How did disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic affect the Global South, including developing countries like the Philippines? This was answered in a recent Routledge book chapter co-authored by Department of Journalism academic researchers Felipe F. Salvosa II, MA and Christian V. Esguerra, MA with fellow journalism scholar Sara Chinnasamy.
In a chapter entitled 鈥�,鈥� the three scholars pointed out that the 鈥渟pread of misinformation, amplified on social media and other digital platforms, is proving to be as much a threat to global public health as the virus itself.鈥� Rumors, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and orchestrated deception campaigns have collectively led to the 鈥渓arge-scale contamination of the public sphere,鈥� the scholars averred, relating to the 鈥渋nformation disorder鈥� now present.
The Philippine context was investigated alongside those of Malaysia and Pakistan while utilizing the risk journalism framework of the Global Risk Journalism Hub. Common among interviews with journalists are the observations of an 鈥渋ncreasingly fractious, populist, and polarized political environment鈥� in which extremist views of vaccination, promotion of treatment without scientific evidence, and lack of digital literacy leading to the belief in conspiracy theories were among the findings.
The article is part of the new book Ecologies of Global Risk Journalism, published by Routledge in 2024. Salvosa is the incumbent Chair of the new Department of Journalism, and he serves as Co-Adviser of the Varsitarian. Both are academic researchers of the Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities.
