Combating disinformation is more than just fact-checking, says prof

Everyone should take part in fighting disinformation in the country as it would take more than just fact-checking efforts to get rid of it, a professor from the University of Massachusetts (UMass) said.

Interviewed in The Mangahas Interviews, UMass Global Digital Media associate professor Jonathan Ong explained there is an intention behind disinformation, and nowadays, those doing it continue to innovate.

“Parang cat and mouse games ito na parang (this is like a cat and mouse games wherein) we try to catch them, we try to deplatform them, and then nag-i-innovate sila [and then they innovate],” he said.

Ong, however, stressed that it is not only the fact-checkers, academics, and journalists who should be working to combat the problem of disinformation.

According to him, people should learn how to depolarize or “find spaces in the middle.”

“We need more than that. We need more than just fact-checking and pre-bunking initiatives. Kailangan din natin ng (we need to have) new spaces for us to have conversations and meet in the middle,” he said.

“Hindi na lang frontliners sa journalist ang dapat lumalaban sa fake news. Dapat lahat tayo (all of us should fight fake news and not just journalists)—researchers, librarians, comedians, storytellers. I think all of these talents and skills are needed to create new educational materials that will empower citizens,” he added.

The professor also underscored the need for organizations to include more people in discussions and conferences, and not to gatekeep them.

“What we need is to bring in more people. 'Wag tayo mag-gatekeep, 'wag tayo mag-maganda na tayo ang nauna, and therefore tayo na lagi ang leader (Let’s not gatekeep and think that we always need to be the leaders just because we came first). We need to trust other people to find the right solutions for their own problems and perhaps they can connect with their communities better than we do,” Ong said.

In March, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) announced that the government will spearhead a nationwide digital media literacy drive this year in a bid to teach the vulnerable sector “to be discerning of the truth” in social media.—Giselle Ombay/AOL, GMA Integrated News