Road to a Healthy Society: the role of academics of higher education to prevent the threats of fake news in Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the role plays by academics of higher education in Bangladesh to remove the threats of fake news for developing a healthy society. The research design has incorporated both the qualitative and quantitative approaches. This study has been conducted by a simple social survey method through the active participation of 170 students along with the teachers of 9 academic institutions in Bangladesh. As per respondents’ opinions, the social media platform and the public are most responsible for fake news on social media. They think that to enhance the thinking ability of people academics can serve educational programmes or provide subject knowledge such as media literacy, and information literacy by adding such courses to the course curriculum. By arranging campaigns for illiterate people in remote regions, academics can create awareness among people who live in the rural area. Several respondents said there is a need to create a club that helps people for justifying information with the initiative of academics. Maximum respondents agreed with the need to cut the root of fake news by taking legal steps by the government. Academics must aware of the government for taking the initiative as soon as possible. The study concludes that how information can be achieved by the users, what source of information can be used to collect desired news and opinion of academic institutions to take initiatives for providing authentic and reliable news that is not fake which could be easily help for further research and analysis.