#mediacrisis – Katrina Stuart Santiago

Here we talk about the tax evasion case versus Rappler, as an off-shoot of its defense versus the SEC order to close it down. Also whether or not the support for Rappler and Ressa have died down, whether or not they are being singled out by the Duterte government, and getting some perspective on the notion (spin?) of dissent that Rappler uses to fashion itself as hero. Part 1 is here.

Do you have any observations or reactions on how other local newsrooms have responded to the tax evasion charges against Rappler and Ressa? Do you think that they’ve lent enough support to them, or otherwise?

I do think the support for Ressa and Rappler has died down compared to early 2018 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered its closure. I’d imagine this to have been brought on by a number of things. There’s the possibility that mainstream media entities feel they have no choice but to fall silent about freedom of the press issues lest they become Duterte’s next targets. I’d like to think that to some extent many media practitioners can see right through this spin that fashions Rappler and Ressa as heroes, even as so many others are doing the same work they are — if not better work than they are. I’m sure there’s also the part where media entities just make that decision about which issues matter more — after all in the time of Duterte, when impunity, oppression, misogyny, and incompetence are on the rise, what to use our energies on is the first decision we make. (more…)

At the end of 2018, Washington Post’s Regina Cabato and Kristine Phillips sent me questions about Rappler.com and Maria Ressa for a story they were doing. A bit of that long-ish set or responses landed in their profile on Ressa. I asked if I could publish their questions and my answers on my site, and they said yes.

I always welcome the opportunity to flesh out my thoughts, especially at a time when too much is happening, and we can barely keep our heads above water. This is Part 1: On Ressa, Rappler, mode of production, its claims of independence, and global attention.

One of the things you wrote was Rappler “has fashioned itself internationally as the bastion of independent journalism in the country,” and it is “seen by the international community as the only local media company that’s worthy of mention in the time of Duterte.” What makes you say this, and what are other local media companies that you think also deserve the spotlight?

Even before Duterte, and obviously ever since, the real source of independent reporting would be the alternative media of the Left: Pinoy Weekly, Bulatlat, Manila Today, AlterMedia, Kodao. These are media practitioners and writers who have been doing the stories that are not covered by mainstream media, across the different Presidents, and yes, mainstream media includes Rappler. Some of these alternative media sites were already online long before Rappler even went live, and are the true “independents” if we are to use the word at all: they are not funded by a huge capitalist, they are covering the stories of the people, the ones that don’t make it to TV or radio news, and they are on the ground covering stories that no one else is covering. (more…)

In the five years that I’ve been doing this column, and the nine years of writing independently full-time, the most fulfilling parts of it have been about being able to talk to students who wonder about writing. Often the questions revolve around notions of fear, which automatically go to the presumption of courage: that it is brave to write about things that others wouldn’t write about, or to have a contrary opinion from what dominates the discourse.

Yet it would be delusional to imagine that sitting in front of a computer, in the safety of my own home (or my middle-class spaces), writing about issues that to me are important, is bravery defined. In the provinces, broadcast and community journalists are being killed, activists are being illegally detained and threatened, communities being militarized.

To be trolled or threatened on social media is nothing compared to that. (more…)

It could’ve been the fact that it was election year, but there was little reprieve from noise generated by social media all of 2016. It was like we turned a corner and didn’t know how to turn back.

Probably most distressing is that so many have fallen into the trap of celebrating Facebook likes and shares, equating this with relevant engagement, and insisting that this is “critical mass” and “public opinion.” Fake news sites are built on this premise, asserting relevance by producing un-sourced and un-bylined articles about issues that pro-government Facebook pages, personal and otherwise, are talking about.

These sites are of course shared with abandon, sold as a statement against the biases of mainstream media, and yet so obviously skewed to serve only the President and the government, like they can do no wrong. The push back of mainstream media and its supporters is just as noisy, asserting a moral high ground and insisting on policing the public, invoking protection from “hate” and “lies.” (more…)

A little over two months since we elected a new President, there is no day that I do not reel from the change that has come, for good, better, worse – depending on where you stand on issues.

It is the latter of course that has become the more critical question. “Where do you stand?” after all seeps into our daily engagements on social media: it is measured by the headlines we share on our Facebook walls and Twitter feeds, and what we refuse to speak about.

And while we like to be sure about where we stand, I have found freedom in being shaken by this President. By the fact that he requires that I read up on the South China Sea crisis on one day, and climate change on another; the drug crisis in the country on a Monday, poverty and oligarchs on a Wednesday, and then back again. (more…)

Katrina Stuart Santiago

Katrina Stuart Santiago

Tag Archives: #mediacrisis

Freedom of anti-information