JOIN USCOVID-19: Pandemic and Infomedic jostle to push facts over fake news in Assam
One is full of patience and confidence while the other is witty, smart and stubborn on its target and the combination of the two has already wrecked havoc across the world.
Meet Pandemic and Infomedic, two protagonists in a recently launched cartoon campaign in Assam, representing COVID-19 and fake news and trying to spread facts over fake news. "Who spread faster, you or me?" asks Pandemic in one of the cartoon strips. "Of course me," replies Infomedic, as both are seen in a race. The message in the strip says the coronavirus spread to 15 lakhs in four months, while fake news regarding it spreads to millions in no time.
Pandemic tries to counter saying, "No anti-body to defeat me." Infodemic replies smartly, "Nobody wants to defeat me." The message on their right asks the readers, "Don't let fake news pamper your beliefs. Break the chain of fake forwards."
The month-long campaign, which has recently appeared in a Guwahati-based English daily and news portal has been done by Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust, a non-profit trust, with an aim to counter fake news regarding COVID-19.
"We have been trying to provide authentic information regarding COVID-19 in different ways. We choose a cartoons campaign as cartoons can spread the authentic information in interesting way,"(sic) said Ankuaran Dutta, managing trustee of the trust and the head of mass communication department in Gauhati University.
"The character of Pandemic is full of patience, confident as it knows that it has the power to destroy the world slowly and steadily one day or the other since no antidote is discovered till now. While Infodemic may be characterised by overconfidence, witty, mischief and stubbornness as it knows all the tactics to bind the people into its clutch...stubborn because, its objective of viraling a fake message is pretty clear whether it has its antidote or not..."(sic) explained Dutta.
The cartoons have been illustrated by Nituparna Rajbongshi while Dr. Sanjib Bora did the graphics design. A research team of the trust comprising Anupa Lahkar Goswami and Raja Das (research assistant) provided the facts and figures in the campaign.
COVID Katha
The trust with the help of the National Council for Science and Technology, Government of India also prepared and published COVID Katha, a multi-media guide for public awareness on COVID-19. The 37-page guide was released by union helath minister, Harsh Vardhan on Sunday in New Delhi.
The guide, represented with cartoons and illustration tries to provide authentic facts about COVID-19, ways of infection, global guidelines to beat it, challenges faced by the frontline health workers, myths and false information regarding the pandemic. "COVID Katha is a dream project to disseminate authentic information on COVID-19 in a very simple way for the common masses using interactive multimedia technology," said Dutta.