Kevin Raymundo is a visual artist and animator. He is the creator of the comics Tarantadong Kalbo, which uses simple illustrations and pop culture references and personalities to feature commentaries and make necessary noise on current events and social issues. Look for his misadventures on Tarantadong Kalbo’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.
One of the characters shows his phone and exclaims that Sarah Elabyu is a terrorist. Kalbo replies saying that the post is fake news. The person showing the phone asks: “How do you determine that the post is fake news?”
The panel shows a close-up of the post of Sarah Elabyu, with text around the image stating she is an NPA recruiter and “Dalawang Mukha ni Sarah Elabyu: Ang inyong mga anak ay hindi niyo mga anak.”
Kalbo explains the quote used in the post is from Dekada 70. He also mentions that you need to look first at the photo, which usually is not in good quality. Next, he says to check the font as fake news posts usually use Comic Sans or fonts used in birthday greetings. The long-haired character then explains that for fake news posts usually there is an obsession with primary colors, and photos are edited using drop shadow.
Other tips include checking the date of the article, as the news indicated might be true but is “old” news reposted to look recent. Another is to see if there is a connection between the headline and actual article. Lastly, it’s important to crosscheck across different credible news outlets. The character in sando then asked: “What about some mainstream media that are incorrect or have clickbait articles?”
Kalbo answered that some mainstream media sensationalize their news. The long hair dude added that this does not mean that just because a few media outlets does this you will generalize and disregard all outlets.
The crewcut character asked: “How about Bayad Bye, Tingting Penou and Mukang Suso, they also tell the news? Kalbo answered that they are bloggers or maintain pages and they are not reliable sources because usually they do not undergo checks and balances. At the end of the day, their priority is engagement and not telling the news.
“But what about pages that are critical of the government and uses memes to make us laugh?” crewcut character asked. Kalbo said that those are considered satire and they are reactions to news through a sarcastic manner. This is also why everyone should use critical thinking in consuming media, so that we don’t get misinformed.
Character with long hair says that this is why he only looks at Kalbo’s page for news. Kalbo remarked he is a comic artist, not a news outlet. The other friend joked that long hair dude also keeps commenting that “he doesn’t get it” or asks what’s the context. The long hair dude then said “That’s fake news. I don’t ask in that way, that’s for titos. Let’s go with how the young ones ask:”
“Sauce please!” and all three characters laugh.