Convergences and Divergences of the Filipino Ilustrados and the ‘Biased’ Journalists: A Glimpse into Filipino Journalists’ Role as Counterpropagandists in the 1800s and the Present Era

Abstract

This article traces the convergences and divergences between the Filipino Ilustrados counterpropaganda of the Spanish colonial era to the present day’s so-called ‘biased’ journalists’ truth-telling through a comparative and historical analysis of the two instances of counterpropaganda. Counterpropaganda is used as a framework to link these two entities both working in countering mis- and disinformation spread by the authorities of each respective era. The Ilustrados were intellectuals who spread information, or counterpropaganda, against abuses being done in the Philippines to call for reforms in the colonial rule of the Philippines by Spanish authorities. Whereas the ‘biased’ journalists battle the spread of mis- and disinformation in the Duterte administration by speaking truth to power and holding those in power accountable. The Ilustrados and the ‘biased’ journalists share in the idea of countering mis- and disinformation in their respective eras. The Ilustrados and ‘biased’ journalists, therefore, share a commonality: their focus is to counter propaganda aimed at preserving the government's image even at the cost of withholding the truth.