Cape Town - What happens when you put a group of journalists, developers and programmers together in one room for 48 hours and give them a brief to develop mechanisms to counter the spread of fake news?
And then you sweeten the pot and say that the team with the best “solution” will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Lisbon, Portugal?
On Tuesday and Wednesday Global Editors Network (GEN) and Code for Africa, with the support of the Google News Lab, brought together South African media innovators to develop news prototypes at a hackathon in Cape Town.
The theme of the event, “Misinformation, the war on truth”, resonates with journalists across the world at a time when we are bombarded with fake news, fake news websites and misinformation on social media.
Some of the major media houses in South Africa were represented at the intensive sessions which sought to find practical and user-friendly solutions to help stem the spread of fake news.
The technical support offered by a number of data scientists, programmers and designers helped the teams develop prototypes which were rigorously scrutinised in terms of user experience, practical application and financial feasibility.
After two exhausting days, all nine three-man teams presented their prototypes to a panel of five international judges.
The Cape Town winners will have the opportunity to compete against peers from around the world at the GEN Summit which will take place in Lisbon in June 2018.