So who's afraid of bloggers? I think the mainstream media are. And that is sad as I am mainstream. Mainstream media are not scared as in I-might-lose-two-front-teeth scared but scared as in somebody-is-having-my-cake-and-eating-it-too scared. It is the scare that often accompanies changes, and the unwillingness to adapt and adjust to those changes. Some may call it greed. I won't as a matter of professional courtesy.
The scare did not start with the announced plan of the incoming administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to accredit bloggers so they may cover Malacañang press briefings. Ever since social media gained a foothold in this country and bloggers took to that platform quite quickly and easily, like ducks to water, mainstream media already started getting gnawed with an uneasiness that can only stem from insecurity.
Bloggers were eating into traditional audiences. In other words, eating into the market. Worse, the really good ones were making money almost effortlessly, and in amounts many in mainstream can only salivate about. With the planned accreditation, what was just an elephant in the room is now a monkey in the back. It is not really journalistic qualifications that get mainstream so agitated but unwanted competition.
But competition is actually good for the market. It can push those who are truly serious in their craft to push themselves harder, drive toward excellence for which they boast they have the skills and training to achieve. Why be afraid of those we wave off as ill-possessed of what we have between our ears. Besides, accrediting bloggers does not necessarily mean disaccrediting mainstream.
Fake news, disinformation or whatever else derogatory that mainstream can cough up against bloggers is actually the problem of bloggers, not mainstream, so why should mainstream be discombobulated over something that is not a concern of theirs? The mainstream media are not the policemen of journalistic standards, the people are.
In fact, the people, as readers, listeners, and viewers, are the most exacting of buyers in the market. They know a good product when they see one. They are the best judges of quality, integrity, veracity. If more people are shifting to the social media that bloggers inhabit, maybe mainstream should ask the really hard question why. Maybe the answer or answers can be chastening, humbling.
All this talk about ascendancy in the journalism profession I find rather misplaced in light of the fact that journalism stepped in through the door of history rather late. Man's quest for news goes back to Adam and Eve when both had a back-and-forth over a certain fruit. As God introduced more people into the human narrative, word of mouth became the first medium of communication.
And word of mouth, I think, is much closer in idea to that which we call blogging today, much closer in fact than journalism can ever be. So maybe we can all just accept the reality that as the world progresses, so will the methods and means to spread the word, as well as the preferences by which we want to accept it. Maybe in the future, artificial intelligence may even wipe out what we are talking about now.
Accrediting bloggers is the prerogative of Malacañang. And the sooner everyone accepts the fact, the better. The marketplace of ideas is too big for any claim of exclusivity. Competition is healthy for the moribund practice of journalism. Allowing bloggers the chance of official recognition may even be the best way to weed out their own undesirables and allow the good ones the respect they deserve.