EIGHTY years ago, British journalist Sefton Delmer began helping win the war against the Germans by wielding the pen; its ink flowing with the equivalent of today’s fake news. Eight decades later, the British media and other democracies are confronting the very same monster they helped create.
But the circumstances during Delmer’s time, according to the Smithsonian Magazine article about him, were very, very different: the Internet would be born four decades later.
Now, with the percentage of people worldwide with Internet access hitting 90 percent the World Economic Forum in 2015 forecast this to be real by 2025 the problem of “fake news,” disinformation and misinformation of Delmer’s era is no longer a problem for the Germans only.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (Unesco) has called this “infollution.” In its Laureate Seminar in 2016 in Paris, France, the Unesco defined “infollution” as the combination of information and pollution composed of cyber-bullying, violent video game, obscene content, viral rumors, technology addiction and privacy invasion.
The seminar was the start of an initiative to make information and communications technology (ICT) to help educate young people, especially children, become more digitally-aware and well-informed digital citizens.
Two years later, the Unesco calls this “media Internet literacy,” or MIL. This first came into the academic community a decade ago by Penelope Peterson, Eva Baker and Barry McGrow that defined MIL as “the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts.”
Lack of control
SHARMILA Parmanand of the University of Melbourne, said sociological reasons are behind the growth of “fake news” and “disinformation.”
The Unesco defines disinformation as “information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country.”
Speaking in a recent online seminar, Parmanand pointed out the current uncertainty in the environment is a big contributing factor that leads to the spread of and belief in conspiracy theories.
As a result, this feeds to the psyche of people who wants to be in control of their lives amid the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic and the states’ response to address the pandemic, .
Parmanand, who holds a Master of Arts degree in gender and development, observed that a lot of people find it difficult to accept that they don’t have control over the things happening around them.
“There’s a certain lack of comfort on not knowing who to blame; that kind of anxiety needs to be addressed.”
Anxiety level
PARMANAND also observed that undermining authority has become prevalent in this era where people are yearning for populist solutions that provide quick-fixes and finger-snap solutions. Parmanand said this condition allows “experts” to have their work to connect with the ordinary people cut out but makes disinformation accessible in the first place.
“The traditional drivers are led by people who don’t trust traditional authorities anymore,” she explained. “It becomes problematic when you don’t trust traditional media, which makes it more challenging to get the right information.”
According to Parmanand, people “are now living in a time of high anxiety and the desire to desperately control [our lives].”
“Of course, there are obviously certain actors that take advantage of the situation,” she pointed out.
To note, the Unesco differentiates disinformation with misinformation. The Unesco said the latter is different in that information, albeit also false, is “not created with the intention of causing harm.”
Mal-information, the Unesco added, is information “that is based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, social group, organization or country.”
‘Dubious in nature’
DURING the same online seminar, Val Amiel Vestil cautioned digital natives what Mark Prensky called in 2001 as people who grew up in the era of ubiquitous technology on the consumption of online content.
Vestil, co-founder and executive director of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists, said some people surfing the world wide web launched in 1984 go to websites developed to engage people but are fake and “dubious in nature.”
In the same seminar, Heather C. Fabrikant, US Embassy in the Philippines Spokesman, said the US government is concerned about the spread of “infodemic,” which has been amplified with the spread of Covid-19.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined an infodemic as the “overabundance of information, both online and offline.”
“It includes deliberate attempts to disseminate wrong information to undermine the public health response and advance alternative agendas of groups or individuals,” the WHO said. “Mis-information and disinformation can be harmful to people’s physical and mental health, increase stigmatization, threaten precious health gains and lead to poor observance of public health measures, thus reducing their effectiveness and endangering countries’ ability to stop the pandemic.”
The WHO further emphasized that “disinformation is polarizing public debate on topics related to Covid-19, amplifying hate speech, heightening the risk of conflict, violence and human rights violations and threatening long-term prospects for advancing democracy, human rights and social cohesion.”
“The disinformation has reached a frightening level during the health crisis and its quite important that the youth sector to work together to find the solutions brought about by the threats of disinformation,” Fabrikant said.
A literate studentry
TWO Filipinos, meanwhile, are pushing for MIL: De La Salle University (DLSU) Public Programs Librarian Donna Lyn G. Labangon and DLSU Readers’ Services Librarian John Louie T. Zabala.
In their research paper, Labangon and Zabala explained that MIL is anchored under the principle of freedom of expression and information empowering citizens to gain understanding on the function of media information providers, evaluate provided contents thought and make well-thought and informed decisions as the main consumers of media and information.
With media information literacy getting more complicated, Labangon and Zabala said there is a need to ensure platforms that can still foster civil and peaceful discourse between people of different cultural backgrounds.
In their research paper titled “Towards A Literate Studentry: Media and Information in the Philippines,” Labangon and Zabala said teachers are key to MIL.
However, “majority of the instructors failed to undergo professional preparatory training for MIL (63.6 percent) though a number of instructors (36.4 percent) were able to get it.”
“The lack of MIL-related programs was the main reason (57.1 percent) why majority failed to get any,” the authors said. “Other factors were unavailability of funds, lack of administrative support and the lax regulation not to attend such.”
Participants in the training said they had sessions on MIL through seminars and training (60 percent), through a course in graduate (60 percent) and undergraduate program (20 percent) led by their schools (75 percent), the Department of Education (50 percent) and their accredited professional associations, or APOs, (25 percent).
Blurred quality
THE respondents in Labangon and Zabala’s paper came from the National Capital Region (NCR), Region 3 (Central Luzon), Region 7 ( Central Visayas and Region 12 (Soccsksargen) with percentages of 27.3 percent, 9.1 percent, 54.5 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.
Region 7 had the biggest respondents with 54.5 percent. The respondents came from both public (54.5 percent) and private schools(45.5 percent). The MIL courses were handled by full time teachers (54.5 percent), librarians (27.3 percent) and teacher-librarians (18.2 percent).
With a limited number of respondents, Labangon and Zabala said implementing an MIL on a national scale is not yet achievable.
“Majority of the MIL instructor-respondents were not exposed to prior training due to unavailability of sessions and training for such,” the authors said. “This widens the blur on the quality of the instruction they impart to the students.”
Nonetheless, they said school libraries were seen active in assisting MIL instructions.
However, “public libraries were less visible. There was no mention of the barangay reading centers as supplementary facilities to MIL instruction.”
According to Labangon and Zabala, there could have been some remedial measures to increase the students’ exposure to library services after the formal school hours.
Expanding curriculum
RAMON Guillermo R. Tuazon, a professor at the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication, told an audience in a recent forum that MIL should be taught not only in the senior level of the K-to-12 program but also in the grade school level and even in technical vocational programs.
“I feel very bad about the curriculum,” Tuazon said in the forum organized by the Break the Fake Movement. “MIL should not be limited to senior high school. There should be age appropriate lessons integrated in the entire K12 curriculum.”
For him, MIL “can be a separate subject; but, at the same time, it should be integrated in the different topics in other courses in all levels even in pre-schools.”
Tuazon, also the Unesco lead media development specialist in Myanmar, added that “’cyber wellness’ must also be taught in preschool as much as you need MIL in secondary education.”
He noted that the Unesco encourages mainstreaming MIL even in non-formal education classes and in appropriate vocational-technical courses.
MIL should also be included in the teacher training programs, Tuazon added.
However, the problem is teachers handling, he said adding it is currently difficult and challenging for the formal school system to teach MIL unless the school system has reformed itself.
He pointed out the country needs a progressive educational system so it can teach MIL correctly and adequately.
Missing links
ACCORDING to Tuazon, the missing links in MIL curriculum include the “freedom of expression and right to information as a framework and “cyber wellness,” or the balanced online and offline life, privacy, online relationships.
He added there should also be topics on the pyscho-social impact of technology (persuasive technology) and disinformation strategies and tools (e.g. using algorithms artificial intelligence, media literacy and conspiracy theories, among others.
The other missing links in the curriculum, according to him, include: intercultural dialogue especially promoting tolerance diversity and pluralism (countering hate speech and extremism; addressing historical (negative) revisionism (distortion or denialism); and, dealing with persuasive communication (including information bias).
“MIL provides the framework for enabling young minds to make the right choice,” Tuazon said. “[They must be able to] choose freedom over control, tolerance over hate, diversity over homogeneity, and most importantly, truth over lies.”
Digital citizens
AS digital literacy is the lifeline of today’s digital natives, Tuazon reiterated that responsible digital citizenship is a key element of the MIL ecosystem. Moreover, a responsible digital citizen possesses an engaged mind able to speak up and push back to reclaim a “free, safe and truthful public space.”
“A responsible digital citizen will ensure truth matters-or rather truth always wins,” he said.
Tuazon lamented that governments, the business sector and even nongovernment organizations think teaching MlL is not enough to combat fake news. Moreover, many governments believe that fake news and hate speech can be fought with legislation, regulations and control. However, Tuazon said research studies have shown that laws will not impede the distribution of false and misleading information.
“On the contrary, prior research shows that these sorts of laws have chilling effects on the broad range of public communication,” he added.
Good discernment
FOR Vestil, users should have a good discernment in choosing the people they meet on the Internet.
“It is a matter of choosing your battles: knowing what type of people you want to engage with and how to engage with them,” he said. “It would be best to allow the media and enlightened citizens to check out false accounts.”
In the fight against disinformation, the youth should counter it with authentic content they will create, Vestil suggests.
“Promoting intellectualism is a good way to start in building the content,” he said. “Developing a voracious reading habit and a critical mind are important foundations to become an enlightened citizenry.”
Vestil recommends that young people “set aside time to read, research and check on the sources you use for creating content.”
“Failure to do it might lead you to create misinformation and deliberate disinformation.”
Vestil added that people can also use their media accounts to propagate true information.
In this age of fake news and disinformation, Vestil stressed that it is important for Filipinos to develop a “woke” culture.
Being “woke” was appropriated from black culture and used as an adjective to refer to social awareness.
“Everybody should be a ‘woke’ now considering the things happening around us,” he emphasized.
Being ‘woke’
VESTIL, a Siliman University alumnus, added that being “woke” is beneficial to a society as people can have the opportunity to discuss issues that can help change a society.
“At this point, it is important for Filipinos especially the youth, to discuss what ‘woke culture’ is and what is not ‘woke culture,’” Vestil said. “In woke culture, there are no rude and unkind words. Being antagonistic and confrontational are not parts of being a woke.”
However, Vestil said “the problem comes in when we become vicious; highlighted by malicious and verbal attacks.”
“You can be woke and be kind at the same time; they are not mutually exclusive. It is not good to cancel people out because of their opinion,” he explained. “It is good to engage people in a good manner and woke culture could be defined as being aware and doing something on that awareness.”
Meanwhile, Vestil reminded people they have three important roles to play in social media. These roles are: a critical consumer of information; a critical distributor of information; and, a critical producer of information.
He reminded people that consumption of information is not only the responsibility of media but also of the individuals who are distributors of information. As people click the share button, it means people are already distributors of information, he explained.
“Our digital footprint needs to reflect of being responsible and a critical producer, consumer and distributor of information,” Vestil said.
Banking on the youth
TUAZON is urging the youth to reclaim their public space, which he said has been lately ruled by disinformation and even hate speech.
“When young people commit to a better world, it gives all of us young and old alike, hope for a better future,” he said.
Calling them the game changers, Tuazon said young people can have a big impact to change the current environment mainly because of their idealism and enthusiasm. To change the world, we should work with young people, according to Tuazon.
“However, troll armies are dominated by young people who are technology-savvy and motivated by generous financial gains,” he noted.
On the part of Unesco, it has initiated youth civic projects that aim to send a message to the youth that they have to be accountable to their choices, according to Tuazon.
Build the DNA
DARZEENI Tandazani, co-founder of the Malaysia Information Literacy Education group, shared that Malaysian youth also lack the critical tools to analyze, evaluate and process the flood of online information.
Darzini said parents will have an important role in teaching children to develop critical thinking.
“We need to build the DNA so kids can understand the differences in opinion and views,” she said.
Jaime A. FlorCruz, a former CNN Beijing bureau chief and adjunct professor at the Peking University, said the challenge now is how to counter the technology being used to propagate fake news.
He argued the speed of fake news moves much, much faster than real news.
“The challenge right now is how to get there first. Once fake news is there, it is hard turn things around in our favor,” FlorCruz emphasized.
Moreover, her urges the youth to have a “healthy news diet” by availing various sources that even includes right-wing sources of information.
“More than that, you want to know about politics, economics and health; this is what I mean of a healthy news diet. It should be different sources, different fields.” he added. “In that way we can have an informed decision.”
Civilized manner
PARMANAND admits that fighting fake news and disinformation can be sometimes frustrating.
To counter these, one must first resist the impulse to disengage, she said. Second, better be careful in calling fake news and “smart shaming” by doing it strategically, Parmanand said.
If it is a bot or troll, block it at once, she added.
“But if it is a living thing who happens to be rude, try to engage [him or her] in a civilized manner,” Parmanand said. “Try to engage in a respectful manner and present facts in a non-condescending way.”
Fabrikant said one of the best ways to boost resilience is through education.
“An educated population with a high media literacy is more challenging and costlier to target,” she noted.
Fabrikant said the US Embassy in the Philippines is encouraged by government agencies, civil society, media outlets and academic institutions having launched pro-active programs to promote media literacy among the youth. She also commended academicians for playing crucial roles in combating disinformation.
Another critical element in the fight against disinformation is an independent news environment, according to her.
“That is why the US urges its allies and partners to strengthen independent media.”
Fabrikant said Washington supports the legitimate media in the fight against the pandemic and support providing information on Covid-19 with a critical eye.