THIS is my nth time writing about trolls and fake news. But it is worth it because the severity of its impact to the social consciousness has gone off the charts. Every day, it’s getting bigger, and darker.
There are media institutions and independent organizations joining the fray, visiting from one school to the other to educate the public on the negative impact of fake news, especially in conditioning public opinions and controlling decisions by the masses.
Last year, a research conducted by students, which I co-authored, showed that among school teacher respondents, all of them were aware the difference between legitimate news online pages, satire sites, propaganda, and ambiguous ones which we now call as “fake news.”
The study, conducted last 2016 from June to October, has a title “Perception of Reliability of Online News in Facebook by School Teachers in Cagayan de Oro.” This was conducted by Technology Communication Management alumni, Mona Galos, Arra Laguardia, Russche Ocampos, Mary Jane Mejos, and Jaylord Pahuyo.
The respondents were school teachers, on the premise that these were the people students would rely on information other than the media and who are capable of explaining current issues especially in subjects related to history and social sciences.
But here’s the rub in one of the results of this study and it’s concerning: in theory, these teachers knew the difference between a legitimate news item in Facebook than fake ones, but during in the hands-on test, quite a number of these teachers were not able to identify the difference. This was when the researchers showed actual screenshots of Facebook posts to the teachers and decide whether they distinguish the differences whether it’s legitimate or not.
The results of the study may not directly discuss the serious impact of fake news and trolls, nevertheless it left an imprint of the possibility that even teachers have difficulty identifying the legitimacy of a particular news source, how much more it can victimize other people.
In the Philippines, fake news and the proliferation of an army of digital trolls are often associated with political affiliations. And perhaps a first in history, political arguments have also highlighted the role of media and the purpose of journalism - at the brink of redefining its purpose to society.
So it has come to this, in the Philippines, most fake news sites are associated with pro-administration. Those sites critical are often met with passiveness. In fact, most of the list of “fake news” include administration-leaning sites, even categorically identifying themselves as “political blogs.”
The role of the media has also become a battlefront of political legitimacy. The anti-administration sites were enjoying of less persecution of being called “fake news,” until this so-called “Cocoygate” became a recent topic.
(To be continued)
(nefluczon@gmail.com)