Democracy resilience and media literacy amid the pandemic: perspectives of civic journalists in the Philippines / Hemmady Mora and Ariel Sebellino

In today's time of global pandemic, it is difficult to ascertain the information shared by various forms of media. Democratic resilience and media literacy are more important than ever to help audiences of all ages be responsible for the information they receive in various forms of media that may be a factor in their decision-making as media consumers. Thus, this study discusses the perspectives of civic journalists from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao on democracy resilience and media literacy amidst the pandemic. Specifically, this examines the thoughts and insights of community journalists on media literacy and democracy resilience, and its possible relationship. This study uses an exploratory sequential design in which it started with the conduct of a focus group discussion with the selected civic journalists and validated through a survey. Using the mixed method, the study reveals that the public’s dependency on media and government in times of crises is not evident in the study. Factors such as fake information and propaganda seem to affect the supposed dependency of the public to media and government during times of crises.