With the deluge of information on social media, some people may find it hard to differentiate between what’s real and what’s not. But not for House Deputy Speaker and Antique Representative Loren Legarda.
Experience and her training as an award-winning journalist, not to mention having a newsman for a grandfather, have honed the discernment skills of the veteran politician.
At a recent Zoom press con, she was quick to delineate disinformation, misinformation and how inaccurate the term “fake news” is.
“Can we not call it fake news? Can we call it either disinformation or misinformation?
Because news is news,” she said, when asked how best to combat the rise of “fake news” on social media.
“My late grandfather (Jose P. Bautista) was a newsman. He was the editor-in-chief of the pre-Martial Law newspaper, Manila Times. He valued news and whenever he would talk about news as a child, it was about gathering the truth and facts. Eventually I became a journalist, producer, an anchor and even a writer, editor, etc, and we would talk to us about news and news to us was so valuable because it was based on facts. On truths that we would vet, clarify and produce into short capsules that we would present every night to the people. And then all these years, people would call ‘fake news.’
“I know what you mean when people say fake news, it means wrong news, but me, I try, sometimes I also use ‘fake news’ but I try to distinguish between disinformation ‘yung sinasadyang linlangin ang mga tao sa maling content. [Kapag] misinformed, honest na nagkamali at kinorek. But there is also a lot of disinformation na gustong linlangin ang publiko. That is what I believe comprises ‘fake news’ — either disinformation or misinformation.
“And the way to combat it is by abiding by facts and by the truth. Vetting, clarifying, confirming, inquiring and just keep on reconfirming if the facts are accurate.
“Because of technology and the speed by which information is fished out, nagkakamali tayo along the way. So technology is both good and bad. Boon and bane. Because sa pagmamadali, it changes, it evolves. Also sa pagmamadali, hindi na naco confirm. Hindi kamukha nung panahon natin nun, we would do the 10 o’ clock, 10:30 news and whatever comes out in the 6 o’clock can still evolve and clarify for the 10:30 news…”
Knowing the correct spelling of a person’s name signifies respect, she stressed.
“I admit sometimes not everybody… vet as much. And that’s important. That kind of training is important because it’s the digital age and information is handy and abundant but we should always dish out correct information.
“So the way to combat fake news– which I call disinformation pag sinasadya and disinformation kung nagkamali — would be do it the right way. By giving out accurate information with correct spelling, ako pati titles, grammar, hanggang sa comma… So the traditional school of journalism is so important,” she concluded.
