Journalist Fellowship Paper - How to cover malign influence campaigns: a view from the Philippines

In the mainstream media, the bulk of news coverage on the topic consisted of frequent fact-checks to debunk disinformation, and the occasional analytical or investigative report examining the phenomenon. [...] In the year leading up to the election, the Digital Public Pulse Project (DPP) of the University of the Philippines-Diliman monitored online activity in relation to the elections; it found that Facebook communities were partisan.38 Although Marcos Jr. [...] In the same study, the most widely reported piece of disinformation encountered on the platform – encountered by a third of respondents – was a myth from the Marcos lie machine: that the Philippines was the “richest country in Asia” during the Marcos regime.47 Around 7 to 13% of misleading claims fact-checked by Tsek PH originated from TikTok.48 Micro-influencers from various walks of life endorse. [...] In the Oxygen of Amplification, Data & Society argues that internal newsroom issues such as churnalism, overwork, and quotas for deliverables have a direct link on the susceptibility and vulnerability of media institutions to disinformation amplification and the spread of ideas that otherwise would have stayed in the dark.56 In a newsroom where journalists must put out several stories a day, who i. [...] In the Philippines, where a fifth of the population lives below the poverty line, connection of disinformation to “gut issues” like transport and the prices of goods are important.