The Marcos administration is set to implement a digital media literacy campaign this year to equip the most vulnerable communities with knowledge and tools to discern the truth against fake news.
During the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women held at the UN headquarters in New York, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Cherbett Karen Maralit said the Congress has tasked the PCO to address the growing concern about misinformation and disinformation, especially in the digital landscape.
Maralit noted that the campaign will be an active collaboration by the PCO with the private sector, including the stakeholders of the broadcast industry, to establish effective mechanisms against fake news.
Moreover, a thorough study will be conducted this month throughout the Philippines, which aims to refine the target communities where media literacy is most needed; determine the social media platforms through which these communities are most susceptible to fake news; and identify the contents and topics on which these misinformation and disinformation focus. The study also seeks to identify the profiles of fake news peddlers.
By the end of this year, the Palace will be closing the campaign with a Media Literacy Summit, where speakers from organizations such as Facebook, Google, and the Philippine Commission on Women, among others, will be invited “in the hope that they will share equal commitment to this cause.”
Meanwhile, measures seeking to institutionalize Media and Information Literacy as core subject in basic and secondary education curriculum have also been introduced in both Houses of Congress.
