An on-going revolution

The brawl involving journalist Mon Tulfo and celebrity couple Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport can be classified as unprincipled violence which offended public morals and decency. They, who attained the status of a public figure, are revered to and looked upon as role models. Off-screen or public display of anger among celebrities can now go viral, especially in this age of the internet. In this case, there is also another threshold of consciousness that significantly brewed up to a new kind of revolution, that is, a revolution in social media.

News producers in the country have created a rundown or lineup of newscasts to hold the viewers’ interest to keep them tuned in. That riotous violence among celebrities made it to the top choice for several days and the clip kept on reeling in on broadcast networks, over and over again. But little did we know that there is another super-empowered individual, the one who posted that short video clip in YouTube who provided a version of the incident “as it happened” (absent the CCTV footage in the airport). This individual is our main actor in this new revolution.

Howie Severino, Editor-in-Chief of GMA News Online and who also hosted GMA’s I-Witness for more than a decade, gave a one-day lecture about Media Advocacy in the Pursuit of Truth and Empowerment during the 5^th Mindanao Summer Institute of Journalism held at the Ateneo de Davao University. He said, of all online Filipinos (30% of the population according to him are online), 90 to 100 percent have already a Facebook Account and 30 to 50 percent have Twitter. He said, the new media landscape has created “super-empowered individuals”.

“Social media is a very important tool. Its responsible use has not yet been widely discussed.  We monitor social media very closely. There is so much abuse going on now in Twitter and Facebook elsewhere. Since social media is so new, there are neither rules nor clear standards of conduct that we’ve known so far. We, in the mainstream media, don’t want the government to even attempt to dictate us on what to do or impose rules on social media. But it must have a standard, in the same way that television is governed by structures or institutions to ensure compliance with those previously known standards”, Severino said.

He said, there is already a revolution going on which is the revolution of production of media. This refers to the transfer of power from the few media practitioners to almost everybody. “All of you can now be media producers. Whether you like it or not, you have it already in your hands. If you have this little device (pointing to a cellphone with a camera), you are already a potential media producer. This little device can produce images or photos and videos. You can shoot and edit in smartphones and you can now distribute”, Severino said.

Severino recalled: “I started in media in the 1990s and that was before the age of the internet. There was a very elite and democratic media environment. We were only very few yet, very privileged. All our media devices then were not only heavy but very expensive as well. In those days, we cannot see camerawomen. Why? Who wants to carry a 15-kilo camera? But now, everybody can already own a lightweight camera. Before, when you have a good video footage, you have to rush to a TV network and plea that it will be aired. But the video had to be pre-screened before the network will decide to have it broadcast. But now, everything already becomes so easy. You don’t even need to think about the TV networks anymore and that’s a transfer of power from the few to the many”.

“There is also a revolution of expression which is technology-driven. From betacams to camcorders, from nonlinear to linear edit systems (or from analog to digital) from TV network to YouTube and the web world, and from TV program to multimedia content. In the 1990s, when you edit a video documentary, you need to rent an analog editing studio for P900 an hour. But today, with video editing softwares in our computer, we can do the editing in our bedroom, car or almost anywhere. Even if it will not be shown on TV, but still, we can produce our own content, post it in the web or make a DVD out of that”, he added.

“In the case of I-Witness, we make the content. TV is just a platform of our content. Those that we can consider platforms are TV, DVD, YouTube, web, mobile phones, movie theaters or classrooms. Again, that’s revolutionary. We are now in the midst of media democratization and that is across-the-board. We have democratized the power of content production. All of these powers are already in everybody’s hands. It is no longer a fantasy to make your own documentary”, Severino said.

Talking about responsibility, this may be addressed to all media  practitioners, including Mon Tulfo. Severino said: “I heard so many comments and feedback about media people becoming arrogant. I think the most important quality of a good journalist is being respectful and decent. Being respectful would help you a lot in your job because people will be very open to share any story with you. That will make you a very effective journalist. Remember, you start with information gathering and you will fail in your objective if people will not open up. Be modest and humble because it’s the best thing to do. For practical reasons, if people will feel you are approachable, they will readily share any information with you. Sila na mismo ang magpapa-interview because they felt being respected.”