MIL courses need reform to help combat fake news says journalists

by: Jose Gabriel Ignacio and Sophia Aliermo

Philippine Institute for Development Studies Research Information Department Director Sheila Siar said on Friday, Apr. 14, that legislation alone “is not enough” in combating false information, but rather the country should strengthen media literacy courses in its basic education curriculum.

During her segment in the 5th installment of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Media Leadership Lecture Series entitled “Realities of Information Disorder: Misinformation, Disinformation and Mal-information and the Current Landscape in the Philippines” held at the campus’ Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. (BGPOP) Bldg., Siar stressed that although there are laws and bills to combat information disorder, these are not sufficient to solve the issue on information disorder.

Such laws include the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines – both of which include corresponding fines and imprisonment to those disseminating fake news.

Several bills have also been passed in hopes of alleviating the matter, including House Bill 2971 seeking to criminalize the creation and dissemination of false news, Senate Bill 1296 seeking to classify fake news as cybercrime, and Senate Bill 547 seeking to amend the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees to promote professionalism in information dissemination among public servants by ensuring that they do not become sources of false information.

Siar stated the dire need for a better quality of education as critical thinking and digital intelligence are vital in detecting false information.

“As what cognitive psychology has shown, ang pagdedevelop kasi ng critical thinking in analytical reasoning should start very early in life habang bata pa. It’s very hard to teach about critical thinking ‘pag matanda na so start them young [...] in the home and in the school,” she said.

Siar also emphasized how the current Media and Information Literacy (MIL) courses offered in the country’s senior high school curriculum are not focused on honing information literacy itself.

“While there is a subject called Media and Information Literacy in the senior high school program, when I looked at it, it is actually a general course and not focused on developing media literacy skills. So hopefully magkaroon talaga ng media and information literacy sa senior high school program natin na more on developing media literacy skills,” she added.

This was a similar claim shared by Philippine Communication Society Director and UST Journalism Program Coordinator Felipe Salvosa II in his segment, “The Academe’s Role in Inculcating Critical Thinking and Analysis Among the Youth Versus Information Disorder.”

“I agree with Shiela (Siar) that it seems to be too late to be teaching MIL at the senior high school level,” Salvosa said.

If the academe is to rethink the K-12 curriculum and modify the place of MIL in it, Salvosa said that it is best to look for ways to integrate it with other courses such as MIL principles in assessment tasks and course inquiry projects (CIPs).

“I don’t think your really have to have a dedicated course for that (MIL) [...] mahirap kasing ikahon mo siya sa isang course and then that course, kung ano-anong hinahalo mo d’on like nakikita namin sa MIL, ang focus masyado nagiging sa video and film production and na-de-deemphasize yung sinasabi ko na news literacy. Eh yun ang isang framework na pwede nating gamitin to teach our students how to distinguish between news and disinformation,” he added.

According to a Pulse Asia survey conducted on September 17-22, 2022, as cited by Siar, the internet or social media garnered the highest rate as a source of false information about the government and politics with 68 percent. Social media influencers tallied a total of 58 percent for most people or groups that spread false information about the same topic.

Citing the 2022 digital news report of the Reuters Institute and Oxford University, Salvosa stated that eight out of ten Filipinos turn to Facebook and YouTube if they need information in general. 57 percent of Filipinos get their news from Youtube, while 33 percent turn to Tiktok, outnumbering the 27 percent who rely on Twitter.

He noted that without the proper education on the matter (media and news literacy), Filipinos would continue to fall prey to such, and the data shows.

See this link for the brief of the MIL course curriculum from the Department of Education (DepEd):https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/SHS-Core_Media-and-Information-Literacy-CG.pdf