Social media metrics over journalism ethics
A group of pro-Marcos and pro-Duterte vloggers swarming around activist priest Robert Reyes outside the Commission on Elections on May 11. (Photo: Richard A. Reyes/Inquirer)
In the creator economy, influencers leverage their own personality to cultivate a following. Vlogging everyday minutia, with free reign over runtime and coverage creates a more intimate relationship with one’s audience.
Subjective beliefs or hyperpartisanship posits itself as authenticity and somehow, this has become more influential than objective fact. In Philippine society’s post-truth era, journalists—their ‘accusations’ and their fact-checking—have become the less credible source.
Journalists vs. Vloggers
Democratizing access to the government and information might be commendable. Both vloggers and journalists present information to the public and tackle issues to influence public opinion. You have to give it to vloggers for presenting information and their perspective in a more accessible and understandable take for a wider reach compared to dry news articles. Yet vloggers and journalists cannot be equated to one another.
Journalists are put to rigorous training in their discipline and skills. They bring fairness and objectivity to the vetted information they provide to the public. They go beyond reporting to research and provide context—in contrast to content creators known to lift only parts of the news then edit into sensationalized content for views.
Journalists have systems of checks and balances, made answerable to their editors, the news outlet they represent, and bound by the media code of ethics and libel laws.
Moreover, theirs is a dangerous profession. Be it from on-site reporting during natural calamities or for reporting the truth. Under the Duterte administration alone, several have been harassed, red-tagged, and at least 22 have been killed.
Metrics over ethics
Vloggers, influencers, and the infamous SMNI were given access to trail the UniTeam campaign along with the media, who often had more restrictions on access to candidates.
"If that's the setup, I don't see any reason why we should change it," Atty. Vic Rodriguez, incoming executive secretary to presumptive President Marcos Jr., told the press on May 11,
On July 1, incoming press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles—herself a lawyer and blogger who supported President Rodrigo Duterte and then Marcos—said the accreditation of vloggers to allow them to attend Malacañang briefings or press conferences will be a priority of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO). Accreditation will be given on the basis of social media engagement and following.
There is an existing 2017 interim policy for accrediting bloggers who wanted to cover Presidential events. In Department Order No. 15, current acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar only stipulated that accreditation would be given to any Filipino citizen at least 18 years old with at least 5,000 followers on any social media platform, which generates content on disseminating original news or opinion of interest.
“Wider access is good, but must not be at the expense of institutional media, which has been sidelined during the campaign as false information spread rapidly online, many of which have been traced to the same network,” the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement.
If influencers can be bought to promote products and paid advertising, can the same be said for social media personalities favoring the administration?
