Category: media

walang iwanan sa bayanijuan? *LOL*

i hate to rain on abs-cbn channel 2’s parade but i must say, medyo ill-timed ang kanilang “bayanijuan” papogi promo, coming as it does when the people’s lopez-meralco woes remain unresolved. this must be why ang dating sa akin ay tipong damage control. the network’s way of distancing itself from the lopez owners’ other bigtime earner meralco, as if to say, wala kaming kinalaman diyan, ha. haha, how ilusyonado naman.

even more unfortunate, the campaign was launched in the wake of anc’s news embargo on the ces drilon kidnapping, so that my kneejerk reaction was, ano daw? walang iwanan? in my book, iwanan blues ang nangyari when maria ressa simply refused to tell us what she knew, even when ces drilon was already out of danger. iwanan blues ang patuloy na nangyayari since ayaw pa rin nilang magkuwento, how afraid, how careful, naman.

hindi bale sana kung naiiba itong kampanyang bayanijuan, eh not in the least. it’s just another show (pakitang-tao) of “corporate social responsibility” as practiced by oligarchs who make sooooooo much money out of selling us all sorts of things, they assuage their guilt by “giving back,” i.e., undertaking relief projects for disaster victims and donating a small percentage of their huge profits to generate income and services for the poor, which, really, barely make a dent on the country’s poverty and hunger situation, much like government dole-outs. teaching a man to fish instead of giving him fish no longer works, not when the big ships get to the fish first.

‘ika nga ni environmentalist maximo “junie” kalaw back in the ’90s:

Quite a few business enterprises would be found caught in the internal contradiction of donating to the poor with one hand and contributing to their poverty with the other.

A better way of approaching the issue is to consider the business community’s relationship with the people and with the resources utilized,in the context of the whole community.

The questions to ask are not about which social projects may be appended to a business enterprise but about what goods it is producing and how; what resources it is using. . . . what technology is being used. . . . what its effects are on the people and the environment; how profit is earned, who benefits, and who is deprived by the economic activity.”

kumbaga, kung media ang pinagkakakitaan, sa pamamagitan din ng media mag-give-back to the people. if abs-cbn truly wants a bagong simula sa ating bayan it is in a very good position to do so simply by broadening its thrust – imbes na puro escapist entertainment, give the public some intelligent informative stuff naman, yung meron silang mapupulot na kaalaman na maaaring ikaangat ng kanilang buhay.

topping my list would be daily 30-minuters (to be aired three or more times a day) that would teach us all to speak better english (and tagalog, and maybe the basics of bisaya, ilokano, kampampangan) harnessing the potentials of audio-visual technologies to teach classroom stuff in appealing interesting effective ways.

i can hear the sighs. walang mag-a-advertise sa ganyang show, saan sila kukuha ng pera pang-produce? aha. here’s precisely where “giving back” (good for the soul) or “paying forward” (good for the karma) kicks in. abs-cbn shoulders the expenses, of course, in the spirit of corporate social responsibility. who knows, if they’re smart and call in their judays and claudines to pitch in and take turns hosting the shows, i’m sure may mag-a-advertise.

and how about bringing back the public affairs talk shows? if abs-cbn truly wants a bagong simula sa ating bayan, ibalik naman please ang public affairs talk shows, which are essential to a democracy of adequately informed decisions. wag naman puro showbiz talk at reality tv. e ano kung walang mag-advertise. corporate social responsibility nga, di ba?

unfortunately, i’m not optimistic about abs-cbn. seems to me that its creatives are not quite tuned in to the real world. take the script of a series of video clips designed to inspire the youth to action:

“Jose Rizal, edad 26 nunglumabas ang Noli Me Tangere. . . . Jacinto at Del Pilar, 19 noong sumali sa Katipunan. . . . Ikaw, ilang taon ka na?”

LOL! AS IF! kung meron bang sumulat ngayon ng librong tipong noli me tangere, meron kayang magpa-publish? meron kayang magbabasa? basahin kaya ng mga taga-abs-cbn? at kung sumali ang kabataan sa isang samahang tipong katipunan, hindi ba’t ha-hunting-in lang sila ng military at makukulong, o mawawala a la jonas burgos? hahanapin kaya sila ng abs-cbn? LOL! AS IF!

the plot thickens

a conspiracy theory has it that ces drilon unwittingly walked into a trap sprung to give the armed forces reasonto start another all-out-war in mindanao, win pogi points with gma who in turn wins pogi points with george w. bush, and, incidentally, discredit mayor alvarez isnaji who’s running for governor in the armm elections.

it would explain why the situation was resolved so quickly, without serious harm to ces and co. but i have a hard time wrapping my mind around such a theory mainly because it would have hinged on ces or some bigfish like her being dumb enough to make kagat the bait of an exclusive interview with a surrendering abu sayyaf. it would also mean that the orenas needn’t have come up with ransom money, as ces and co. would could have been released anyway in time for gma’s trip to mindanao. unless of course the idea was to harass ces’ kapamilya, abs-cbn, into coughing up the millions, pero the kapamilya balked, strictly adhering daw to the no-ransom policy, so that ces’ true pamilya had to raise the first five million. unless of course abs-cbn is the source of the two duffle bags of money that pnp chief razon knew nothing about daw?

and then again maybe abs-cbn was part of the conspiracy? this would explain whythe police, and maria ressa, stopped ces from answering questions at her first presscon in zamboanga, questions that were only for razon to answer daw?

will we ever know what really happened? will anc ever tell us what it knows? will we ever believe anc again?

oh, and dan mariano of manila times has one last question : who’s footing the bill for that ten-day suspense serial that had us all glued to radio and tv for the latest news?

Thousands of police and soldiers were mobilized for operations to secure the news team’s freedom. Manila-based officials broke off their regular schedules and flew to the far South to coordinate the operations. The government was not about to let itself be seen as complacent-even if the victims belong to a media organization hostile to the administration.

The massive movement of security personnel and equipment was done at great cost to the state. Who will foot the bill?

In countries with efficient rescue services, the parties that call for help are often required to pay for the cost of emergency response. This is one aspect of the 911 shows on television that is rarely mentioned. However, the logic is unassailable.

The upkeep for emergency response units comes from public funds, which in turn are sourced from taxpayers’ money. The cost of deploying those units should therefore be borne by those who directly benefit from them-unless, of course, they are indigent. However, a network like ABS-CBN can hardly be described as needy.

indeed. tinataga tayo ng lopezes sa koryente, karma-karma lang kung sila naman ngayon ang tagain for the operations that resulted in the release of their star correspondent. they can always make bawi by making a documentary that will tell all, and i mean ALL, in the spirit of the public’s right to know, na mantra ni maria ressa once upon a time not too long ago.

challenge of the blogs

must read: talk about kettles calling the pots black by dean jorge bocobo, where he takes on media guru luis teodoro, who deserves it for not finding anything good to say about blogs except that they pose a challenge to mainstream media, and who therefore advises journalists to:

. . . go into blogging to set examples . . . the principles of journalism should apply.”

ateneo communications professor chay hofilena agrees:

There should be verification and fairness even if it’s an opinion piece. There should be an effort to get the other side no matter how little the space you allot.”

ahahaha. what do they think they’re doing? they want to change the blogosphere, that’s what. they want bloggers writing like their mga alaga, i suppose, who only report both sides of a story, and who do not feel too strongly or care deeply enough about issues (for lack of reading and research?) as to make the mistake of pushing an opinion or taking a stand, oh no, that’s a no-no.

but that’s precisely what’s so great and radical about blogging – the unlimited space for opinions and ideas that are not welcome in mainstream media because, as bocobo tells us in no uncertain words:

Next to the government itself, of which the Main Stream Media are virtually a part, I cannot think of a more corruption-ridden, unethical, unprofessional, disingenuous and commerce-driven bunch than the Philippines Main Stream Media. Hiding behind veils of objectivity to hide prejudice, ideology, selfish agendas and vested interests, using innuendo, libelous and scurrilous attacks, whilst piously defending press freedom, what right do these kettles have to call the pots black and then to charge for it.

“Hahaha! At least when the bloggers use these same tactics they aren’t hypocrites about it and expect everyone else to bow down before their “codes of professional ethics”–which in our Main Stream Media are followed more in the exception than in the rule.”

my advice to journalists who would-be political bloggers: plunge in, get the hang of it, get into the loop, persevere, but don’t expect special treatment. like bocobo says:

Bring your ethics. Bring your standards. Bring your professionalism. Bring your Mama! But what really matters here is whether your ideas can compete with others and win! Your bandwidth is my bandwidth. My Liberty is your Liberty. Leave your stupidities and inanities at the door, or bring them along and wallow with the rest of the warthogs (which is allowed!). Here we are equals, and you’ve just come to the party a little late. Now, there’s a place at the table for everyone, but don’t expect a high place and automatic respect just coz you’re so used to one way conversations and call yourself some fancy name that really means nothing to most of us.”

what if, instead of trying to change the blogosphere teodoro found ways to raise the bar for journalism, raise the level of thinking and analysis through reading lists and interdisciplinary crash courses on history, politics, economics, environment, world trade and the like.

instead of putting down blogs, which is so crabmentality, yuck, traditional media should be upgrading and rising to the challenge of the blogs.

blogwise

when i first started blogging in september 2007 – thanks to joel who wouldn’t stop telling me i should and who managed to patiently guide li’l ol’ me long-distance through the internet – i had been surfing seriously for a year, mostly for news and opinion, local and foreign, the better to understand, have a sense, of what’s really going on ba here and abroad.

all that googling of course led me to the pinoy blogosphere, the political blogs in particular, and i thought it was great, the freedom of expression, the freewheeling exchange of ideas, and the option of every reader to comment and be published in the blink of an eye. instant gratification, what joy all around. i could see myself thoroughly enjoying it, puwedeng pag-trip-an, ‘ika nga. my concern was, i would be taking away from time spent finishing two book projects na gumagalaw naman pero ubod nang bagal.

well. as it turns out, i’m managing to blog AND to continue writing one of the books. better yet, the blogging is good exercise, which must be why the book is really moving now, slowly but surely, the writing almost easy. best of all, blogging keeps me sharp, keeps my braincells alive as i try to take in and make sense of diverse schools, and levels, of thought, from the wonderfully sublime to the really really arrogant and really really crass.

but i wouldn’t go so far as to proclaim the internet and blogs as the new media. “a new media,” perhaps. it is hardly a threat to mainstream media, considering that access to the internet is limited to a small educated-and-wired sector of our mostly poor population. newspapers and magazines and radio and television reach a more diverse public, which is as it should be.