A blogathon, a 'marathon' of sharing blogs, pictures, videos, etc. on social media was organised on Tuesday by School of Mass Communication and Journalism, DAVV University, SkySocial — youth group of Bhopal, Vasudha Sanasthan and UNICEF. The theme was to talk about stories in COVID times, what youth thinks on stigma and discrimination, and to talk about key messages of use of Facemask, handwashing with soap, social distancing.
Youth of Bhopal, Indore, Adolescents of Jhabua, shared blog posts, picture posts, videos, audio's, illustrations, paintings, poems on the theme of COVID, saluting efforts of COVID-19 Warriors, saying no to stigma and discrimination, importance of using face mask and don't use it as chin mask, steps and importance of handwashing with soap, and social distancing. Adolescents shared images showing social distances.
To support this blogathon video messages and highlighting importance of face mask of Pankaj Chaturvedi, motivational speaker, Geet Dhir, Political Leader, Girish Upadhyay, Vijay Pratap Singh, Health Journalist were shared. Deepak Singh, Collector Sagar appealed in his video message appealed to his district residents to use facemask when they are out of home. Dr Santosh Shukla, Additional Director, Public Health, Department of Public Health and Family Welfare, spoke about SMS, the way to fight COVID19. S stands for sanitiser or soap, M for mask, and S for social distancing. Paintings drawn by children of Bal Manch Ujjain were also shared.
Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist, UNICEF Madhya Pradesh shared that aim of this ‘blogathon by youth is to increase positive discourse on the theme of COVID 19 and talk about positive stories of COVID19 warriors, spreading messages of use of facemask and handwashing with soap using social media channels’.
Sonalee Nargunde, Head of Department of School of Mass Communication and Journalism, DAVV Indore said that this was unique initiative where we got around 150 youth from University engaged in it and helped to understand the challenge and spread right information on COVID19 and salute the warriors.
Shristi Pragat, Founder member of SkySocial, says that we were part of this blogathon so that we can create more awareness about being safe and just like how we want the virus to stop spreading and this pandemic to end. We also want to stop discrimination and end stigmatisation around COVID19.
The posts were shared on facebook page COVID19 and HumansofMP. instagram page of Youth4Children, blog MP4COVID19Warriors and on respective social media handles of various organisations. Hastags of #MP4COVID19Warriors and #TogetheragainstCOVID were used on all the platforms.
Around 350 content posts were created and shared on various social media platforms like twitter, facebook, instagram, blog, and instagram stories created by youth, adolescents and leaders.