1.

Fake
News 86% ng Pinoy nakikitang
problema 'fake news'; online
influencers pinakasinisisi
MANILA, Philippines — Karamihan ng mga Pilipino (86%) ang
naniniwalang problema na ang pagkalat ng maling impormasyon sa
bansa ayon sa huling Pulse Asia survey — kadalasan, galing daw
ito sa mga naglipanang internet personalities.

Ito ang napag-alaman ng Pulse Asia sa inilabas nilang Ulat ng

Bayan survey, Martes, bagay na kanilang ikinasa mula ika-17
hanggang ika-21 ng Setyembre ng taong ito gamit ang harapang
panayam.

Kakarampot lang (14%) sa mga 1,200 respondents ng survey ang

nagsasabing hindi ito problema sa ngayon sa Pilipinas.

Naobserbahan na noong madalas pumapabor ang mga

nagpapakalat ng "fake news" sa isang grupong pulitikal habang
niyuyurakan ang ibang panig gamit din ang kasinungalingan.

Saan nakakapulot ng pekeng

impormasyon?
Naobserbahan din ng Pulse Asia na karamihan sa mga Pilipino ang
naniniwalang internet o social media ang numerong source ng
pekeng impormasyon kung medium ang pinag-uusapan:

 internet o social media (68%)

 telebisyon (67%)
 radyo (32%)
 kaibigan/kakilala (28%)
 kamag-anak (21%)
 community leaders (4%)
 driyaryo (3%)
 religious leader (1%)

Pinaniniwalaan ng mga Pilipino na ang mga sumusunod na grupo o

tao ang nagpapakalat ng fake news:

 social media influencers (58%)

 journalists (40%)
  national politicians (37%)
 civic leaders/non-government organization leaders (15%)
 negosyante (11%)
 akademiko, propesor, guro (4%)

"Social media influencers, bloggers, and/or vloggers are seen by

most Filipino adults (58%) as peddlers of fake news about
government and politics," wika ng Pulse Asia sa kanilang pag-aaral.

Pinaniniwalaan din 'yan ng mga taga-Metro Manila (69%),

nalalabing bahagi ng Luzon (67%) at mga parte ng class ABC
(69%) at D (58%).

Bagama't 44% ng mga na-survey ang nagsabing sigurado sila kung

totoo ang political news na kanilang nababasa o napapanood, 44%
naman ang hindi makapagbigay ng diretsong sagot kung lehitimo o
hindi ang kanilang kinokonsumong balita.

"The rest of Filipino adults (11%) admit they are not certain about
the veracity of news about political and government that they
come across," dagdag pa ng Pulse Asia.

"It is only in Class ABC where the majority sentiment is one of

certainty that the political news one consumes is true (52%)."

Sa kabila ng lahat ng ito, 55% pa rin ang tiwalang may abilidad ang
mga Pilipino malaman kung totoo o kasinungalingan ang political
news na kanilang nae-encounter.

37% ang hindi makapagdesisyon habang 7% ang hindi tiwala sa

kapwa nila Pinoy pagdating sa isyu.

Ang naturang survey ay ginawa sa mga 18-anyos pataas sa buong

Pilipinas, at may ± 2.8% error margin at the 95% confidence level.
Ang subnational estimates naman para sa geographic areas ay may
sumusunod na error margines sa 95% confidence level: ± 5.7%
para sa Metro Manila, nalalabing bahagi ng Luzon, Visayas at
Mindanao.

Fake news and the motivations behind it There are two kinds of fake news: (1)
misinformation or “the dissemination of false information, even if not deliberate
or malicious, based on unsubstantiated conjecture and in light of various
considerations” and (2) disinformation or “false information [that] is
spread deliberately and maliciously for personal gain or to cause damage to
another party” (Schulman and Siman-Tov 2020, p.2). Examples of content that
fall under disinformation are false context, imposter content, manipulated content,
and fabricated content (Wardle and Derakhshan 2018). The distinction between
 misinformation and disinformation suggests that the spread of fake news may not
be intentional, but its production could be deliberate or planned.

Disinformation and hoaxes that are generally referred to as “fake news” are
accelerating and affecting the way people interpret daily events (Wesr, 2022).
Fake news as a means of misinformation is aided by the fast pace that information
travels in the present media ecosystem, specifically across social media platforms
(Baum, 2017). Fake news stories are invented, with no verifiable evidences,
sources or quotes. Occasionally these stories may be propaganda designed to
deceive the reader. Some stories may possess some truth, but contextualizing
details may be absent (Desai S. & Oerhli,2022) . Many peddlers of fake news are
not reluctant to generate fake accounts and post false or misleading information
online (Cuerpo, 2023) . Social media are digital platforms that can be an
advantage or a blight to the people and societies in general. They are means
whereby information or misinformation can be circulated. And given the
swiftness by which these can spread true or fake news, the stakes are high
(Lorenzo, 2017) .
In the Philippines, 51% of Filipinos find it difficult to identify fake news on
television, radio, or social media [13] . Most Filipino adults believed fake news in
media is a grave issue [14] .
A study has classified fake news as false news, polarized content, satire,
misreporting, commentary, persuasive information, and citizen journalism
(Molina, et al.,2019). Another research claimed that false news stories are 70
percent more likely to be retweeted than true stories (Dizikes, 2018). In another
study, it was found that the instantaneous sharing of news motivated by the desire
to create awareness may also facilitate the sharing of fake news perhaps due to the
lack of time to verify the same (Talwa & Salo, 2020).
2. Reading The Department of Education (DepEd) has continuously aimed to improve
public-school students' reading comprehension through different projects.
For instance, the implementation of Every Child a Reader Program can be
observed in all public elementary schools in the country. It is a national
program that addresses the thrust of DepED to make every Filipino child a
reader at their level. It is designed to equip elementary pupils with strategic
reading and writing skills to make them independent young readers and
writers. It also provides year-long training for teachers to make them multi-
literate and independent problem solvers (Department of Education Region
XII, 2014).

Also, the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory is conducted yearly to

assess the reading level of elementary and secondary students through the
virtue of DepEd Order No. 14, s. 2018 entitled ―Policy Guidelines on the
Administration of the Revised Philippine Informal Reading Inventory.

Despite this, reading comprehension has always been one of the problems
of English teachers in the Division of Zamboanga Sibugay. It is a fact that
the researcher himself noticed. Whenever there is a chance that English
teachers come together, one of the topics of conversation would be the
decline of the reading comprehension levels of students every year. This is
why it has been a practice of the schools in the division to develop and
offer reading programs to address the need to enhance the students' reading
comprehension. The division of Zamboanga Sibugay has initiated this
pursuit of developing learners reading ability through the implementation
of the Initiative for Reading Enhancement, Achievement, and
Development (I-READ) (Division Memorandum 442, 2021) and Project-
BP-Sibugay (Division Memorandum 342, 2021). Moreover, the Division
of Zamboanga SIbugay also supports such programs by awarding the
school deemed the best reading program implementer.

DepEd to dedicate Fridays to

reading starting 2024
MANILA, Philippines — All schools will be required to hold whole-
day reading programs every Friday starting January as part of the
Department of Education’s newest initiative to boost students’
literacy, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte
announced on Tuesday.

The DepEd secretary said that the department’s curriculum and

teaching strand is currently crafting a policy that will guide schools
in implementing “catch-up Fridays” beginning January 12.

“This means that on Fridays, our sole focus will be on teaching

children to read,” said Duterte, who made the announcement during
DepEd’s culminating activity for the National Reading Month.

Under the “catch-up Fridays” program, students from Kindergarten

to Grade 12 will spend the day reading age-appropriate materials
“based on their interest” and will be asked to write essays, book
reviews and other similar outputs.

Duterte said that the weekly catch-up program will focus particularly
on reading but may also include subjects in peace education, health
and values education.

Students who already know how to read will take lessons to improve
their critical thinking and analysis, while students capable of critical
thinking and analysis “will be asked to write books and essays,” she
said.

“We need one day where we will focus on bringing students up to

speed on their lessons. We can’t just keep doing the same things
but nothing is changing or improving with our learners,” Duterte
added.
9 out of 10 can’t read
Literacy — or the ability to read and write — is the most basic skill
that students need to learn nearly all of their lessons in school, and
anecdotes have shown that poor reading comprehension affects
nearly all other subject areas.
The literacy rate of students in the Philippines is one of the lowest in
the world, which the pandemic made even worse. According to the
World Bank in 2022, 90% of Filipino children aged 10 struggled to
read simple texts. This figure significantly increased from 70% in
2019.

Filipino students also performed the worst in terms of reading

comprehension among all participating countries in the 2018
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Duterte reiterated that the DepEd does not expect improved scores
in PISA 2022, the results of which will be released two weeks from
now.

“We have already been through two PISAs and the scores of the
students have not yet improved. This means we need to innovate
and do something else,” Duterte said.

She explained that with Fridays exclusively devoted to reading

lessons, DepEd’s curriculum and teaching strand has been asked to
“find a way” to fit all the regular classes in just four days or from
Monday to Thursday.

The DepEd chief said that the official policy for “catch-up Fridays”
will be released in December.