Manipulative Media

The advancement of digital technology has revolutionalize the use of information in various ways that does necessarily serve truth and the common good.  Compared to traditional print media which were oftentimes regarded to as gospel truth of the day, the onslaught of social media has created its own monster in what is now commonly referred to as FAKE NEWS.  In the past, news was news.  Once it is published by a newspaper, people will normally believe it to be credible since it has already passed the rigors and discipline of editing and journalistic discipline.  There was hardly any distinction at that time whether such NEWS is  genuine or a fake   

With the evolution of social media where news can be accessed by an individual 24/7, news is no longer the exclusive domain of reputable news agencies and professional journalists.  Practically anybody who can write and who has access to social media can create his own news with hardly any control, censorship or accountability.  Because of this limitless access media, news and information can also be manipulated to condition the minds of people to serve various agenda, be it political, commercial or financial.

For example, the recent news story of Mindanews entitled: “Bong Go now number 3 in alleged “SWS survey;” SWS says it’s not theirs” is a perfect example of how media can be used to condition the minds of voters that a certain candidate is now No.3 in the survey and is already a sure win in the election.  Mindanews reported that, “According to a press release issued by Go’s camp, the survey, allegedly conducted February 25-28, 2019, “showed Go receiving the approval of 47 percent of the respondents to claim solo third place” and that “this reflects a continuous improvement from his 5th to 6th place ranking with 41 percent conducted by the same survey firm (on) January 23-26, 2019 and coming from a 15th-16th ranking back in December 2018.”

It appears that the goal of this fake reportage is to create a bandwagon effect among the voters who are gullible to vote those who are popular and winnable.

Mindanews, however, reported that the alleged survey is a fake one and no less that the Social Weather Station already made a disclaimer that there is no SWS survey which catapulted Bong Go to No. 3 in the senate slate.  It even stated that any right-thinking and responsible journalist can simply visit the SWS website to verify if there was truly a survey to that effect.

The problem with this press release is that even established news media outfits run a story about it by simply relying and parroting the contents of the press release.  If they are cautious enough like Mindanews, they could have verified the so-called SWS survey from the Social Weather Station and easily they can find out that there was no survey to that effect.  The question is why did these news agencies did not do their due diligence of verifying the source of the information?  Why did they simply assume the press release to be the gospel trutha?  Somebody blink so as not to see the big white elephant of this journalistic brouhaha.











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