Animated series acts as vaccine vs fake news

MANILA, Philippines — Disinformation in recent years has spread like an epidemic for which a cure has yet to be found. 

For international media development organization Internews, pushing back comes in bite-sized two-minute videos serving as vaccines against fake news. 

Internews has collaborated with artist Allan Leycano to produce a new animated series called #SariSariSerye, where the characters of Kano, Piping, Taning, and Manay demonstrate different ways of fighting online disinformation and manipulation through relatable conversations. 

Manay’s Sari-Sari Store

Since May, #SariSariSerye has released four episodes featuring scams, coordinated troll attacks, fearmongering and content switching as forms of online disinformation.

Set as conversations in Manay’s Sari-Sari Store, the characters learn the risks and realities behind disinformation. 

Leanne Lagman of Internews called the series’ approach “disinformation inoculation,” or how audiences are taught to resist disinformation by showing them how to detect common disinformation techniques early on.

“With disinformation inoculation messages, the goal is to build up people’s ‘mental antibodies’ that can help resist persuasion by disinformation by helping them detect common disinformation techniques and how it is applied in a variety of contexts,” she said. 

Pre-bunking as vaccine

Disinformation inoculation is an approach backed by research.

 A 2020 study showed that prebunking or “preemptively warning and exposing people to weakened doses of misinformation” helps people build resistance to disinformation.

The strategy works by exposing people to misinformation before they encounter real disinformation online. 

Previous studies have shown that disinformation is harder to correct once people are already exposed to it. 

With prebunking strategies, people are expected to identify common techniques of manipulation by the time they encounter real disinformation. 

Lagman also said that episodes of #SariSariSerye were based on common disinformation strategies in the Philippines as observed in recent studies. 

A different approach

Several measures have previously been used to combat disinformation such as debunking and fact-checking. These techniques are often done after people have been exposed to disinformation.

According to Lagman, #SariSariSerye’s “pre-emptive and proactive approach” to disinformation sets it apart from other measures to fight disinformation. 

“Unlike other approaches that focus on informing the audience, the series attempts to tug at the heartstrings of Filipinos with relatable stories and move them to act, engage in difficult situations, and hopefully, become more resilient to disinformation,” she said. 

Collaboration

Along with other efforts to combat disinformation, disinformation inoculation strives to improve the country’s media literacy through collaboration with other sectors.  

The series is created by artist Allan Leycano, also known as Kapitan Tambay. He features political cartoons and comics on his Facebook page. According to Lagman, the series serves as a collaboration between the media and the creative sector.  

“This initiative is an escape from the traditional methods of media and information literacy,” she said. “In many ways a sense of realization from our sector that we don't have all the solutions to our problems and that we need the help of other sectors.”

In upcoming episodes, the series will continue to feature other forms of disinformation such as pseudo-experts, historical distortion and “brigading” or coordinated attacks from a group of users. —Intern, Ingrid Alexandrea Delgado with reports by Cristina Chi