IMAGE FROM PHILIPPINES COMMUNICATION SOCIETY FACEBOOK PAGE
The country’s premiere organization of communication academics, professionals, and media executives is set to launch a national forum underscoring the role of communication in democracy, starting with a webinar on the looming battle of so-called troll farms for votes in the upcoming 2022 elections.
Headlining the Philippines Communication Society (PCS) webinar is Jonathan Ong, Ph.D., associate professor of global digital media at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose groundbreaking work on disinformation and Philippine elections drew public attention to the dangers of organized and paid networks of trolls in democratic discourse.
The webinar, titled “Battle of the Trolls,” will be the first under the National Forum on Communication and Democracy: Philippine Elections 2022 series. It will be held at 9 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2021, via Zoom and streamed live on Facebook and YouTube. Details can be found at the official PCS website (www.philscomsoc.org) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/philscomsoc), and inquiries can be directed to info@philscomsoc.org. Interested participants can register online at https://tinyurl.com/PCSForum1.
Also slated to speak in the webinar as reactors are Yvonne Chua, associate professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines, journalists Warren de Guzman (ABS-CBN) and Ralf Rivas (Rappler), and Joeven Castro, associate professor at the Department of Communication of Far Eastern University and member of the board of directors of the Philippine Association of Communication Educators.
Broadcast journalist Veronica Baluyut-Jimenez will moderate the forum.
PCS is jointly producing the National Forum with TVUP, the internet television (webcast) network operated by the University of the Philippines.
Incorporated in 1987, PCS represents the communication discipline in the Philippine Social Science Council and is the umbrella organization of all communication-related organizations in the country. It publishes PCS Review, the peer-reviewed research journal.