Patterns of Information Disorder and the 2022 Philippine Elections

Abstract

The overwhelming amount of information disorder across social media poses a challenge for Filipinos, even during elections. It is a force to be reckoned with in the Philippine landscape. This study sought to address the seeming lack of literature about election-related information disorder in social media. This study aims to analyze media texts about the 2022 Philippine presidential candidates collected from Philippine-based fact-checkers, including those from the International Fact-Checking Network or IFCN- verified signatories, legacy media, academia, and civil society. Using conceptual content analysis, the fact-checked media texts were examined and coded to determine the dominant patterns of information disorder types, persuasion mode, format, platform, source, and keywords.

The study surfaced that disinformation is the most dominant type of information disorder. It also revealed that most fact-checked media texts contain misleading content, usually in the form of text and images. Additionally, information disorder peddlers use pathos as a way of persuading social media users, particularly on Facebook, YouTube, and Tiktok. It is also found that a significant number of the media texts are mostly from user-generated pages, sites, or channels that are constructed as a direct attack on a candidate or a party.