In today’s complex and interdependent world order, knowledge and awareness are the two tools that can be effectively used to combat fake news, misinformation and disinformation.

The increased and effective use of fake news and disinformation in the 2016 US election rang alarm bell all over the world as it not only created chaos and confusion but also divided the society.

“We have just seen the tip of the iceberg and it just not going to be in the US, it is going to be global, it’s going to be at your door as genie is out of the bottle,” said James G McGann, Senior Lecturer of International Studies at the Wharton School’s Lauder Institute.

In his interaction with journalists from 24 countries, including Bangladesh in the US, McGann said the simple to way to fight this is greater awareness and media can play a crucial role in this regard, he said.

Subscribing the same view, Sherri Hope Culver, Director of the Centre for Media and Information Literacy at Temple University, said media literacy education will help people to combat fake news as it will raise our ability to ask questions about news reports.

Media literacy helps a person to get access, analyse, evaluate, create and then react to all forms of communication, she said.

The US Presidential election in 2016 will definitely influence the future with respect to partisan conversation and people’s struggle to compromise, she added.

Mayor of Philadelphia James Kenney believed that this is a fundamental challenge of the 21st century and we are trying to navigate as a society.

“As a country, we also find our country vulnerable to the misinformation campaign. A large population does not have media literacy to determine the information find in the internet is truthful.”

Alan Miller, founder and CEO of The News Literacy Project, is of the view that education is absolutely essential in combating fake news.

“The public must apply a certain level of scepticism and asked about the credibility of what they are seeing and hearing,” he said.

I think in this period of fake news, the role of journalists is important than ever before, he added.

The Washington Post Reporter Salvador Rizzo said attacks on journalists does not affect much on their operation.

 “We are not at war, we are at work,” he said.