Weekly Brief
Trust in mainstream media is being revoked by a public increasingly sceptical about the "public service" they say they deliver.
In review and in prospect
One of the glaring revelations coming out of these remarkable elections is the diminished place mainstream media (MSM) organisations now hold in Philippine society. This is no thanks to the zealous partisan posturing of the contracted talent of top media outlets of the country, including ABS-CBN, the GMA Network, CNN Philippines, and major broadsheets the Inquirer and the Philippine Star, perhaps with the blessings of their respective managing executives. The landslide victory of administration candidates — now president- and vice president-elect Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte — had given confronting insight into how much (or, rather how little, as the case now is) influence traditional mass media are able to effect on public opinion.
Despite disproportionate air time and space given by these organisations to the campaign of Opposition “leader” Leni Robredo and the support she enjoyed from their contracted celebrities, the needle was not moved in her favour. More than ever, it is evident that Filipinos no longer trust traditional media as these elections validated what had been the subject of debate for some years now. Newly-installed Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles's mulling a regime to accredit bloggers and “vloggers” (video bloggers) as members of the Malacañang Press Office, further adds to the growing threat perceived by MSM personalities that their space is being increasingly encroached upon. Unfortunately for these traditional purveyors of news, any opportunity to secure their “entitlement” to a monopoly over this space had long passed. Technology and bad behaviour on the part of their practitioners are handily taking all that from them. The reality of the free market of ideas is a Pandora's Box that could no longer be closed. The Old Guard need to learn to embrace healthy competition.
The idea that MSM “journalists” would need to compete in a space they continue to regard as exclusively theirs with what they regard to be the hoi polloi of communicators rubs their top “thought leaders” the wrong way. Pia Ranada “reports” on Rappler that the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) “raised the issue of how vloggers would be held accountable for their content.”
Journalists, in contrast, are answerable to their editors and newsrooms for their news reports and are also bound by media code of ethics.
This thinking misses the point, however. Individual bloggers are kept accountable by the free market. Bloggers do not need “editors” to slap them on the wrists whenever they do something bad. The market will take care of that. Credibility is a blogger’s equity in this competitive market and risking that by being reckless in communicating with an audience they each will have worked hard to attract is enough incentive to deliver consistent quality content. For that matter, what does being “bound by media code of ethics” even mean in practical terms? Time and again, “journalists” have failed to police one another much less take personal responsibility for holding themselves to this so called “code of ethics”.
The credibility void being created as trust in MSM is progressively revoked by a public enjoying an increasing abundance of alternative sources of information will be filled one way or another — whether the notion of “accredited bloggers” flies or not. No amount of demonising the new kids on the block perpetrated by an increasingly embattled “journalism” establishment can reverse that tide.
Last week's blog posts
Three highly influential appointments of the incoming Marcos Jr. administration
June 1, 2022 by The Unpopular Opinion
"Knowing how the country was battered by various challenges, he has explained in his interviews that he would seriously tackle economic hardships, foreign relations, and security issues. From there, we can predict which appointments would be the most impactful..."
Hospitality and Hospital Industries: Pillars of Philippine Economic Growth
May 31, 2022 by zaxx
"Hotels and resorts are in revival mode competing for tourists that have started to return after the pandemic. Airports and airlines expand to the ever-growing influx of visitors that have harkened to the call of our national 'It’s more fun!' tagline."