IN the post-truth era, news matters more than ever. But what counts as “news” has become a contentious subject.
The 6th #FactsFirstPH research briefing was held today, featuring the work of researchers Fatima Gaw, Ira Y. Cruz, and Luisa C. Pineda on “The rise of Meta-partisan ‘news’ ecosystems on YouTube.”
The study examined a distinct breed of “news” that has infused online content with hyperpartisanship and disinformation on YouTube during the 2022 Philippine Elections.
Evidence has pointed towards the deliberate strategy of YouTube channels to overexpose audiences to partisan content through a mass, coordinated network fortified by the platform’s “recommendation system.” Referred to as the assemblage of the “meta-partisan ‘news’ ecosystem,” the study affirmed how these channels have “self-produced, self-endorsed, and self-referenced partisan political narratives by perverting news elements to manipulate political discourse.”
Through the social network analysis, the authors discovered that “the ‘news’ channels were prominently located in the YouTube election network and were strategically positioned in key communities to function as a surrogate to journalistic reporting and a complement to politically-charged content.”
Manipulative content from these channels was also found to be manufactured as “newsworthy” and thus became of interest to the public. These channels then employed “news styles” as a legitimizing signal to invoke journalistic authority and in effect, projected “unbridled authenticity by appropriating these stylistic conventions.” This inevitably led to the decline in media trust, they found.
Lead authors Gaw, Cruz, and Pineda from the Philippine Media Monitoring Laboratory of the Communication Research Department of the University of the Philippines-Diliman argued that “the meta-partisan ‘news’ ecosystem is self-reliant because it creates its own untruths and controversies, as well as self-sustaining for it augments, extends, and magnifies these same narratives into new ones.”
These channels, masking themselves as credible news sources, constructed and legitimized false content into “news” to crystallize political propaganda and disinformation.
To confront the orchestrated manipulation of public discourse, the study emphasized the need to shift our interest from “fact-checking” to “ecosystem tracing.”
A product of years of political schemes and platform manipulation, the authors called for the dismantling of this complex architecture by incapacitating its drivers and enablers.
“From the unscrupulous politicians and allies, the millions of investments in these activities, the complicit social media platforms, and to the organized disinformation industry that operates the ecosystem. It is high time to shed light on their dirty work – now that’s newsworthy,” the authors concluded.
About the authors
Fatima Gaw, MDCC is an Assistant Professor at the UP Department of Communication Research and the co-convenor of the Philippine Media Monitoring Laboratory. Her work centers on the mediation of platforms, algorithms, and digital technologies in culture and politics in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. She has a Master’s degree in Digital Communication and Culture from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communication, Magna cum laude, from the University of the Philippines.
Ira Y. Cruz is a MA Communication graduate student at the UP Department of Communication Research. Aside from being a master's student, she is also a civil servant, researcher, and development worker doing community work in fishing communities. Her research interests include science communication, development communication, and media technology and culture.
Luisa C. Pineda, MSc is a Research Assistant at the Philippine Media Monitoring Laboratory of the UP Department of Communication Research. She recently graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a degree in Media, Communication, and Development. Her research interests include media and disinformation, labor and migration, gender, and climate justice.
