A Tale as old as Time: Proliferation of ‘fake news’ may have even preceded the birth of Christ | Recto Mercene – Business Mirror

MISINFORMATION and deception have been practiced, perhaps even before Christ was born. And today, the same nefarious activity has reappeared, this time, sporting a new tag called infodemic, or fake news. But regardless of the name, this art of deception today has spread exponentially, thanks to social media, said award-winning veteran journalist Manny Mogato.

Misinformation, or infodemic, has the same ill effects of creating chaos, confusion and even hysteria, Mogato said during a recent webinar, Countering Infodemic in this Pandemic, sponsored by the European Union Delegation to the Philippines, League of Provinces of the Philippines, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Philippines, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Blogwatch, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, Philippine Press Institute, Photojournalists Center of the Philippines, and Center for Peoples Media. The media partners are DZUP 1602 and the BusinessMirror.

Three speakers were asked for their opinion on how to counter misinformation, and Mogato lamented that fake news is now practiced by some of the highest officials of the land.

But journalists are guilty of spreading fake news through anonymous websites, which then get shared in secret platforms like WeChat, Messenger (or maybe the so-called dark web). He added that social-media users share these tidbits and the media pick them up as gospel news.

Mogatos advice to combat disinformation, fake news and infodemic is to always be skeptical of what we pick up in the social media.

HE said that to access the truth, we must adopt what the printed media had been doing for decades before social media took the upper hand, which is to check the facts.

There are also fact-checking tools available, he said, and one of them is called Snopes.

Snopes, formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors on the Internet. It has also been seen as a source for validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture, according to Wikipedia.

A list of fact-checkers are: Snopes.com; 2. FindExif.com; 3. InVID; 4. Reverse Image Search (TinEye); 5. Hoaxy; 6. Wolfram|Alpha; 7. twXplorer; and 8. Factcheck.org.

The next time you read an article online, you can quickly double check to see if the claims youre reading about are factual and legitimate. With a bit of elbow grease and by fiddling around with one or two of the above tools, you can find the right tool-chain that works for you. We dont have to be journalists or reporters, but it falls on us to perform our own due diligence that goes beyond Google to dig deeper.

Mogato, who also teaches journalism, added, The world, including the Philippines, needs an accurate, reliable, fair and impartial information, not only during the pandemic but in all aspects of life; politics, economy, the environment, culture and in our social interaction.

Sadly, journalists no longer control access to information as ordinary people now rely more on social media and other platforms for information, which are not all true, accurate and reliable.

In 1970 during the Watergate scandal, he said the Americans trust in media was a high of 70 percent. In Europe, news media are better trusted, except in France and the UK, which have a trust rating of 23 and 28 percent respectively, based on a Reuters Institute survey this year.

Finland and Portugal have the highest trust rating among EU member states.

In the same Reuters digital survey, Southeast Asian countries have much lower trust ratings among the 40 countries surveyed.

MOGATO said the proliferation of fake news is worse in the Philippines, and the spread has been blamed on politicians.

This is because the Philippines now gets information from the Internet and social media rather than the traditional television and newspapers. He noted that Filipinos often use their tablets and mobile phones to access news.

Mogato cited a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology saying, fake news travel faster and wider than accurate, reliable information in the traditional media.

THE other speaker, Christian Esguerra, academician and ANC anchor, gave five approaches to counter misinformation:

1. law and punishment

2. correctional action and advisory

3. social responsibility

4. cross-country referencing

5. science and rationality.

The above are self-explanatory, and Esguerra said that world leaders cannot afford to crack jokes, or make light of serious situations.

He cited the case of President Duterte who was once quoted as saying, kerosene and gasoline can be used as disinfectant. He recalled that the President also said people could make or re-use face mask.

This, Esguerra warned, could actually have grave repercussions on those who trust the President too much.

On the other hand, the Palace Spokesman, Harry Roque, corrected the Presidents statement, telling the Filipino people that those who know or have been aware of the President know pretty well that he is joking.

Esguerra also cited two other officials who allegedly made false claims: Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo remarked once that bananas contain chemicals that could destroy the virus; while Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Listerine, a mouthwash, will also suffice to kill the pathogen.

Esguerra did not spare the Church as a source of fake news, citing retired Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa City, who said, while celebrating Mass on September 23: If we love ourselves without being selfish, if we have this kind of love, you dont have to worry about anything, even if you dont wear mask. You dont need to be scared.

Esguerra said, The combination of the metaphysical and the physical coming from an archbishop, especially in trying to inspire the faithful, was quite blunt. This is a very serious problem we are facing; even the Pope was seen wearing a mask.

Esguerra offered concrete steps to counter misinformation.

1. Fact checking should be beefed up since one cant rely on social media. The media need to step up and beef up fact checking to contain misinformation.

2. Media practitioners should reassess the effect of the pandemic and come up with a template on how to report the pandemic since health issues become more pronounced during a pandemic. He warned people against being pawns of those with selfish interests. He said many doctors tell us what to do, but the deeper issues on pandemic must be consulted with the experts.

3. Coverage of health issues must be strengthened, especially those covering the health beats. We should reassess the communication tools while reporting the pandemic as this would not be the last of it.

Moderator Joyce Panares agreed that the media must beef up coverage and likewise hold regular face-to-face meetings with experts. Zoom is not conducive for media because we are not able to ask tough questions.

Michael Resende, cofounder of Reporting International, cited the enormous capacity of social media to:

1. reach enormous amount of people,

2. speed,

3. far more information available.

In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, he said, several cases of misinformation were created, such as, that the United States created the virus, or it came up due to the Chernobyl disaster.

The virus is not dangerous, and coronavirus is a tool to introduce tyranny, because science has collapsed, was among the other pieces of misinformation he cited.

Resende listed the threats of an infodemic as:

1. health risk

2. hate speech

3. consumer fraud,

4. cybercrime (phishing attacks);

5. foreign influence operations

6. conspiracy theories.

One important lesson the media learned, according to Resende, is that, We should be prepared, we should not be surprised.

He said disinformation and fake news are threats to democracy and undermine trust in all institutions.

He advocates a methodological approach, which means to treat infodemic with a healthy dose of skepticism.

His advice to counter infodemic:

Check the source, who is speaking and make sure youre not deceived.

He cited among the sources of legitimate news BBC online, which has a 50-percent approval. The 65 percent, however, get their news from the so-called side-door access.

This is described thus: Most people get their news through side-doors. Side-ways access of news via search engines, social media, or other forms of distributed discovery can obscure the producers of news content and create openings for various purveyors of disinformation.

Resende said the EU has a Democracy Action Plan, which includes: proposed legislation on paid political advertising 2011, provision of algorithm transparency, reporting duties of social media companies and digital literacy.

Whats needed? Resende proposed an All-of-society approach which means:

Empowered government agencies, civil society, media, academia in networks, social-media companies connected to the ecosystem, and a good educational system.

Continued here:

A Tale as old as Time: Proliferation of 'fake news' may have even preceded the birth of Christ | Recto Mercene - Business Mirror