Media and their bully pulpit – Part 1

http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/160344-santos-newspoint-blogging-runaway-train?utm_content=bufferbe679&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

One of Rappler’s “thought leaders” wrote a very interesting piece today. Vergel Santos argued in his column “A runaway train” that legitimizing bloggers as members of the Malacanang press is a dangerous endeavour. He argues that there is a clear distinction between bloggers and journalists and that distinction is there for a reason. He said that his opposition to the idea of legitimizing bloggers as members of the Malacanang Press has more to do with responsibility rather than freedom of expression. 

He argues that blogging is an individualistic, free-wheeling operation while journalism is a profession and trade governed by universal rules of practice and layer upon layer of checks. He further goes on to say that journalism is an engineered train while blogging is a runaway one. Hi imagery is cute but lacking. 

Let me list what I find problematic with what Mr. Santos wrote;

• Journalism and blogging are mere platforms for spreading information. Their value is not inherent but in the function they serve to the public.
• The nature of the establishment media as an organized enterprise is a source of problem not its strength. 
• His attack on bloggers is an attack on the freedom of speech as well.

I will try to discuss each point in a separate blog post…so this will be a long one. First let me talk about how Journalism and blogging are mere platforms for spreading information and the idea Mr. Santos sells of the media having a higher-order role is baloney. 

Platforms for information and discourse.

Mr. Santos is an old-school journalist who still believes in the self-appointed role of the media as  the mediator of truth. He works under the assumption that the role of the journalist is to tell people what issues they have to be concerned about, why they have to be concerned about it and how to react to it. This is a philosophy shaped by years of the media being the sole platform for disseminating information to the public. This is a philosophy shaped by years of the media being the only window to which the public can view the world beyond their physical reach. The value of the media to the public in an age where the physical distance between people were real boundaries was in how it was able to bring stories and issues to a wider audience. People valued the media for its ability to widen their perspective of the world. This key role the media played in a world that was not yet connected to the world wide web gave it its value and legitimacy. 

The value and legitimacy it attained in a world that was just starting to get connected gave the media its power. A power that was then enshrined in the constitution of most democracies under the banner of “freedom of the press.” The media was the only source people had for information about the world around them. This gave the media the power to shape public opinion and the ability to influence what people believed was true. This is the world Mr. Santos lives in and this is the world view he wants all of us to subscribe to. Coming from this worldview it is easy to see how Mr. Santos confuses their traditional role as the “only” available source for information as meaning the media is the sole bearer of truth. 

Unfortunately for this old guy, his world view is poorly out of date. The world is now hyper connected and people have access to other people from different corners of the world. People no longer rely on one single source of information about how the rest of the world works and what issues the rest of the world is trying to tackle. The world wide web has allowed a new platform to emerge that has become an alternate source of information – the blogs. Yes blogs usually offer an individual’s perspective only but that is what public discourse is about – hearing other people’s point of view and having my point of view heard. The source of the media’s value is in how it facilitates public discourse and how it opens people up to other points of view. In short its value is in how well it provides a platform for people to be exposed to information from all over society. In our world today blogging has become an alternate platform for people to access information and engage in discourse. In a hyper connected world, blogging has become the go to platform for knowing about the world and having a discourse with other people. The hyper connected world we live in has shattered the idea that there is one single platform for truth telling and that the traditional media is THE platform for this. 

Traditional media and blogs are mere platforms for spreading information and facilitating discourse. As such they both play a role in society. Neither one has primacy over the other because its value rests in the utility they provide to me, the consumer of the information. I personally believe traditional media has a role to play especially in covering stories that require money to be spent in order for it to be told correctly. An example would be covering war-zones or disaster areas. These stories need to be told and sometimes the resource required to tell these stories is too much for an individual blogger to afford. This is why I do not agree with Mr. Santo’s argument that accrediting bloggers to the Malacanang Press is a bad idea. One does not need the resource of a Rappler Inc to be able to cover stories coming out of Malacanang. Having bloggers cover stories in Malacanang will only provide more perspective on stories coming out from the administration. Providing the public with a different perspective on the story provides a value to society. Just look at the kinds of reporting we get from the Malacanang Press when Duterte says something controversial. When Duterte delivers a long speech about a variety of issues pertinent to the citizens of the country but says one thing controversial for a few minutes, the wolves in the Malacanang Press all pounce and latch on to that single story line. They conveniently forget the rest of what the President said because as a herd working under the same world view, they all think and act the same. Having bloggers with different perspectives and not operating on the same world view as Mr. Santos and his pals will help us get more meaningful content from the Malacanang Press.