The 6 hours on-site allows Master Trainers to acquire insights and skills in tackling disinformation through two instruction sections:
- Media and Information Literacy
- Evolving perception of mass media and the rising popularity of social media
- Malaysia’s statistics on social media presence and usage
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet and Social Media Platforms
- Types of information disorders, with a special focus on Disinformation
- Online Safety
- Types of Disinformation
- Tactics of Disinformation; algorithms, filter business, coded messaging and deep fakes
- Ways of Tackling Disinformation
The on-site training also includes interactive sessions where participants identify real-life examples of disinformation in Malaysia, examine how such incidents impact the public, assess any weakness in current measures to combat disinformation and propose solutions to improve the situation. During the training, participants from the University of Reading Malaysia, in their interactive sessions, cited examples of the false ‘Melaka Disneyland news’, ‘Poodle and Romance Scams’ and conflicting reports by Astro Awani and CNA regarding the appointment of Anwar Ibrahim as the new Malaysian Prime Minister’. Meanwhile, the joint session between IIUM, UniKL and Taylor’s University cited examples of the Tiktok viral videos circulated during the 15th General Election and false COVID-19 testing methods and reflected upon strategies political parties and their supporters used for campaigning through social media, particularly in reaching out to the younger demographics.