Digital Disinformation and the Imaginative Dimension of Communication

Abstract

To nuance current understandings of the proliferation of digital disinformation, this article seeks to develop an approach that emphasizes the imaginative dimension of this communication phenomenon. Anchored on ideas about the sociality of communication, this piece conceptualizes how fake news and political trolling online work in relation to particular shared understandings people have of their socio-political landscape. It offers the possibility of expanding the information-oriented approach to communication taken by many journalistic interventions against digital disinformation. It particularly opens up alternatives to the problematic strategy of challenging social media manipulation solely by doubling down on objectivity and facts.

Digital populism, digital newswork and the concept of journalistic competence: the Philippine condition

“…The insights of the interviewees reiterate what Cabañes (2020) wrote on digital disinformation: professionals have to understand how inequalities, culture, and social dynamics enabled the rise of fake news and political trolling. The ‘moral panics’ over disinformation take a ‘strong information-orientation to understanding digital disinformation’, focusing on the information dissemination process and neglecting the ‘cultural, emotional, and narratival roots’ of digital disinformation (Cabañes, 2020: 436).…”

“…The insights of the interviewees reiterate what Cabañes (2020) wrote on digital disinformation: professionals have to understand how inequalities, culture, and social dynamics enabled the rise of fake news and political trolling. The ‘moral panics’ over disinformation take a ‘strong information-orientation to understanding digital disinformation’, focusing on the information dissemination process and neglecting the ‘cultural, emotional, and narratival roots’ of digital disinformation (Cabañes, 2020: 436). Journalists need to think beyond fact-checking as a tool against disinformation; they also need to understand and relate to what Hochschild (2016, cited by Cabañes, 2020) called as people’s ‘deep stories’, which refer to stories that people tell themselves about their identity, ideals and place in the world (Cabañes, 2020: 437).…”

“…The ‘populist publics’ that supported Duterte in the 2016 elections ‘cut across classes, generations, gender, and geography’, as the messages of his campaign resonated with the everyday Filipino (Curato, 2016b: 95–97). These messages articulated what Cabañes (2020) described as ‘aspirations that ordinary Filipinos had about discipline brought about by their fears about the country’s rampant disorder and criminality’ – messages that appeal to the desperation for change of a nation marked with steep inequalities, corruption and rural–urban divide (Estella and Löffelholz, 2019).…”

Disinformation/Fake News

“…In the discussion of the impact of disinformation, it is important to distinguish between the content and the regularities of disinformation perception. Research does not support the "powerful media-weak audiences" approach (Cabañes, 2020), as most media users are able to identify true information and distinguish it from lies. To reduce the influence of disinformation, source and factual verification are used, but it is not useful if disinformation messages confirm the recipient's bias or existing beliefs (Ha et al, 2019).…”

“…Another important source of political disinformation is foreign agents from third countries, with strategic aims to target politicians, officials, governments, and institutions in democratic countries, prevalent in authoritarian states such as Russia and China. Russia has developed and registered propaganda media company (such as Russia Today), Internet troll factories (such as the Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg), hacker teams, and bot systems in order to achieve its strategic communication goals (Cabañes 2020;Pomerantsev, 2014). The main goal of the geopolitical information warfare is to influence political debate, elections, and legislative processes (Bennett & Livingston, 2018).…”