MikeLigalig.com

AT LARGE

Why ‘old’ media still matter

By: Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 22, 2016

(Excerpts from a talk delivered at the National Family Planning Conference on “The Power of the Media,” Nov. 21-22, at the Hotel Novotel Manila)

I work in the oldest of the old media. It’s difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that when moveable type was invented, it actually sparked a revolution in communications. But technology always heralded progress for the profession of communication: the birth of printing presses, the complementation of print by photography, the enhancement of print by broadcasting first via radio and film, and then by television. And now digital technology threatens the dominance, if not the very existence, of the so-called traditional media. Greater accessibility allows even nonjournalists to take on the role of news gathering and shaping opinion, with no need for intervening editors or gatekeepers. Indeed, these days, anyone with a smartphone can be and is a journalist.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=83249.0

Here are some reasons the traditional media still matter:

First, the traditional hierarchical setup of the newsroom—reporters answering to desk editors who direct the coverage and edit the copy, with everybody in turn answerable to a chief editor and a publisher—turns out to have inherent value. The gate-keeping function of older, more experienced journalists protects readers from false or erroneous news, providing guidance to young journalists and protecting them from the pitfalls of libel suits and succumbing to temptations like corruption, overfamiliarity with sources, cooptation and cronyism. Older journalists are also there—though less so because personal interaction in the newsroom is becoming rare—to provide teaching moments on journalistic values like accountability, fact-checking, attribution, balance and discernment.

Newspapers are said to be exemplars of “a nation talking to itself.” The op-ed pages are supposed to be an open market of ideas, where differing, if not opposing, views are given equal time and space, the better to afford the reader a choice among many opinions to adopt, agree with, vehemently oppose, or simply ignore. Yes, that is possible, too, with the so-called new media, but the anonymity allowed by Facebook, say, or tweets, can often serve as license to serve up the most outrageous opinions without taking personal responsibility for them.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=83249.0