Sheila Coroner in the New Yorker on Marcos Dynasty Disinformation

The weapons of historical accuracy and fact-checking are no match for Marcos’ creative folklore, turbocharged by social media and influencers, CMDS Curriculum Development Lead Sheila Coroner writes in the New Yorker about the landslide victory of Marcos, Jr. in the elections in the Philippines on 9 May.

In the article entitled The Triumph of Marcos Dynasty Disinformation Is a Warning to the U.S., Sheila Coronel looks at the elections campaign.

She spends election night with Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa and her staff at Rappler, who not only reported about the campaign but “helped launch an innovative network of journalists, fact checkers, lawyers, activists, and academics to identify, track, and expose disinformation to voters.”

Yet it appears their efforts were not enough to counter the campaign of Marcos, Jr., based on lies on social media about the Marcos era being a golden age for the country.

Largely unnoticed by the mainstream media, the Marcos family had created an alternative information ecosystem that appealed to large sections of the population who felt unseen and unheard by liberal élites and the news media," the article writes.

Photo: therealbrute / Flickr, CC BY 2.0