islamic atikraman nahi chalega (The Islamic encroachment of forts will not be tolerated)," they screamed, alleging that historic forts in Maharashtra are being encroached upon by the Muslim community.

Read this ground report by Anmol Alphonso to know what happened at the rally.

Read More

🔖 On 15 March, multiple mainstream media outlets in India quoted Asle Toje, Deputy Leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, as saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was 'the biggest contender for the Nobel Peace Prize'.

BOOM's Archis Chowdhury found these reports to be false, with Toje being grossly misquoted on his comments on PM Modi. So, what did he say exactly? Read this fact-check to find out.

Read More

🔖 Meanwhile, a morphed newspaper clipping of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran was circulated on social media platforms with claims that the newspaper has started a campaign titled 'One Neighborhood, One Goat' ahead of the Eid-al-Fitr celebrations to limit the sacrifice of goats during the festivities.

BOOM's Srijit Das fact-checked this claim.

Read More

🅱️ Recommends

📖 This week's recommendation is: Rethinking the study of Electoral politics in the Developing world: Reflections on the Indian Case by Adam Michael Auerbach, Jennifer Bussell, Simon Chauchard, Francesca R. Jensenius, Gareth Nellis, Mark Schneider, Neelanjan Sircar, Pavithra Suryanarayan, Tariq Thachil, Milan Vaishnav, Rahul Verma and Adam Ziegfeld.

False information ecosystem of a nation is based on the salient institutions that shape the peoples’ worldview the most. In the Indian context, it happens to be the electoral system and our ethnic fabric. Unfortunately, scholarly literature is filled with several generalisations and outdated conclusions that do not capture the nuance of the complex social systems that characterise the nation. This article clears the air about several of these aspects and serves as an almanac for any study on false information in the context of the country.

Read More

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Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose

and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

If you have suggestions about this newsletter or want us to conduct workshops on specific topics, drop us a line at 👉 [email protected] and we will get back to you in a jiffy. Thanks for reading. See you next week.👋

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