{"id":37595,"date":"2014-12-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon"},"modified":"2023-05-08T09:11:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T09:11:45","slug":"taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah&#8217;s death was announced on November 26, it didn&#8217;t take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels. One of those images, posted by regional news website <a href=\"https:\/\/smex.checkdesk.org\/en\/story\/897\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Al-Nahar Egypt<\/a>, claimed to show the last moments of the iconic performer&#8217;s life. Problem is: that same picture was floating around the Internet as early as February 2014. <br \/>  <br \/>  It&#8217;s an all-too-common problem that plagues media institutions in Lebanon and the surrounding region: the lack of fact checking and verification when it comes to news stories. And thanks to the ever-increasing range of social media, once a story or image is shared, it has the potential to spread like wildfire with almost no &#8211; if any &#8211; oversight. <br \/>  <br \/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/37595.png\"><br \/>  (Image via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tech4relief.com\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">tech4relief.com<\/a>)<br \/>  <br \/>  That&#8217;s why SMEX (Social Media Exchange) launched the <a href=\"https:\/\/smex.checkdesk.org\/en\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Taakad campaign<\/a> in October. Taakad means &#8220;to verify&#8221; in English. The campaign, launched in collaboration with Meedan and supported by the web platform <a href=\"https:\/\/checkdesk.org\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Checkdesk<\/a>, invited journalists and bloggers to log on to the web and make a record of questionable news stories found in both Arabic and English, and record them online as a way to raise awareness about the issue. <br \/>  <br \/>  By unquestionably sharing content and taking it at face value, &#8216;Huge numbers of Lebanese internet users make posts or pictures credible when they&#8217;re not,&#8221; blogger Alaa Abi Raad, who worked on the campaign, told Beirut.com. \u201cThe information posted from any media institution in Lebanon gets shared like crazy online, without [anyone] even checking the source or credibility, and it unfortunately becomes \u2018news.'&#8221;  <br \/>  <br \/>  The picture is the main problem, insists Abi Raad: \u201cPosts do not get shared or retweeted as much as pictures; pictures make more of an impact. And once one trends, everyone joins in automatically, especially if it\u2019s related to the person\u2019s emotions or political preferences.\u201d<br \/>  <br \/>  Journalist and Beirut Report editor-blogger Habib Battah also posted during the Taakad campaign, calling it &#8220;a tool to point out the stories that were not covered well, [to ask] the questions that were not [originally] asked, and to [investigate] questionable sources.&#8221; Battah says that in Lebanon, there is no investigative journalism, adding that the reporting \u201cis superficial most of the time, when it should instead be transparent and accountable.&#8221; He also criticized \u201cthe laziness that shows in the work published.&#8221;<br \/>  <br \/>  Joining Taakad is easy and free. Just log in and create an account on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smex.checkdesk.org\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">smex.checkdesk.org<\/a>, and you can start adding stories or pictures you think are worthy of closer investigation.<br \/>  <br \/>  The campaign officially ended in November, but Abi Raad stressed to Beirut.com that they&#8217;ll keep working on it and posting news to make the site evolve. He provided these words of caution to Lebanese on the web: slow down and think twice before sharing something on social media. You can help Lebanon create a more transparent, accountable and credible media.<br \/>  <br \/>      <figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"142\" data-id=\"419817\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-250x142.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-419817\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-250x142.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-600x342.png 600w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595.png 650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><\/figure>    ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah&#8217;s death was announced on November 26, it didn&#8217;t take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":419819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_preview_accessed":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"media-embed-type":[],"class_list":["post-37595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"authorship":[29],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah&#039;s death was announced on November 26, it didn&#039;t take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah&#039;s death was announced on November 26, it didn&#039;t take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beirut.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beirutcityguide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T09:11:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"610\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@beirutcityguide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@beirutcityguide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-08T09:11:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":496,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/37595-1.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/\",\"name\":\"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/37595-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-08T09:11:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah's death was announced on November 26, it didn't take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/37595-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/37595-1.png\",\"width\":610,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/37595\\\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/\",\"name\":\"Beirut.com\",\"description\":\"Beirut.com is your insider guide to Lebanon, with the best in food, culture, neighborhoods, and everything new. Discover where to go and fall in love with our country.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Beirut.com, SA\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/Beirut.com-Logo-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/Beirut.com-Logo-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1044,\"caption\":\"Beirut.com, SA\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/beirutcityguide\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/beirutcityguide\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon","description":"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah's death was announced on November 26, it didn't take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon","og_description":"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah's death was announced on November 26, it didn't take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/","og_site_name":"Beirut.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beirutcityguide","article_published_time":"2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-08T09:11:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":610,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@beirutcityguide","twitter_site":"@beirutcityguide","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon","datePublished":"2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-08T09:11:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/"},"wordCount":496,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-1.png","articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/","name":"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-1.png","datePublished":"2014-12-12T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-08T09:11:45+00:00","description":"When news of legendary Lebanese singer Sabah's death was announced on November 26, it didn't take long for the tributes, photos and memories to come pouring through social media channels.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/37595-1.png","width":610,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/37595\/taakad-campaign-aims-for-credible-media-in-lebanon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Taakad Campaign Aims for Credible Media in Lebanon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/","name":"Beirut.com","description":"Beirut.com is your insider guide to Lebanon, with the best in food, culture, neighborhoods, and everything new. Discover where to go and fall in love with our country.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#organization","name":"Beirut.com, SA","url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Beirut.com-Logo-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Beirut.com-Logo-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1044,"caption":"Beirut.com, SA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/ar\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beirutcityguide","https:\/\/x.com\/beirutcityguide"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581711,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37595\/revisions\/581711"}],"wp:authorship":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37595"},{"taxonomy":"media-embed-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-embed-type?post=37595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}