THERE are the doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who are the frontliners in the battle to beat the new coronavirus. There are people who call themselves the “backliners” to support them.
Then, there are many others putting their lives on the line as they perform essential tasks in this time of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. They are the other frontliners. They are pharmacy workers, supermarket employees and delivery personnel. Media workers can call themselves as among the other frontliners.
Media workers leave their homes, go to their posts or assignments to perform usual tasks. Others who stay home perform vital work in presenting the information on social media, websites and newspapers.
The alternative for the public is to consume all kinds of information, including false ones intended to deceive them. A Unesco report to be released this week shows how false information on social media about the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) may be as harmful as the virus.
An examination by the Unesco of the information landscape during the pandemic showed that almost half, or nearly 42 percent, of the over 178 million tweets related to Covid-19 were produced by bots, and 40 percent of these messages were unreliable. Bots are internet bots or web robots that send out automated messages prompted by keywords.
The Unesco, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, will release data from its 2020 World Trends Report on Media Independence and Press Freedom in times of the Covid-19, to mark World Press Freedom Day today, Sunday, May 3, 2020. The report will be released on May 5.
On the misinformation done on Twitter, well, Twitter users in the Philippines represent less than 15 percent of Filipinos on the internet. Facebook is the leading social media platform here, with about 70 percent of the population on it to connect and get information about the pandemic.
But there is misinformation on Facebook. Proof of that is the filing of complaints by local government officials against individuals.
The Unesco said every May 3 “act as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.” It went on to describe how media can be targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom.
Cyber abuse and threats on journalists have heightened in this time of Covid-19. An audience hungry for information get their news first on Facebook where updates happen almost real-time. Any mistake or perception of an error and the media account gets bashed. Even if the error was committed by the source of the information.
Add to that is the matter of the media organization’s survival, with advertising gone and circulation limited because of restrictions on movement. The pandemic is forcing changes in the industry.
These are what media, the other frontliners, face.