Relevance of Communication and Media Ethics: Analytical Essay

Fake news is a social ill that comes thick and fast in the Philippines. Containing false and misleading information, fake news, categorized into two: misinformation and disinformation, can manipulate public opinion and can influence political outcomes. The former contains unintentional inaccurate information, which is in direct contrast with the latter, which is an act of deception to convince an audience of something. Disinformation is intended to mislead people, while misinformation is not. In the Philippines, the problem of disinformation is systematic and deeply rooted in the cultural aspect of society. Behind the disinformation, a production is an invisible machine: modern in its degree and association, strategic in its outlook and skill, and exploitative in its morality and ethics. The ones operating this machine are the main purveyors of disinformation, and cover-up on display while the public's moral panics and trolling are directed elsewhere (Ong & Cabañes, 2018, p. 10).

In this sense, the relevance of communication and media ethics is a longer-term problem. As misinformation continues to prevail, the role of communication and media practitioners in integrating the principles of ethics in the field is crucial. The prevalence of misinformation simply implies that communication and media ethics is becoming a utopia, not being practiced and applied well in the field. Because of this, some legitimate media organizations are often declined of public trust and misidentified by the people as the source of “disinformation.” As information sources, the media should also educate the public on the difference between misinformation and disinformation. Nevertheless, to combat misinformation, media practitioners should always bear in mind the importance of fact-checking and editing. The principles of truth-telling, fairness, freedom, humaneness, and stewardship must always be in practice to maintain public trust.

On the other hand, merely imposing communication and media ethics might not be enough to combat disinformation. Because disinformation in the Philippines is networked or organized production of political deception which distributes responsibilities in interconnected groups of paid digital workers. This kind of system seems hard to eliminate as the initiative of disseminating disinformation comes from those in power. The efforts of fact-checking and blacklisting may not fully address the causes of disinformation. What is needed to address are the professionalized work structures and financial incentives that normalize and reward “paid troll” work.

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Ong & Cabañes (2018) said in their study entitled Architects of Networked Distribution: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines that the allocation of responsibilities to produce disinformation in the Philippines starts with the political clients who pay for elite advertising and PR strategists to set campaign objectives. From those campaign messages, anonymous influencers and key opinion leaders make viral posts. These viral posts will be amplified when the community-level fake account operators create illusions of engagement. More engagements in the posts are expected as politicians’ fan page moderators, unpaid opinion leaders, and the like share the said posts to mislead the public. All of these disinformation purveyors are paid except for the politician’s fan page moderators, unpaid opinion leaders, and the like.

In March 2019, Nic Gabunada, former head of President Rodrigo Duterte’s social media team on the 2016 presidential campaigns and now an executive director of communications and media company was linked to a bunch of 200 pages turned down by Facebook for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” This kind of charge is usually imposed on foreign influence and troll campaigns. Currently, Gabunada is the only individual to have been named by Facebook as the coordinator of such an activity.

However, this charge imposed on Gabunada by Facebook even reinforced the dirty methods of politics in the Philippines, where troll hubs continue to produce disinformation, making positive branding to the government and attacking opposition figures instead of being punished.

These realities of disinformation production in the Philippines called for the improvement of communication and media ethics. To expose the “political clients” and “elite advertising and PR strategists” who seemingly are the leaders in making campaign objectives that promote disinformation, a stronger code of ethics should be enforced on the internet. The anonymity is the strength of these disinformation purveyors. That is why the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) Code of Ethics established in 2008 should include transparency and accountability in political marketing which requires disclosure of political consultancies. Thus, making digital political campaigns more easily traceable and identifiable. In this way, professionalized work structures of disinformation dissemination in the Philippines might, little by little, be revealed.