FAKE NEWS & MOCHA USON: A POSITION PAPER
Philippine news sources have published that the country has ranked as one of the most ignorant states on key national issues (Gonzales, 2018; Hallare, 2018; Jazul, 2018). The Perils of Perception 2017, as published by Ipsos MORI, has asked about 500 Filipinos ages 16-64 from topics ranging statistics on suicide cases, terrorist attacks, and diabetes, etc (Hallare, 2018). From rank 24 last 2016 (Worley, 2016), it has been to rank 3 this 2017 (Evans, 2018). This paper argues that sharing fake news brings absurd ideas and eventually perceived to be true.
What is Fake News?
Fake news refers “to false information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news” (Shroud, n.d.).
The purpose of fake news is divided into two domains: misinformation and disinformation.
Misinformation refers to e “inadvertent sharing of false information” while disinformation is “deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false” (Wardle, 2017)
Creating misinformation and disinformation is never a job description for any public official. Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Margaux "Mocha" Uson seemed to be posting a lot of fake news lately. She does not like the mainstream news outlets, since they [the news outlets] have their biases against President Duterte, and have goals to destabilize the country. She has been labeled as the Fake News Queen in the Philippines.
To give all the facts, Asec Uson shares link posts from trendingnewsportal.net.ph for a whopping 555 times, next are verifiedph and kingdomingo Blogspot web pages with almost 190 times. Meanwhile, mainstream media content shared by the Mocha Uson Blog is averaging 30-75, and 15 shares from government sites (Hapal & Magsambol, 2018). No wonder that Senator Nancy Binay told Asec. Uson to choose between an assistant secretary or being a blogger.
Being a Communications Assistant Secretary, she has to know that deliberate twisting of facts is spreading disinformation already. Malacanang is just wasting the tax money on paying a person with a monthly gross salary with P106,454. A netizen complained that everytime she sees her payslip, she immediately sees ‘For Mocha’ (Fabros, 2017).
The people being too unaware of the current issues have been one of the society’s symptoms that they lack the critical awareness of sifting the facts from lies. When the fake news is then shared many times, readers will eventually believe the article (Oxenham, 2016).
In a nutshell, creation and sharing of fake news never produces good fruits. It creates a more misinformed audience vulnerable of believing the fake news. One hopes that the generation of today will not be a generation of idiots.
- Sherfil Kate Jandog
REFERENCES CITED:
Evans, G. (2018, 5 February). The most ignorant countries in the world, mapped. indy100 from Independent. Retrieved from https://www.indy100.com/
Fabros, L. [lovebidubs]. (2017, Oct 04). @iamMJae Thanks for the reminder 😭 Now everytime I'll look at my payslip, I'll see a "For Mocha" above my taxes. Go… https://t.co/Vg6lIoLjkv [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/lovebidubs/status/915483168932638720
Gonzales, G. (2018, February 8). Filipinos are 3rd most ignorant of key issues – report. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/
Hallare, K. (2018, February 8). Filipinos among most ignorant on issues concerning the nation, says survey. Inquirer.net. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/
Hapal, D. K. & Magsambol, B. (2018, January 28). FAKE NEWS VICTIM OR FAKE NEWS PEDDLER? Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com
Jazul, N. 2018 (2018, February 8). PH ranks as 3rd country ‘most ignorant’ of key national issues — UK survey. Manila Bulletin. Retrieved from https://news.mb.com.ph/
Oxenham, S. (2016, December 7). Fake news shapes our opinions even when we know it’s not true. New Scientist. Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/
Stroud, F. (n.d.). What is Fake News? Retrieved from https://www.webopedia.com/
Wardle, C. (2017, February 16). Fake news. It’s complicated.First Draft. Retrieved from https://firstdraftnews.org/
Worley, W. (2016, December 17). These are the world’s most ignorant countries. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/
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Thanks for sharing your post here. I like your post here. Upvoted. "Fake News" was a term that comes from another term, "Conspiracy Theory," which was created by FBI, CIA, top government agencies, from the 1960's, while they were trying to silence free speech, conversation, debates, evidence, facts, proof, sources, questions, while people, globally, were trying to figure out who or what murdered JFK. That is part of the back story behind these terms but there is much more to these things. #InformationWar http://DrudgeReport.com
To be honest, and IMO, I see Rappler as the purveyor of fake news, that's why I don't even see they were credible enough to discuss fake news.