The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has taken on the responsibility of busting myths around the coronavirus vaccine, particularly those ‘conspiracy theories’ which have been circulated online.
On Friday, 19 February 2021, The UJ Institute of Intelligent Systems, the School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems, College of Business and Economics and the Africa Centre for Evidence, hosted a webinar under the theme ‘Truth or Conspiracy? Navigating the internet during a pandemic’.
As part of a push to encourage the public to distinguish fact from fiction, the university is working with a number of specialists to find out the truth behind some of the fake news about the pandemic and on how fake news in general is changing our world.
The panel discussion was facilitated by Prof Maria Frahm-Arp, Executive Director: UJ Library and featured Prof Saurabh Sinha, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research & Internationalisation; Dr Andrea Potgieter, Lecturer: Department of information and Knowledge Management; Dr Herman Myburgh, Senior Lecturer: Institute of Intelligent Systems and Mr Nkululeko Tshabalala, Researcher- Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE).