‘The medium is now at your fingertips’

‘The medium is now at your fingertips’

Follow me on Twitter:
@RachelleCruz_

Veteran journalist, 2014 Marshall McLuhan Fellow Cheche Lazaro

By Rachelle Cruz

The Philippines is the social media capital of the world. Between WeChat, Facebook Messenger, and Skype, these platforms have become a way to easily connect Filipinos and their families living overseas, just right at their fingertips. In a global study called Wave7, Filipinos use social media 53 hours a week, 11 hours more than the global average of 42 hours. Makati and Pasig city ranks number one as the “selfiest” cities in the world.

CHECHE LAZARO

With sheer number and size, social media, if used for good, can mobilize social change. And this significance was brought to life, as veteran broadcast journalist Cheche Lazaro discussed ethics, accountability, and the changing landscape of media in the Philippines during her speaking tour across Canada.

On November 26, The Philippine Press Club of Ontario held an event to honour Lazaro, who was recently awarded the 2014 Marshall McLuhan Fellowship. Lazaro has been a mass media practitioner for the past 40 years. She is one of the founding editors of Rappler, and the founding president of Probe Productions, an independent shop that produced award-winning programs: The Probe Team, 5 and Up, Gameplan, I-Witness, Cheche Lazaro Presents, and Art Is-kool.

“So as McLuhan said, the medium is now at your fingertips,” Lazaro posited to the audience, perhaps reminiscent of her lectures at the College of Mass Communications in the University of the Philippines for over 20 years.
“The medium is the message, and that we are in a global village. All of these statements which he made 50 years ago are still true today. I’m sure you all know that this medium has shaped the way we behave. How is it that we panic if we don’t have our telephones with us? How is it that every time we hear our phone (beep beep), you go and see who’s calling, who’s texting, what’s happening, what’s the latest news?” she expressed.

Twitter bird may have replaced Sesame Street’s Big Bird, just as social media is replacing TV viewership and experience. Breaking news can be typed in 140 characters. Libraries have been replaced by Google.

“I-google mo’ is now part of our lexicon. When we want to ask a question or want to get an answer, the answer is ‘I-google mo’- look for it in Google, don’t ask me. How to make leche flan, I-google mo. Where I can buy a Halloween costume, I-google mo rin,” she said, as members nodded their head in agreement and softly chuckled to themselves.

But going back to the numbers game, Lazaro pointed out how viral things can get:

“My potential audience is 3 billion. Not 200,000 (the circulation of Philippines Daily Inquirer), not one million… and because of that potential, there is the potential to harness that energy. And this is how we get buzzwords like crowd-sourcing, fund-sourcing, the ability to move people into action,” she said.

From typhoon Haiyan’s landfall in 2013 that pulverized Tacloban City and neighbouring areas, to the Million People March in protest of the pork barrel scam, netizens took to social media’s Twitter to fire up solid online campaigns that resulted in action: The hashtags #rescuePH, and #Haiyan, among others, have directed rescue efforts, raised awareness, and pooled in resources to help donate to victims and aid with reconstruction; the March elevated the case before the Supreme Court, as it decreed that the pork barrel scam was illegal.

“We can see now the effects of social media. Before when you say let’s go rally, people say ‘Ay nag-issa lang ako, ayoko… pag madami na kayo sasali ako’…but on social media you see the effects right away. Right away you see the topic is trending, you join in. You make your voice known,” Lazaro affirmed.

But in the face of changing traditional channels to the social and crowd-sourced platforms in the new media, Lazaro equally pointed out the downside:

“We have the highest use of social media. And because of that there are many issues that are emerging with regards to anonymity, how do you vet messages, and statements that come out on social media, identity theft, is another issue, cyber-bullying, the scoop mentality – all of these issues which do not lend themselves to good journalism,” she said.

Launched in 1997 to encourage responsible journalism in the Philippines, The Marshall McLuhan Fellowship, named after the world-renowned Canadian communications scholar, is the Embassy of Canada’s flagship media advocacy initiative.