On the first weekend of June, when we had barely recovered from the spate of toxic disinformation and fake news spawned by the election season, a close friend asked me if the “warning” she got from her Viber group was true. The text follows:
For Your Information
MMC is now on skeletal force. 15 doctors are on Covid leave, 17 more are symptomatic and awaiting test results. This does not even include nurses and technicians. So the upswing of stealth omicron variant which my brother in law Dr. (name withheld) has been predicting for June looks to be here on schedule. He says Europe’s is on the wane; the US and we are in the upswing. Probably 6 weeks before it begins to subside…
Hence please be advised. Take extra precautions. Even if you get a booster shot now (as I did yesterday), it takes 2 weeks to kick in. Fyi . . .
I knew it was not true so I immediately replied to her, “This must be fake. Please do not forward.” Fortunately, I have a son, Dr. Joseph Adrian L. Buensalido, an infectious diseases specialist at Makati Medical Center, who has vigilantly kept us—family, kin, and friends—abreast of the developments in, and the latest information about, Covid-19. For the past two years, he has patiently provided updates on the country’s health situation, either personally or through the many online seminars and forums he has been speaking at. Thanks to him, we continue to practice the strictest health protocols even now that restrictions seem to have eased up. As soon as I forwarded the text to him, he lost no time in sending Makati Medical Center’s official bulletin dated June 4, 2022. It bore the head: “Here we go again (indeed)”
My second reason for not giving credence to the text was the fact that we know—and have worked directly with—Makati Medical Center’s Medical Director, Dr. Saturnino Javier, a wise and judicious medical practitioner who has been proactive in issuing bulletins like this, especially during the pandemic when MMC was constantly being referred to, misquoted, and perhaps deliberately used to validate misinformation that very often did not come from them.
That brief exchange between my friend and me, and how I took time to check with a credible source,might have prevented misinformation from circulating online or even going viral, but how many of us would actually take time to check it out? Are we even aware that whenever we forward sensitive material that we have not double-checked or verified, we could be spreading potentially harmful information? And that we ourselves are guilty of unleashing fake news?
The Definitions of Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News
According to the University of Washington (UW) Bothell and Cascadia Campus Library, we must know and understand the difference between “misinformation” and “disinformation”. Understanding the various ways that false information is shared, and the motives and appeal behind it, will teach us to be more discerning when coming upon information from dubious sources. Learn to recognize the following terms:
Misinformation is “false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead” – Dictionary.com
Disinformation is “deliberately misleading or biased information, manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda.” – Dictionary.com
Fake news is “purposely crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news “ -Source: Fake News: understanding media and misinformation in the digital age
How to Stop Fake News
So what steps should we take to avoid spreading or contributing to this disturbing anomaly called ‘fake news’?
Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. Learn and practice how to evaluate every text or message you receive. Evaluate and check your source. And if you can trace the source, please do so.
The UW Campus Library cites the SIFT method by Mike Caulfield, which provides four quick moves that one can do when evaluating an online source.
SIFT simply stands for: Stop, Investigate the Source, Find better Coverage, Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.
Those who have the time and patience for research may use any of the following fact-checking sites. I only chose three for this article but there are so many choices online depending on your topic.
Factcheck.org – A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It monitors the factual accuracy of political speeches, debates, news stories, and other forms of communication.
Fact-Check (Washington Post) -The purpose of this Web site, and an accompanying column in the Sunday print edition of The Washington Post, is to “truth squad” the statements of political figures regarding issues of great importance, be they national, international or local.”
Snopes-An evidence-based source for fact-checking urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation
Research has disclosed that intriguingly enough, people are naturally attracted to fallacies. In fact, it has been said that online hoaxes spread ten times faster than accurate stories. Now, this gives us more reason why we in the communications field must constantly try to wean people away from these—and learn to say No to fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premiere association for senior communications professionals around the world. Joy Lumawig-Buensalido is the President and CEO of Buensalido PR and Communications. She was past Chairman of the IPRA Philippine chapter for two terms.PR Matters is devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments toaskipraphil@gmail.com.
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