BOOM Launches COVID-19 Workshops and Awareness Films to Engage with Senior Citizens

BOOM has produced 5 short awareness films on COVID-19 appropriate behavior and will also host free online workshops for senior citizen participants to distinguish between news, opinion, propaganda, and analysis.

MUMBAI, India, June 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BOOM Live, India's first and leading fact-checking initiative, announced the launch of senior citizen workshops towards COVID-19 awareness and five short informational films that aim to highlight COVID-19 appropriate behavior.

As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, it is also challenged by an information overload in the digital as well as physical environment, which can cause confusion and mistrust. Senior citizens, due to various technical and awareness constraints, are most vulnerable to this infodemic.

In order to address this information gap, BOOM will partner with senior citizen forums, organizations, and associations across India to host free online workshops titled 'Information Overload in times of COVID-19' that are aimed to empower senior citizen participants to distinguish between news, opinion, propaganda, and analysis. BOOM has also launched five short film series that aims to build awareness around COVID-19 appropriate behavior, especially among senior citizens.

Led by H. R. Venkatesh, Director, Training and Research, BOOM Live, and a team of BOOM fact-checkers, the workshops will explain the concept of misinformation, disinformation, and unverified news, factors responsible for such news, and the nature of information overload. Additionally, participants will learn the different facets of 'realities' created by social media and how best can one understand the news landscape.

Senior citizen forums, organizations, and associations across India that wish to host a workshop for their members may reach out to the BOOM team at +917700906111.

For the production and launch of five short film series on COVID-19 appropriate behavior, BOOM has also collaborated with noted actor Aasif Sheikh who serves as the initiative's ambassador in the films. Sheikh, in his characteristic style, urges the viewer to get vaccinated, continue to wear masks in the correct way, use discretion when reading forwards on social media and maintain self-care habits. 

The films can be viewed on https://www.boomlive.in/mediabuddhi/senior-citizens as well as BOOM's social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly challenging for senior citizens, owing to the copious quantities of unverified news generated every day. Therefore, it is important for this audience to know of simple techniques that question the veracity of news which is our aim through the online workshops," said H. R. Venkatesh of BOOM FactCheck at the launch of the initiative.

Adding to this, Jency Jacob, Managing Editor, BOOM said, "With unverified videos rapidly spreading misinformation around the pandemic, it is important that citizens get a better understanding of COVID-19 appropriate behavior. We thank Aasif Sheikh for helping us to build awareness around very important topics that will enable citizens to make better decisions regarding their health, safety, and well-being."

To know more about the films or to partner with BOOM for a workshop, please write to: [email protected] or reach out to the BOOM team at +917700906111.

About BOOM:

BOOM, India's premier news-checking initiative, is an independent digital journalism initiative with a mission to fight misinformation, explain key issues, and make the internet safer. The subjects that BOOM actively fact checks range from political, social, communal, and health & medicine to products and services and even history. BOOM is presently available in three Indian languages, English, Hindi, and Bengali with dedicated on-ground teams working on all three. BOOM also broadcasts daily on Facebook and YouTube with live updates and checks on the latest news material being worked upon. They can be found on Twitter (@boomlive_in) and on Facebook. Starting March 2020, BOOM has expanded its fact-checking network overseas, to Myanmar and Bangladesh, with experienced local teams leading the initiative. https://www.boommyanmar.com/about-us/ BOOM has been in existence since 2014 as a broad investigative journalism effort and as full-fledged fake news busting and fact-checking initiative since November 2016. For more details, please visit https://www.boomlive.in.

Media Contact:
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