Community awareness key to spread of rumours: Experts
Dr. Khalsa bint Hamad al Bahriya, an educational researcher at the Ministry of Education, emphasized the importance of encouraging students to participate in research projects and discussions about rumors, which enhances their ability to conduct critical analysis. One of the most important practices is creating an environment where students feel comfortable discussing rumors and providing psychological support when needed. She noted that rumors circulating in schools vary from academic rumors related to misinformation about tests or results, which can impact student performance; health rumors related to the spread of diseases or misleading information about vaccines, which can influence family decisions; and rumors about teachers and their performance, related to inaccurate information about teachers' behavior or attitudes, which can impact students' relationships with them.
Dr. Sabra bint Saif al Harrasi said that combating rumors requires integration between the family, educational institutions, government agencies, and the media. Enhancing digital awareness, developing technical tools, and implementing national strategies will ensure the building of a society capable of handling information intelligently and analytically, thus protecting it against media misinformation and enabling individuals to make informed decisions in a rapidly changing digital world.
Professor Hosni Nasr, Professor of Journalism and Electronic Publishing at Sultan Qaboos University, said that media plays a dual role in spreading rumors and refuting and dispelling them. However, the media can play a pivotal role in raising public awareness about rumors by promoting media awareness, offering educational programs and campaigns that explain how the public can distinguish rumors from accurate information, and using fact-checking tools and disseminating their results to the public.
He said that the media also contributes to promoting transparency by disclosing the sources of information and how it was obtained, attributing each piece of information to its source, in addition to enlisting specialists and experts in various fields to analyze information and clarify its validity, and providing advice to the public on how to analyze information and search for reliable sources. In this regard, there are pioneering Arab initiatives in this field to refute and dispel rumors on social media.
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