Dissecting Deception: A Genre-Based Analysis of the Move Structure of Political Discourse on Facebook in the Philippines
Abstract
This study investigates the move structures in deceptive political discourse on Facebook, anchored on Bhatia’s (2004) Applied Genre Analysis framework. It focused on identifying how deceptive texts are linguistically constructed to persuade, mislead, and mobilise political engagement within the Filipino social media landscape. The dataset consists of 200 Facebook posts flagged as deceptive by three leading fact-checking organisations in the Philippines—VERA Files, Rappler, and Fact Check Philippines—published between 2015 and 2024. Through qualitative coding, the researchers identified three major rhetorical moves: (1) Establishing a Claim, (2) Reinforcing the Claim, and (3) Mobilising the Audience, each with distinct rhetorical steps such as vilification, emotional reinforcement, legal referencing, directive prompts, and hashtag advocacy. These moves function not only to simulate credibility but also to exploit emotional, cultural, historical, and political contexts. Furthermore, the study explores the interdiscursivity of deceptive posts, revealing how they draw upon and mimic journalistic, legal, religious, and conspiratorial genres. The findings demonstrate that deceptive political Facebook posts are not randomly structured but are also systematically designed to appeal to affective reasoning and socio-political bias. These posts employ hybrid discourse patterns that reflect the evolving genre of digital political communication. By mapping the rhetorical anatomy of deceptive political discourse in the Philippines, the research offers insights into how manipulation functions linguistically and culturally within the digital public sphere.
Keywords: deceptive texts; political discourse; Facebook; genre analysis; disinformation
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