A FRIEND invited me to join the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) town hall meeting with regards the social media last Thursday, February 23.
"I really want you there because you're one of the few journalists who have an open mind about social media," said Carlos Munda, who before MindaNation and all these Dutertards, Yellow Media, and biased and fake news came to be, was just my diving buddy whom I argue and banter with even underwater and who does PR work as a livelihood.
Being the kind of friend who will readily tag along when a friend needs help, I did. I read up the draft of the social media policy of PCOO as requested, and made my notes based on this. Since there were others who spoke before me, I also took note of what they said, and then realized... what's left for me to speak about and stress is the seeming regulatory slant of the policy...
I've always believed that there are enough laws already set out to punish anyone who expresses himself through the mainstream media and that constitutional claim that our right to expression is protected is hogwash, much like the Edsa Revolution that the oligarchs want us to believe. I always point to 15 laws that gag; laws that have penal provisions for journalists who write about something under that specific law.
Yes, Virginia, it is not just the libel law that gags us. I've counted 15, I'm sure there are more. Thus, I eye with wariness and suspicion any move that seeks to gag people some more, especially the social media.
I stood up, delivered my very short view and wanted to run away and hide when the crowd broke out in applause. Friends would understand, the public will not. Fact: I hate publicity. What I didn't expect was that the video of my short talk was uploaded and shared, over and over again, as only social media can, while I was obliviously enjoying coffee and later trying to stay awake in the airport.
Apparently, I made my point clear and apparently people agree that this animal called social media is the real voice of the masses and the most that we in the mainstream media and government and other institutions can do is to pick out the valid points from the discussions, or block, when the discussions become toxic. But...do.not.gag.
Think. That thousands cannot seem to comport themselves properly, that thousand are cursing and threatening, and making jokes out of rape, another person's disability or looks, and everything else that we hate about social media is but a reflection of how we have brought up our children.
Are you mad? There is every reason to be mad. But be mad at yourself, first. You had a role in this. Social media did not become like this without your participation in educating your children, in running a school, in stressing good manners and right conduct, in demanding accountability, in corrupting the minds of the people, etc. etc. etc.
True, the bloggers who have gathered millions of followers and are engaging tens of millions more sometimes tend to be leery, or even use cusswords, but the very reason why they have gathered a million followers and are engaging tens of millions more is because they speak the language of the masses and are able explain stuff without restraint. They engage their audience at the level that unrestrained bloggers can.
This is not a war between journalism and social media, it never was. We were just made to believe that it is by people who want to protect their own self-interests. Rather, this is engagement at a level that we have never seen before.
The real battle is in how we ourselves engage our audience in the restrained environment that journalism works in, and suppression of social media as the self-righteous and those with self-interests to protect want to is not the answer. We are already gagged, do not fall into the belief that we need to be gagged some more.
saestremera@yahoo.com
