With campaign season for the 2019 senatorial elections well underway, the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Mass Communication (CMC) hosted Knowing Your Choice: A Forum on Election Coverage last February 21 at the UP CMC Auditorium to discuss how different forms of media strive to remain critical and mindful when it comes to tackling Philippine politics.
Laurice Sy, Vice President for Academic Affairs of the UP Journalism Club, in her address to the audience, stated the importance of knowing the kind of stories journalists should report, adding, “We (journalists) will never run out of stories to tell. But the question we have to ask them (readers) is, ‘What kind of stories do we tell?’, ‘Who do we inform?’, and ‘Who do we empower?’”
All about context
The forum featured three guest speakers who represented three different media platforms: print, online, and broadcast. Presenting the process on how to properly cover for print with regards to political candidates and their ongoing campaigns, Jan Mateo, a print journalist from The Philippine Star, shared his struggles in writing, while also providing insight on how other journalists can avoid having similar experiences.
During his talk, he emphasized the importance of a writer’s skill in finding an angle for their article, stating, “You have to know what story to look for, or you have to be on the lookout for possible stories.”
Mateo was joined by CNN Philippines correspondent Xianne Arcangel, the second speaker of the forum, who discussed the approach journalists take when using social media to disseminate information on political campaigns. She also relayed her own experiences covering events where she resorted to writing her article on her mobile phone.
She also highlighted the importance of context in writing an article. Even when quoting false information, she stressed that a writer should elaborate whether the statement given by politicians is true or not by corroborating it with responses or statements from other sources.
As a journalist working on online news coverage, Arcangel narrated that it can sometimes be challenging to balance writing a story and verifying its contents due to the volume of information being disseminated by candidates during their campaigns. “Using facts, and using them for context, you could disprove what a candidate is saying,” Arcangel explained. Because of this, she emphasized that journalists should be well-read so that they can provide a more in-depth background on the reports they write.
Presenting the third media platform was Sherrie Torres, a multi-platform Senate beat reporter from ABS-CBN. However, for the event, she focused her discussion on her role in broadcast media. Addressing the drought of information and the responsibility of journalists during the election period, Torres emphasized that while the candidates and their campaigns should be given coverage, voters should also be given emphasis.
“You think of the voters, not the candidates, kasi hindi na uso ngayon ang ‘he said, she said’ lalo na during campaign [period] dahil before we know it, nagamit na tayo nila,” she elaborated. (You think of the voters, not the candidates, because before we know it, they (candidates) have already taken advantage of us.)
Fact check
Both Mateo and Arcangel also discussed Tsek.ph, an online website built through the collaborative efforts of different media networks, groups, and universities in order to counter false information disseminated during the elections season.
Arcangel stated that as the 2019 senatorial elections draw near, a challenge reporters and journalists would face is the volume of information being circulated by the candidates or their peers, and determining whether these are fake or not.
Arcangel explained that this is the core concept in the creation of Tsek.ph, saying, “It’s in the hope of making the electorate more aware of whether or not a candidate is lying and if the candidate is aware of the issues.”
“As media students, it is our responsibility to learn the craft [of journalism] that we are about to inherit. It is our responsibility to know how we are actually properly going to use this to inform, to communicate, and to do it justice,” Sy said.
