Traditional Vs. Social Media

There's a war being waged on social media between traditional media practitioners; reporters and columnists of broadsheets and the social news network Rappler and the social media "bloggers," who are mostly supporters of then candidate now President Rodrigo Duterte.

At the center of the controversy is the bias exhibited by the traditional media against then candidate Duterte, in favor of the administration candidate Manuel Roxas. There are also some broadsheets which cast their lot with the other Presidential bets Jojo Binay and Grace Poe. These sentiments were voiced out in their op-ed pages but since Duterte gained the momentum even before the start of the campaign period in February 2016, he was the natural target. This went on for the duration of the campaign and even after he won the Presidency. The situation got worse when the President-elect himself instituted a media ban and limited coverage to state-owned PTV-4 after a press conference where his answers were spun negatively and a reporter complained about the President-elect catcalling her as a form of sexual harassment.

The ban was lifted after the President was sworn in but the relationship between the President and media has remained rocky. After the local media outlets, it was the turn of the reporters of the wire agencies to negatively spin reports about the President. The most famous or infamous incident by now is the President's alleged cursing of then US President Barack Obama, who had voiced out his criticism of Duterte's drug war. A Reuters stringer asked the President a hypothetical question about how he would react if Obama asked him about the conduct of the drug war. The President replied by saying he would react by prefacing his answer with putangina, but he didn't add the form of address mo to his sentence. And so it came to be that that answer of the President was reported to be his cursing at Obama in the pejorative, putangina mo, even if it wasn't the case. Duterte's first foreign trip to the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos was off to a rocky start.

The President has continued to have several encounters with local and foreign reporters during his pre-departure press conferences and the press conference following the delivery of his arrival statement upon his return from a foreign trip. Even the Palace press conferences have not been spared as there seems to be extra effort on the part of the reporters for the President to lose his temper and go on a verbal rampage complete with his usual slew of invectives for emphasis.

It is apparent that there is an organized and well-funded negative media campaign which is meant to discredit the anti-drug war of the President and his credibility for him to lose the public support he enjoys which would eventually lead to his ouster by his political enemies.

The restoration of press freedom after Marcos'ouster saw the advent of broadsheets competing for a limited market. Eventually the law of demand and supply took hold and today there are only eight broadsheets which continue to be published on a daily basis; The Inquirer, the Star, Business Mirror, Business World, the Standard, the Manila Times, the Tribune and Malaya.

With the launch of the smartphone as a mobile device and mobile broadband as the means for being always connected to the internet, the competition got even tougher as the broadcast media players now had another platform with their websites. It has become uncommon nowadays to see a reader holding an actual newspaper. Most people read the news on their daily commute or when they reach the office. The media landscape has changed much in the last nine years and continues to change as the environment is very dynamic.

On top of these, there's social media. Facebook became popular in the country around 2008. It has since grown by leaps and bounds and provided another platform for print and broadcast media to showcase their content. Barack Obama's win in 2008 was in part due to his campaign's harnessing the power of social media as a tool. In the Philippines, it was Duterte's campaign which proved adept with its strategy. The latest candidate to declare his bid and the least known nationally has generated enough noise on social media that in the relatively short span of time from December up to the start of the formal campaign period in February 2016, he has become the front runner. After the first Presidential Debate in March, Duterte never relinquished his momentum going into the homestretch towards election day May 9, 2016.

Another phenomenon worth noting is the rise of the reporter and the broadcaster as a media celebrity. It used to be that readers never had an idea of what a reporter looked like unless he or she had column space on the op-ed page. Broadcasters read the news except for those on radio who also editorialized on the relevant issues of the day.

Today, media personalities are product endorsers and influencers. They occupy a space in Manila's high society, at least those deemed worthy enough, and they are also on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. It's not uncommon to see media personalities hobnobbing with high society denizens and captains of industry types. If before they were ordinary employees, now they have become players not only on media but also in politics.

How did this happen? The restoration of democracy had media abuzz in the 90s. As broadcast and print competed for their slice of the advertising pie, reporters, columnists and broadcasters became much in demand in the process. Those who could pull in readers and viewers became coveted. Instead of salaries, they suddenly had contracts just like their entertainment counterparts. There are even a few who tried to parlay their popularity by crossing over into the political arena. Politicians also tried their hand at column writing, TV and radio public affairs programs as hosts. The lines became blurred more than ever.

Media practitioners have also had a taste of power when they played a role in the ouster of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism appears to have been created for that specific purpose. While their website lists their organization being founded in 1989, it wasn't until Estrada's Presidency that the PCIJ churned out piece after piece against Estrada which were published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It was a demolition barrage aimed at destroying Estrada's credibility. Every move by Erap, his immediate and extended family were monitored and reported.

This was to be repeated again after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had a falling out with her patron, Cory Aquino. The Inquirer and the PCIJ again teamed up against GMA and her family. Of particular interest was the activities of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. It was like the events which took place during the Estrada administration were being repeated albeit under different circumstances. But GMA proved wise as she ensured the AFP and the PNP would never defect from her administration. She gave retired generals plum posts after retirement. No amount of plotting by Estrada loyalists and Yellowtards could remove GMA as President. She holds hr distinction of being the longest tenured Chief Executive serving a total of nine years; the unexpired three years of Erap and her whole six year term from 2004 - 2010.

The present state of media in the country gives rise to the inevitable question, if media was controlled by Marcos cronies during the Marcos administration, would to be safe to say that the same condition exists today?

It's best to examine the state of print media after the declaration of martial law in 1972. What follows is reading material from the Introduction to Print course which is a major subject for Communication Arts majors at De La Salle University. Full disclosure. I am a graduate of the Communication Arts program for my Bachelor of Arts degree and Gerardo Mariano, was my instructor in the same course at that time. He is now the Chairman of the Communication Arts Department of De La Salle University. Excerpts as follows:

The Press Under Martial Law By Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo The Manipulated Press Cacho Hermanos, 1984

Martial Law was declared on Sept. 21, 1972. The following day, President Marcos issued Letter of Instruction No. 1 ordering the Press Secretary and the Defense Secretary "to take over and control or cause the taking over and control of the mass media for the duration of the national emergency, or until otherwise ordered by the President or by his duly-designated representatives."

Initial Clampdown

As a result of this order, all newspapers and magazines (including student publications) were closed down. Among these were the more critical periodicals classified as anti-Marcos, notably the Manila Times, Daily Mirror, and Taliba of the Roces clan; Manila Chronicle of Eugenio Lopez; Philippines Free Press of the Locsins; Graphic of Tonypet Araneta; and Asia-Philippines Leader of the Jacintos.

At the same time, leading media men were arrested and detained. Among them were publishers Joaquin P. Roces and Eugenio Lopez, Jr.; editors Amando Doronila and Luis Mauricio; columnists Maximo Soliven and Ernesto Granada; and reporters Napoleon Rama and Roberto Ordoñez.

On Sept. 25, the Department of Public Information (DPI) issued two orders. Order No. 1 stipulated that all media publications were to be cleared first by the DPI and that the mass media shall publish objective news reports, whether of local or foreign source. No editorial comment shall be permitted. Extraneous materials are not to be inserted in any news item.

Expressly prohibited are materials that are seditious or that tend toward disorder, lawlessness, and violence. In view of the state of national emergency in the Philippines, no foreign correspondence may be filed in this country which criticizes the Government and its duly constituted authorities.

Order No. 2 prohibited printers "from producing any form of publication for mass dissemination without permission from the DPI."

On Oct. 28, Presidential Decree No. 33 came out, penalizing "the printing, possession, distribution, and circulation of printed materials which are immoral or indecent, or which defy the Government or its officers, or which tend to undermine the integrity of the Government or the stability of the State." The penalty for violation shall be "prision correccional in its minimum period."

With martial law, publications allowed to operate were limited to those controlled by persons identified with or close to the Marcos Administration. Among them were the Philippines Daily Express of Roberto Benedicto, Times Journal of Benjamin Romualdez, Bulletin Today of Hans Menzi, and Evening Post of the Tuveras.

From MAC to PCPM

The MAC was abolished on Nov. 9, 1974 through Presidential Decree No. 576. Polotan herself gave a hint as to why. She claimed that since the body had been formed, Primitivo Mijares "lost no time putting to use a natural bent for abuse... So casually did MAC handle its job that when dissolved, it took a long time to surrender its records, some of which were at the National Press Club, the rest in the garage of a MAC employee." Mijares himself, after failing to account for NPC funds, ran away to the US, joined Manglapus' Movement for a Free Philippines, testified against the Marcos regime before the US Senate Foreign Relations Sub-Committee, and wrote scandalous exposé of the martial-law administration entitled The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdimelda Marcos. Shortly afterwards, he disappeared from the scene and has never been heard of since.

The abolition of the MAC and, along with it, the Bureau of Standards for Mass Media, was justified by "(1) the improved capability of the mass media to regulate and discipline their ranks; and (2) the favorable peace and order situation of the country."

PD 576 then also divided mass media into two groups: print and broadcast, both groups given authority to organize or determine the composition of a body or council which will "adopt policies, formulate guidelines, fix standards, and promulgate rules and regulations for the operation and discipline of all mass media under its supervision, and to administer and enforce the same." The category of print media applied to "all newspapers, periodicals, magazines, journals, and publications and all advertising therein, and billboards, neon signs, and the like."

The Philippine Council for Print Media (PCPM) had Hans Menzi of Bulletin Today as chairman; Raul Locsin of Business Day as vice-chairman; Kerima Polotan-Tuvera of Focus Philippines, Juan Perez of Philippines Daily Express, and Rosario Olivares of Times Journal as members. All were at the same time officers of the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI), the leading and most organized group among four professional associations (the three others were the Print Media Organization-PRIMO; the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines-OAAP; and the Philippine Board of Advertising-PBA) which "supposedly facilitate the enforcement of the Council's rules and regulations."

The PCPM had the power to impose sanctions, including cancellation of registration certificates, suspension or written admonition in the case of media; and withdrawal of recognition, suspension of recognition or warning, in the case of advertising agencies.

White Paper on a Sick Press

Martial law has not served as a cleansing mechanism for the press. The corrupting influences were not expurgated early on, and no amount of crusading could uproot the endemic causes of journalistic prostitution. The Philippine Council for Print Media Special Committee on Ethics, spearheaded by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera, should nevertheless be cited for its attempts to deal with the problem and expose the malignant disease gripping the profession.

In the sensational White Paper simultaneously published by the Bulletin Today, Evening Post, and Business Day on October 6, 1977, the PCPM ventilated its concern "principally with the prostitution of the profession, specifically the journalist who surrenders to the blandishments offered by the public in return for his 'friendship.'" The "blandishments" include free passes, wining and dining, pocket money given during press conferences, regular "envelopes," monthly retainers, stocks and bonds, dollars, airplane tickets, expensive gifts (including cars), money-making projects (such as the preparation of anniversary brochures or souvenir programs in exchange for handsome allowances and per diems), jobs for relatives, unlimited access to airports, seaports, and Customs (thus facilitating the lucrative entry of highly dutiable items), etc.

he bolder newsmen engage in outright extortion (forcing government officials or businessmen to contribute to their money-making ventures), blackmail (changing or toning down a highly critical story in exchange for a fee from the person or agency concerned), and direct sale of published material (exacting payments for the publication of insignificant press releases or favorable stories upon presentation of the appropriate clippings to the favored individual or institution).

The sources of largesse are multiple: image-oriented officials occupying various levels of the bureaucracy, government agencies striving to project their best foot forward, corporations, advertising firms, businessmen who want to flaunt their power and/or philanthropy, movie stars and film companies trying to ensure their popularity, designers and fashion houses, hotels and airlines, and "special people" whose ambition is to be able to make it to the resurrected society pages. The White Paper scored not only erring newsmen but also, indirectly, the publishers whose "obligations" were likewise pointed out in the following manner:

Publishers are obligated to see that corruption is minimized, if not cut out entirely, by paying their men a decent wage, so that the staff man will not have to stretch his ethics or prostitute his calling to survive. When he earns enough, the temptation of a bribe will not be hard to resist. However, it does not follow that a high wage guarantees a man's honesty. You could pay a man thousands of pesos and he would still be open to convenient arrangements because of his particular moral chemistry. Therefore, a publisher should not hire lightly, and should regularly monitor an employee's performance. The publisher is obligated to take firm and drastic steps when he is morally convinced of a newspaperman's culpability.

Some of the publishers did take "firm and drastic steps" by dismissing newspapermen found guilty of extortion, blackmail, or bribery. However, in the words of the former PCPM Executive Director himself: "The working press itself is not too keen about cleaning its ranks and it would probably take a lifetime of patient waiting before full cooperation on its part could be solicited, as the editors and reports are very touchy on this point."

As can be gleaned from the above excerpts, the prostitution of media, be or print or broadcast, is nothing new. It has been going on for a long time. Eve martial law wasn't able to put a stop to it. It's safe to say that it is probably worse today as media practitioners often develop close relationships with the personalities they cover on their respective beats and they have become personalities in their own right. Gray areas abound and now we have also seen these personalities joining government to handle messaging functions.The best recent examples are Ricky Carandang, Manuel Quezon III, Martin Andanar and Cherie Mercado. In the past, the names have included, Teddyboy Locsin, Teddyman Benigno, Hector Villanueva, Rigoberto Tiglao, Rod Reyes and Dong Puno.

There are also op-ed columnists who also host their own TV and radio public affairs programs. Of course, almost everyone is on social media as well, primarily Facebook and Twitter.

The two tenets of news writing are facts and brevity. The cardinal rule is the gist of the story should be contained in the first three paragraphs to provide for leeway for the editor in laying out the pages of the broadsheet.

Editors are there to correct any style issues relative to the stories submitted by reporters who are the lowest in the pecking order of a publication. There is to be no opinion whatsoever expressed in a news story. Opinion is the domain of the columnists in the op-ed page.

Malacañan has announced that it will allow independent social media bloggers to cover the President. Rappler's story on the development is as follows:

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte will allow pro-administration bloggers to have access to some Palace events, Malacañang said on Thursday, February 9.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said the President yielded to the bloggers' request during a meeting with them on Tuesday, February 7.

"Thinking Pinoy made a request if they could access the briefings....They just want to be able to occasionally attend, visit Palace activities and the President said, 'Yes,'" Abella told Rappler on Thursday. (READ: Should bloggers be accredited to cover the Palace?)

He was referring to blogger Thinking Pinoy, whose real name is Rey Joseph Nieto.

Nieto was among the online personalities who Duterte received in Malacañang on Tuesday, February 7.

Abella clarified that the bloggers are not seeking membership into the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC), the group of accredited journalists covering the Palace.

"They did not have any intention of becoming members of the Press Corps," said the spokesman.

The bloggers had asked for access, to among other things, regular Palace briefings where presidential spokesmen, Cabinet members, and heads of agencies discuss matters of public interest with members of the media.

"They just want access to the press briefings," said Abella.

Asked who will be allowed to cover such events as bloggers, Abella said there is only a "very limited" number of bloggers who are interested in access.

He said the group will not have a permanent office in Malacañang, unlike MPC members who have working stations in the New Executive Building inside Palace grounds.

Nieto, in a Facebook Live video posted on Wednesday night, said he and other bloggers intend to form a "Social Media Corps" that will take part in presidential coverage.

There has been friction between some of the bloggers and the MPC. Nieto had cursed the press corps for its statement against Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar when the official had accused Palace reporters of "misreporting" the President's martial law remarks.

Prior to the meeting with Duterte, the President's online defenders had been given accreditation to cover previous presidential foreign and local trips.

Andanar is mulling giving bloggers accreditation to cover Palace events. He had previously asked MPC officers if bloggers could join the press corps, but the officers rejected the proposal, citing their qualifications for membership, among other things.

Among the criteria for acceditation as an MPC member is employment in a media organization duly recognized and certified by the Palace press office as a bona fide media group. –Rappler.com

So far, there has been no official statement yet about the above development from the self-appointed media watchdog Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. It does set the stage for the heightened hostilities between traditional media veterans and social media bloggers who have been very vocal against the bias against the President by members of the Malacañan Press Corps in their reportage.

Lost in the heat of the battle is the main function of the Fourth Estate which is to check on the government for abuses. Objectivity has obviously gone out the window in what has been described as the most free wheeling press in Asia which is Philippine media.

The world wide web and the social media is now what is described as the networked Fourth Estate.

"Yochai Benkler, author of the 2006 book The Wealth of Networks, described the "Networked Fourth Estate" in a May 2011 paper published in the Harvard Civil Liberties Review[13]. His explains the growth of non-traditional journalistic media on the Internet and how it affects the traditional press using Wikileaks as an example. When Benkler was asked to testify in the United States vs. PFC Bradley E. Manning trial, in his statement to the morning 10 July 2013 session of the trial he described the Networked Fourth Estate as the set of practices, organizing models, and technologies that are associated with the free press and provide a public check on the branches of government.[14][15][16]:28–29 It differs from the traditional press and the traditional fourth estate in that it has a diverse set of actors instead of a small number of major presses. These actors include small for-profit media organizations, non-profit media organizations, academic centers, and distributed networks of individuals participating in the media process with the larger traditional organizations.[14]:99–100"

About the only thing certain is social media will be playing a larger role in the Philippine political landscape in the near future. Rodrigo Duterte's victory was largely a triumph of the average Filipino because of the awareness generated in social media platforms. His rivals lost because their political handlers weren't adept at exploiting the platform to their advantage.

To follow RG San Luis, click above image.