Students from the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong travelled to Tokyo, Japan in May with Dr. Masato Kajimoto for a news literacy workshop at Waseda University, where they explored the truth about Fake News.
In response to increasing ‘Fake News’ claims, students from Waseda University and JMSC, University of Hong Kong applied to U21 for funding for a workshop to explore news literacy, fact-checking and verification. The Universities won funding for the project from the U21@21 fund, which was offered for projects, initiatives and events, which enhance the international student experience.
The 19 students spent time fact checking more than 20 stories that they had collected on each other’s countries, in order to verify them. After the 2-day workshop, the students worked on specific case studies which they presented to an audience at a public symposium held at Waseda University.
“Exchanging our knowledge and trying to learn new things together with the brilliant students from Hong Kong was the most fruitful I think, as we all got very much motivated with each other.” said Kaori Nakamura, a third year Political Science student at Waseda University.
Dr. Kajimoto, who led the trip, felt that the collaboration was very successful. He recounted “Many working journalists and media literacy educators at the symposium were completely engaged with students' presentations. Most of them stayed until the very end even though it was four hours long and asked many questions. I believe it was a great learning opportunity for both JMSC students and their counterparts from Waseda. We are now discussing how to continue our joint effort and try to organise another workshop again in the future”.
Professor Sir David Eastwood, Chair of U21 said, "The U21@21 fund has been designed to share resources to support projects that will have a high impact on staff and students across the whole network. This is a very good opportunity to demonstrate how U21 seeks to offer value to staff and students by making a difference to their day-to- day experience, and that encourages innovative cross-university collaborations."
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