Media is in crisis due to modern technology

Our special presentation on our talkshow on Straight from the Sky is an update of our power situation in Cebu and a discussion on our responsibility towards climate change. Too often we have been bombarded by problems the world is facing with regards to global warming. Many self-professed environmentalists would demand our immediate shift towards renewable energy sources, like constructing solar power plants or windmills. These are the same people that go out of their way to say that coal ash is bad for our health and since it comes from our coal plants, then we should no longer allow coal plants.

So, should we commit economic “Harakiri” and shut down our coal-fired power plants because those environmentalists say that these plants are not good for our health? Solar and wind power are great ideas, but they are just too damn expensive for a 3rd world country like us to afford, not to mention that wind power only works when there is wind and we have a total blackout when the wind dies. Solar power is great, but we need hundreds of hectares of solar panels to generate a few hundred kilowatts, land that is better reserve for the production of food.

So what are the alternatives? It is for this reason why I asked Mr. Jess Alcordo of Global Power Corporation (GPC) and Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) that is operating Cebu’s newest coal-fired power plant in Sangi, Toledo which they call “Cleanergy” to explain to us the “Clean Coal” technology that was developed by their partners Formosa Power. Mr. Alcordo used to be the President of National Power Corporation (NPC) and he knows his business. Watch this very informative show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm.

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It is the first time since we’ve been celebrating Press Freedom Week that I’m out of the country. I’m currently in Shanghai to see the World Expo. I made this advance column, specially for today where one of the first topics that will be discussed for the 16th Press Freedom Week is Crisis Situations: Media in Crisis which is sponsored by The FREEMAN and the Visayan Electric Company (VECO).

There is no doubt that media today is in a sort of crisis, a crisis in responsibility, which was magnified last Aug. 23 with that botched hostage taking rescue attempt. People are saying that media is partly responsible for their live coverage of that incident, which was picked up by CNN and BCC for the whole world to see. Of course, media always hides under that old adage that we are merely the messengers whether of good or bad news.

Today, there are calls to regulate the media because of the Aug. 23rd incident. This is due to the fact that the media is literally left on its own without any regulations. Sure we have media organizations like the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas (KBP) that governs broadcast media and the National Press Club, the Manila Overseas Press Club and here in Cebu, the Cebu Citizens Forum. But these organizations do not have regulatory functions. For instance when GMA-7 had problems with the KBP, they simply quit that organization.

There is no question that media has to accept some kind of responsibility for the Aug. 23 incident that brought national shame for the Filipino people. I understand that the Department of Justice has pointed to some media personalities for prosecution on that incident. Now whether they would be prosecuted on this is another question.

In the year 2007 we all saw what happened at the Manila Peninsula incident where news reporters were practically beside the rebel solders, helping them propagate their cause, all in the name of getting the news to the eyes and ears of the tv viewers. That incident horrified a lot of people. It was supposed to result in a joint memorandum between the police and the media on how media should handle or behave in crisis situations.

Well, it is more that obvious that all agreements were thrown out of the window when the media covered the bus hostage situation at the Quirino Grandstand. Being part of the media, let me say that, thanks to satellite communications, what would have been a mere local situation now has become an international coverage when the local tv news networks allowed CNN and BBC to broadcast what was happening here. In the end, thanks to the media, we literally washed our dirty laundry for all the world to see.

But with today’s technological advances, even if our local TV networks did not air a live coverage of that botched incident, CNN has a forum called iReport. Anyone with a cellphone who has video capability can take footages of anything newsworthy, hence someone could still have taken a footage of that botch incident and the world would still have seen how we bungled that rescue attempt. Media is in a crisis situation, thanks to modern technology.

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