NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.

Fake news is a major threat to the news media.

Manny Mogato, editor in the local digital platform of News5 echoed his call for the netizens to be extra careful in believing what they’re fed in the social media after surveys show that “many Filipinos are gullible, and they easily believe in propaganda disinformation.”

He echoed the call during his keynote address at the 70th anniversary of the Bohol Chronicle at the Bohol Tropics last Thursday.

On top of this, Mogato said there are “foreign influence operations,” designed to sway Filpinos’ opinions to the narratives of foreign hostile forces.

He cited the common trend now is to “twist truthful information and hide false narratives in legitimate news stories.

He pointed to the “troll operations” which would amplify the narratives and discredit the true information.

Mogato warned that this disinformation agents target journalists to legitimize false information.

He mentioned a communication model called “Trumpet of Application ” which shows the false information becoming legitimate.  

The media executive warned the public that this mechanism starts with false information fed to an obscure website while unsuspecting people will pick it up and pass it on secret instant messaging platforms like Viber, Messenger, SIgnal, What’s App and Telegram.

These posting, he said when it becomes viral and the mainstream media which he termed as “legacy media,” picks it up, then it gains legitimacy.

He called on the ” legacy media ” to work double time in countering these fake news spreading wide in the social media world.