Any adverse situation in life can be overcome through effective communication and this is also in the case of present COVID situation - said Shri L. R. Vishwanath, Head of Department, Directorate General, North East Zone, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting while delivering his speech in a Webinar organized by Press Information Bureau, Guwahati with Gauhati University today. The topic of the Webinar was “Crisis Communication in times of COVID-19” participated by the officials of Press Information Bureau, Regional Outreach Bureau, Faculty and students of Gauhati University.

Talking about the relevance of mass communication in the changing technology driven environment today, Shri Vishwanath said that earlier there were limited source of Mass communication, but now we have emerging forms of technologies for communication which can be used for more reach. “Journalism requires lots of responsibility because it is carrying very important information to the people. So one has to be responsible for every word while using it”, he said. Talking about crisis communication he said that the parameters that defines crisis, always have a human association. Mentioning the novel coronavirus as the most dreaded pandemic of the century, he highlighted the fallouts due to this pandemic and said that people have moved to online mode of communication using new media like voice cast, webcast, broadcast etc. for effective communication. He also explained how Press Information Bureau and Bureau of Outreach Communication are working specially in such crisis situation to disseminate proper information to the masses.

Shri Vishwanath also ensured that his office will in future may like to orient the students of the University through internship to give them the knowledge about how these offices work.

In her welcome address Smt. Keerti Tiwari, Joint Director, PIB, Guwahati said that this Webinar will definitely be a knowledge enhancer for the students as it will give the knowledge of the communication setup of the government. One of the major objectives of a government media organization is to give right information at right time through proper authentication and one has to be very careful in how to portray a crisis situation without creating panic, she said.  

Shri Ankuran Dutta, HOD, Department of Journalism and Communication, Gauhati University said in his speech that way before the lockdown started in India, the Gauhati University started their online classes. The university also initiated a campaign that is called #Checkthefact to bust the fake news and misinformation because there is flood of misinformation in social media during this COVID time. Shri Dutta also appreciated PIB, Guwahati for organizing such Webinar at this time of pandemic crisis and hoped that this will be very much beneficial for the Students.

The Question and answer session post the presentations in the Webinar proved to be fruitful in answering the queries of the students.

The Webinar was moderated by Shri Gopajit Das, Media and Communication Officer, PIB Shillong and summed up by Smt. Smita Saikia, Media and Communication Officer, PIB, Guwahati.

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