The Information Tsunami and the Death of Journalistic Deontology
If the misleading information continues to be shared on social media, you can imagine the fate of millions of patients in Indonesia who need blood transfusions.
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By Aloysius B Kurniawan
·6 minutes read
From Jan. 24, 2020, to June 26 of this year the Indonesian Anti-Defamation Society recorded 1,026 hoaxes related to COVID-19. Thousands of examples of fake news were spread on social media in various categories, including fake content, false content, misleading content and manipulated content. The tsunami of fake news will continue if the people don\'t care about the deontology of journalism.
On June 4, a video uploaded on a Facebook account alleging that receiving blood from people who had received the COVID-19 vaccine posed a high risk and could contaminate the blood of people who had not been vaccinated. “Donated blood from people who have been vaccinated can contaminate the blood of people who have not been vaccinated. Please Share This Video & Send a Message to Local Health Authorities to Refuse Blood Donation from People Who Have Received the COVID-19 Vaccine," reads the caption of the video. Even though it was written messily, the anonymous message was still widely disseminated.
The results of a fact check conducted by a member of the Indonesian Anti-Defamation Society (Mafindo) at the University of Indonesia, Natalia Kristian, confirmed that the information was false and it was included in the category of misleading information. Receiving blood from a person who has received a COVID-19 vaccine is not dangerous at all. Recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine can donate blood one or two weeks after vaccination.
If the misleading information continues to be shared on social media, you can imagine the fate of millions of patients in Indonesia who need blood transfusions. Blood donors are worried about donating blood, while patients cannot wait for a long time. I don\'t know what the producers of this misinformation had in mind, as they seemed not to care about the terrible impact of their post.
Just as this article was being written, someone sent a message in a WhatsApp chat group. It said, “This is 100% TRUE news. Very important for everyone. Why lately in China has the number of people infected with the virus decreased suddenly? Apart from wearing masks, always cleaning their hands, they also cleanse their mouths with salt water 3 times a day. After gargling, 5 minutes later, drink warm water, because the virus will not only attack the throat, but also the lungs. If destroyed by salt water, the virus will die or be killed in the stomach and then destroyed. This is the only way to fend off COVID-19.”
They don’t want lose time and therefore spread information that has not been read thoroughly, let alone been understood.
Although there is no evidence at all that salt water can kill the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, people freely spread this misinformation. Fact checking agencies and the mainstream media had confirmed that the information was misleading, but the fear of missing out had affected many people. They don’t want lose time and therefore spread information that has not been read thoroughly, let alone been understood.
Mafindo\'s records show that during from 2020 to 2021, hoaxes were dominated by issues related to COVID-19. "The type of information that first appeared was a result of political polarization. However, now it appears due the combination of political polarization between people who obey health protocols and those who tend to believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories," said the chair of Mafindo, Septiaji Eko Nugroho.
The bad behavior of Indonesian netizens is also clearly illustrated in the Microsoft Digital Civility Index (DCI) survey, released in February 2021. Indonesia was ranked 29th out of the 32 areas surveyed in the prevalence of hoaxes, online fraud, hate speech and discrimination.
Verification, independence
The phenomenon of the rise of hoaxes in the community, according to a lecturer on the philosophy of ethics and politics at Sanata Dharma University and the School of Humanities at the University of Indonesia, Haryatmoko SJ, is closely related to the development of citizen journalism on social media. In citizen journalism, the control lies with the users. As a result, people no longer care about the deontology – ethical obligations – of journalism.
By ignoring the deontology of journalism, the ethics of communication are also ignored. As a result, at least three things can no longer be guaranteed, namely verification, independence and accountability of information or news.
This practice contrasts with what the mainstream media does. In the mainstream media, the control of information lies with the practitioners, journalists, and they are governed by the deontology of journalism.
With the deontology of journalism, the mainstream media has benchmarks to ensure verification, independence and accountability. This is what distinguishes mainstream media from social media.
This is illustrated in the Muller-Lyer illusion, which depicts two long lines that look different when fins are added. It is also the same with a person in capturing information. If someone already has a certain belief and ideology, all information will be selected with beliefs and desires according to their ideology. As a result, information that does not fit will not be accepted, and any kind of objective explanation or rationality will be rejected.
This tendency thrives in the era of citizen journalism with social media as the stage. Hoaxes are very easy to develop and online fraud can easily takes place because people know what a particular group or audience wants. Fraud occurs because the fraudster knows what his listeners or readers expect.
“They’ve entered into it, into the logic of what the reader wants. Why is this Muller-Lyer illusion so deceptive and people don\'t have time to think? This happens because people tend only to see that they don\'t want verification, while verification requires thinking about the reason why," said Haryatmoko.
It is not surprising that a professor can be caught in a hoax because he is too lazy to verify the information and already has a certain ideology. After all, to be truly critical, one must be able to ask why. That means he must be able to step outside himself and his ideology.
Then, why have developed countries not experienced a wave of hoaxes as severe as Indonesia’s? The wild circulation of false information seems to be related to the learning model in Indonesia.
In Bloom\'s Taxonomy theory, people start to be critical if they can analyze, evaluate and be creative. However, the basis of the education system in Indonesia is still at the level of remembering, knowing and implementing.
This is what Muller-Lyer explained earlier. People tend to just see; they don\'t think why. That is why, in our society, there are still many people who can be easily provoked.
(This article was translated byHendarsyah Tarmizi).