Tag Archives: mediaPH

komentaryo

A reckoning: #Rappler and #MediaCrisis (Part 1)

I’ve generally stopped talking about Rappler. I stand with it in terms of the Duterte government’s blatant use of its power to silence and disallow its reporters from covering Malacañang, and certainly I will stand with the news site when it comes to the incompetent Mocha Uson proclaiming that the site is nothing more than social media, because I will side with a private entity over a government official wasting taxpayers’ money on idiocy.

But none of that means I’ve ceased to be critical of Rappler. And I will remain critical especially at a time when it has fashioned itself internationally as the bastion of independent journalism in the country, when it is seen by the international community as the only local media company that’s worthy of mention in the time of Duterte.

Replying to someone who thought exactly that on Twitter, I said Rappler has its own sins and sacred cows; another Twitter user asked for at least three instances to prove that opinion. In the interest of discourse: this is but one of a series of articles that will remind all of us of Rappler’s arrogance and failures, something that was used quite ably against it — for good or bad — by the Duterte social media campaign.

Let’s start with the Zamboanga Siege of 2013. (more…)

komentaryo

Name the enemy: #FakeNews

Many things to discuss about the Senate Inquiry on fake news, including how it had the worst “resource persons,” which also ultimately revealed how unprepared our Senators were (save for Nancy Binay and Bam Aquino) for what it is that should be, needs to be, discussed at this point in time.

For one thing, as I said here, the goal should first be to define our terms because, as was apparent during the inquiry, and even more so in the aftermath, we are not on the same page about just the term “Fake News” — what it is, who spreads it, how it is spread.

The curveball was media personalities refusing to use the term fake news. In the next breath though, articles are published that say Asec Mocha Uson spreads fake news.

We are wrong on both counts.  (more…)

komentaryo

Media, gov’t comms, #LawinPH

One of the questions that dominated the discourse pre-Typhoon Lawin was: what the heck is government doing?

The truth was, we weren’t hearing much about what was being done, who was doing what, and whether government was prepared at all. It didn’t help that too many members of the President’s Cabinet –including the heads of communications – were with him in China, and so there was absolutely no sense at all that there was anyone in control of delivering information about the typhoon, one that was said to be akin to Typhoon Yolanda of 2013.

Here’s the thing: when you come from an Aquino government that had three communications offices, having no functioning communications office for President Duterte is nothing but a liability.

For the public and the government itself.  (more…)