10/12/2022
Thank you to The NORSUnian for featuring us in this article post
๐๐๐๐ | NegOr summit discusses latest knowledge on disinformation
Project Tinuod, a summit organized by the non-government organization Seedlak Negros Oriental, looked at the different faces of disinformation during its physical gathering at Every Event-Growpoint, Daro, Dumaguete City, December 2.
The summit discussed critical issues on disinformation, red-tagging, social media, and press freedom for students from Negros Oriental State University (NORSU), Silliman University (SU), and Saint Paul University Dumaguete (SPUD).
The summit also tackled the media situation during the 2022 national elections, the ABS-CBN franchise issue, testimonials of red-tagging victims, and revolutionized journalism through social networking platforms.
Seedlak NegOr Executive Director Golda Benjamin, ABS-CBN Digital Section Editor Raffy Cabristante, and Youth-led Network for the Right to Information (YNFORM) Visayas Project Area Coordinator Van Earl Perpetua were among the speakers at the summit.
According to Seedlak Negros Oriental, the summit aimed to ignite the fight against disinformation and educate the youth on the legal repercussions of disseminating false information and encourage volunteer and collective fact-checking.
Moreover, the summit was the first part of their two-phase campaign against disinformation, adding that the second part will be community visits to barangays within the province.
๐๐๐ซ ๐ฏ๐ฌ โ๐๐๐ค๐ ๐ง๐๐ฐ๐ฌ,โ ๐ซ๐๐-๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ง๐
In her talk, Benjamin discussed the causes of misinformation and how it spread like wildfire, saying, โFake news spreads for two reasons: โButolon man gud ka!โ (You are a complete fool!) and โTapulan man gud ka mag-researchโ (You are too lazy to do research).โ
Benjamin added that such reasons mirrored the Philippine society, where people living in poverty and below struggle to determine what is genuine.
With this, Benjamin encouraged young people to use social media for good, emphasizing that the youth have a decisive role today in fighting disinformation, owing to their populationโs knowledge of social media.
โWe live in a beautiful country [the Philippines] that does not deserve to be governed by people who obtained their positions through fake news. We do not deserve a country where the poor, uneducated, and weak are exploited through these sophisticated algorithms and bad policies and promises,โ Benjamin said.
Benjamin also advised the audience to double-check everything they see and read on social media, choose kindness over brutality, report fake news, and stay faithful to the truth.
๐๐จ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฏ๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฌ
On the other hand, Cabristante described in his talk that todayโs time is the โinformation ageโ of society, supporting this claim with statistics on the wide accessibility of the Internet, the algorithm on how news breaks in social media, and the critical values of journalism.
Regarding analyzing media content sources, Cabristante warned students that โapart from knowing who the source is, asking why you believe that source over others is just as important.โ
โI hope [that] whatever they [participants] learned from the talks today will be helpful to them once they are online or out there with their friends. And when they see someone spreading disinformation, they can call them out and engage with them, [for] transforming and making each person an informed and vigilant netizen one at a time,โ Cabristante said.
Asked about his expectations of the students following the summit, Cabristante stressed that students should engage with their family members at home and discuss false information spreading on social media.
โI do hope that once they get to their homes, they will start engaging with their family members on being more vigilant about what they consume on social media and becoming vigilant about the kind of information they are using regardless of their political stands,โ he said.
๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ โ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ
Coming from Manila, Perpetua led the talk regarding the presence of the declared nonexistent culture of impunity, red-tagging, and disinformation, issuing threats to the current state of journalism and press freedom in the Philippines.
In a short film he presented, Perpetua highlighted a statement claiming Ferdinand Marcos Jr.โs presidential election implies that people no longer have to tell the truth, posing a threat to press freedom. โWe only needed to be large in number to convince people that this is the truth,โ he said.
Perpetua also rationalized the terms โhistorical revisionismโ and โhistorical distortion,โ which should not be used interchangeably.
โDistortion refers to the malicious reworking of collective memory for political purposes, demonstrating how historical information is manipulated to advance the candidates' agenda and to change the narrative to seize control of the voting public,โ Perpetua said.
In addition, Perpetua emphasized the incorrect usage of โfake news,โ explaining that the term is improper because โnews is always the truth and is not fakeโ; thus, the proper term should be misinformation or lies.
Perpetua also maintained that media and press are biased, asserting, โAt the moment they write or relay the news, they have already picked a side โ the side of the truth, the side of the general public, and the side where they should properly inform the people.โ
Moreover, Perpetua said the press is one of the pillars of democracy, and the youth must uphold and protect it.
โThey must also demand accountability and transparency from the government, fight disinformation, and promote the right to information,โ Perpetua stated as he invited the participants to join their organization, YNFORM.
Perpetua highly acknowledged the summit as one of the most spontaneous events he has participated in since he was overwhelmed by the crowd so willing to listen.
Attendees from NORSU were the largest in number, composing of the United Architects of the Philippines Student Auxiliary-NORSU Chapter, Society of Student Communicators, NORSU-Student Government of Dumaguete City Main Campus II, DOST sa NORSU, NORSU-College of Teacher Education Student Government, Institute of Electronics and Communications Engineers of the Philippines-NORSU Student Chapter, and The NORSUnian.
Sharing his expectations of the Negros Oriental youth, Perpetua said: โI am expecting the youth of Negros Oriental as someone who would stand up, as someone whoโs not afraid, and as someone willing or have the courage to take up space because it is a rapidly changing society and itโs a very challenging society.โ
โTaking up space is very important, we have to assert our dominance as the youth, we have to assert our rights, and we have to know our rights so that we can promote our rights and our welfare,โ Perpetua added. | via Krishna Angcon, Niel Benitez, & Shauna Tifora
https://medium.com//negor-summit-discusses-latest-knowledge-on-disinformation-c398885b02da
