CEBU, Philippines - “There is no excuse to be lazy anymore.”
This was the message of Manuel “Manolo” Quezon III to mass communication students from different schools in Cebu who attended yesterday’s forum on “Reaching out to future journalists: Challenges of new media,” one of the highlights of the 15th Cebu Press Freedom Week.
Quezon, himself a columnist, blogger, and anchor of ANC’s “The Explainer,” said the advent of technology has made the journalists’ job more challenging in keeping up with the pace of time.
He said that the presence of new media such as blogs and short messaging system in mobile phones should be enough reason for journalists to be more industrious.
Quezon explained that media itself has evolved together with the major changes the country has went through over the past several years. Unlike before when television newscasts were aired only twice a day, news seems to come in handy almost 24 hours these days.
He said that while reporters were trained to be very thorough in their reportage before, media organizations now have to keep up with the demand of people who want it instantly.
Quezon also said the use of new technology has made the media uncontrollable. “Media no longer controls the media,” he said.
The downside of new media, however, Quezon said, is that anyone can disseminate information easily, especially through blogs, even if they are not legitimate journalists.
He said articles posted on blogs are reportedly prone to misinterpretation and, worse, it is now easy for someone to invent and publish offensive information against anyone.
Quezon said practicing journalists and future journalists must be more careful in engaging in new media, especially that ethics therein is yet to be defined.
Still, Quezon said it is undeniable that new media has numerous advantages because journalists can now have easy access to information using the Internet.
One example, he said, is when a journalist does an investigative story that entails going through voluminous documents. The journalist can now take advantage of the Internet by asking help from people who might be able to do it for him.
An international survey presented by lawyer Maria Jane Paredes, Smart communications manager for Visayas and Mindanao, showed that 83 percent of the Filipinos have joined social networking sites such as Friendster and Facebook. The same survey showed that Filipinos are number 22 in writing blogs, albeit ranking second in reading them. — Fred P. Languido/JMO (FREEMAN NEWS)