PPI combats the spread of fake news

The Philippine Press Institute (PPI) spearheaded a scholastic outreach program on fake news at the University of the Cordilleras auditorium last April 12, 2017.
The seminar entitled “Let’s Get Real on Fake News” was aimed at the youth who are most likely to be internet-savvy and are vulnerable targets of fake news. Senior high school and college students from the University of the Cordilleras and some students from Urdaneta City University attended the scholastic seminar.
PPI training director Tess Bacalla briefed students with today’s digital landscape and revealed that there are over 54 million Facebook users in the country as of June 2016 according to the World Report 2016. This massive number of Facebook users makes it easier for fake news to get viral here.
According to Bacalla, fake news are stories that are not true but are deliberately spread or shared through internet-based media or online platforms to mislead others often for dubious political agenda.
Bacalla also said that fake news is a way of public manipulation, a distortion of reality and an unwarranted polarization.
The seminar helped students identify fake news going viral on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. Identifying fake news may be done through visual assessment, identifying the author, identifying the central message, assessing the spelling, grammar and punctuation, looking for other articles on the same topic and turning to fact checkers like factcheck.org, snopes.com, or politifact.com.
PPI aims to stop the proliferation of fake news to enhance individual and collective well-being of the society and to ensure more responsive, efficient and transparent public governance. Rozienna G. Rosales, UC Intern / ABN

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