Survey tags Facebook, pols, trolls as fake news superspreaders
Facebook, government officials and state-linked trolls are among the main spreaders of disinformation since the new coronavirus struck early this year, according to a survey of journalists covering the biggest global health crisis in about a century.
The “Journalism and the Pandemic” study by the International Center for Journalists and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University underscores the “disinfodemic” challenges reporters contend with as their countries try to contain the contagion.
Political leaders
It hopes to take stock of the “devastating impacts” of the pandemic on the newsroom, which is already suffering from economic uncertainty and burnout from the extra workload.
According to the responses from more than 1,400 English-speaking journalists in 125 countries, political leaders and elected officials were the second top sources of disinformation behind ordinary citizens, who were least expected to be knowledgeable about the severe respiratory disease.
“While regular citizens remain the No. 1 purveyor of disinformation, political leaders and elected officials come in at a close second. This is particularly disheartening at a time when information can literally mean the difference between life and death,” the study said.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, disinformation is information that is “false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country.”
The study said government agencies or their spokespersons and state-sponsored troll networks were also responsible for disinformation, highlighting “a serious lack of trust in political and governmental actors as the pandemic took hold.”
Facebook was the primary vector used by ordinary citizens to spread fake news, according to the survey. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned corollary apps—WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger—were likewise cited as “enablers” of disinformation.
The findings “are both startling and disturbing,” according to researchers Emily Bell, Julie Posetti and Pete Brown.
“Our report demonstrates that journalists are working in a severely pressured financial, physical and psychological environment during the pandemic,” the researchers wrote. “This will be the most enduringly difficult professional period many have experienced during their careers.”
Psychological toll
“At a time when the public needs to rely on credible independent journalism to stay safe and informed, journalists and news organizations are grappling with a mental health crisis, financial peril, physical safety threats, and press freedom attacks, while simultaneously battling pandemic levels of disinformation,” they added.
Almost 70 percent of the journalists said they were struggling to cope with the “psychological toll of reporting” during the pandemic. More than 80 percent have noted suffering at least one of the following psychological effects: anxiety, burnout, sleeping difficulties and a sense of helplessness.
The same problems are reflected here in the Philippines, noted media experts.
In an earlier interview with the Inquirer, Danilo Arao, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines, said that unlike past calamities, “journalists need to be extra careful as they might end up being part of the statistics of COVID-19 cases.”
“Compared to a strong typhoon where a journalist can readily see the threat to his or her safety, the COVID-19 virus remains an unknown ‘enemy’ so he or she needs to proceed with caution,” Arao said.
No newsroom support
Nonoy Espina, chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said, “bullets, riots, floods and landslides are easier to dodge than a virus.”
“The worse thing is journalists face the added risk of becoming carriers and passing on the disease to their families and others,” he said.
Despite these challenges, the study found, most newsrooms have fallen flat in terms of support.
Nearly two-thirds of all reporters said their employers had failed to offer flexible hours, offer social support or regular check-ins. Several more noted that their employers did not provide adequate protective equipment for field reporting.
The lack of institutional support compounds the stress of covering COVID-19, made more difficult by intensifying state harassment of journalists. Some of them noted threats and restrictions “that have an effect on press freedom,” the researchers said.
In the Philippines, government officials have replaced in-person press conferences with videoconferencing, in keeping with physical distancing norms set by health authorities.
Arao said this was the “next best option to face-to-face interviews,” since reporters can still scrutinize the body language and facial expression of news sources.
It’s also proof “that journalists are not only news-savvy but also tech-savvy … able to maximize gadgets like mobile phones [and] quick to learn various communication tools that are usually dependent on the internet,” he said.
Virtual briefings
But “a whole lot is lost” in such virtual briefings, said Espina, who was concerned that government officials could use it to suppress or select information that goes out to the public.
Sometimes, officials in online pressers simply read prescreened questions from journalists who often have little opportunity to seek clarifications. Because such briefings are dependent on internet connectivity, they could also shut out reporters with poor or no connections.
Arao said this setup “defeats the spontaneity of answering hard questions, compromising the task of journalists in ferreting out the truth and removing the trappings of parenthood statements and scripted propaganda.”
This could also lead to “sinister forms” of repression and censorship, he warned.
Physical distancing should not mean government officials “will distance themselves from reporters, especially those who ask the hard questions,” Arao said.
“Amid the pandemic, the government needs to be even more transparent and the journalists should not be prevented in any way to fulfill their mission in shaping public opinion,” he said.
