Do We Get What We Need to Know From the Media?
by Media is — as its name says — a medium of communication in a given society. But, does media fulfill in pure sense its obvious mission?
I once had an occasion to be part of a management team that oversaw the operations of a media outfit. Ours then may be small especially in comparison to those operating in major cities, the role that it has been playing and its significance not only to the ecclesial body that owns it but to the society at large that is being permeated — so to speak — by its communication signal.
Now that I am more engaged in theoretical aspect of social living, I have the occasion to more critically question the function of media in society. Everybody’s common perception is that the media outfit tells us objectively each and every transpiration around us. But is this really so? Do we actually get what we need to know from the media?
I have great respect for those who are into the mission of bringing information to one and all in the society. I recognize the rigor of their training, and appreciate how they try to maintain their integrity or attempt to keep themselves up to the expectations that their social position imposes on their shoulders. I salute them as they suspend their emotions and provide us a face that somehow tells us of their attempt to be but an objective conveyor of information — unbiased, matter-of-factly, not-taking-sides.
Nonetheless, whether we get what need to know from the media is answerable merely by the adverb “partly”. Why?, one may ask. The reasons are numerous.
Firstly, media outfits have sponsors and advertisers. In my previous work, I remember a case when in our flagship public affairs show a lady reported how she was maltreated by her boss who happened to be one of our advertisers. Of course, our media reported the case — and earned the revenge of the lady’s boss and our advertiser. The trader — our advertiser — pulled out his advertisement. I remember too an instance when former President Joseph Estrada was still the Chief Executive of the Republic of the Philippines. To settle score against the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) that kept on publishing articles and news items that were not helpful to him, the former President called for a boycott of the newspaper. Of course, the boycott was not successful; and the PDI sustained its critcal stance against the then government of Estrada. If these are what is always happening, then media brings us what we need to know. But this is not always the case.
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