Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s message to local media about their role as catalysts of change isn’t new. In fact, it’s been replayed time and time again ad infinitum to every journalism and mass communication class.
Yet every mention about media’s influence and power to change and influence public opinion gains currency during crucial issues of the day confronting the country such as the pork barrel.
Cayetano and his colleagues in the Senate are in hot water over claims by someone who used to be one of their own, now rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, that 12 senators are included in the list of lawmakers of pork barrel queen-masquerading-as-businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.
The traditional media isn’t alone in exposing Napoles and her alleged pork barrel beneficiaries Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr and Jose Estrada and the other lawmakers.
Netizens in social media take turns blasting away at lawmakers.
This pressure was enough to prod the honorables to take to the rostrum to defend themselves with privilege speeches that had little effect on the way the public sees them.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was prudent enough not to show the list until it was verified. The last thing opponents of the pork barrel need at this point is more finger-pointing without evidence and feeding the rabble-rousers, muckrakers and anarchists with fuel to instigate revolts.
Senator Cayetano pointed out that in this day and age, information overload and the spate of bad news has turned off citizens, leading them to social media sites that offer great, diversionary entertainment with little room for relevant information.
While traditional media shouldn’t lower its standards of truth-digging to cater to this preference for entertainment, it doesn’t mean it should remain high and mighty, and thus indifferent to the evolving tastes of its audience.
It’s an everyday balancing act that the traditional media find themselves in, as the power of information has been democratized with the emergence of the Internet.
It is this tandem (marriage of convenience?) of traditional and social media that is compelling the Philippine government to become more transparent and accountable to its constituents which is more than a good thing, as Senator Cayetano explained to the Cebu media during last week’s Newscoop assembly.
In turn, traditional and social media can mobilize the public better and make citizens more responsive and ready to tell public officials what they want from them and how citizens should be led towards achieving sustainability and progress.
We hope this influence can be felt as we head towards the 2016 elections.