Politics and Media

The Philippines is coming to a very tumultuous year again - 2022, the year of the Presidential Elections. During this time, Filipinos change color depending on their political affiliation. Reminds me of this poster from the new Netflix series #SquidGames. Where people become so engross with their political affiliations, that they lose friends over debates and their choice of presidential candidates. At the end of the day, these politicians do not even care about them. 

Media has played a very important role in swaying the emotion and decisions of the masses since forever. As they say, those who control information, controls the world. The media can make people see things in their own perspective, so technically, they can make or break a person, a company or an institution. They can make anyone a sinner or a saint, just by writing something about it (whether it is true or not). 

Let's look at the articles from local media just a few hours after the presidential hopeful Bongbong Marcos declared his candidacy. Most of the local news outlet (example - GMA 7/Rappler) immediately published articles about the Martial Law. This action can obviously stir the (dormant) emotions of people, especially those who have unpleasant experiences during those times. 

On the other hand, when the presidential hopeful Leni Robledo did a press release (as she always does), most of the media outlets started to circulate articles and pics of Mrs. Jessie Robledo doing all her kawang-gawa (photoshoot). 

So going back on this premise, we can already see the role of Media in this coming elections. No wonder, media personalities and network owners are kept close by world leaders (often times included on their payroll). 

This coming presidential election, I just hope that the media outlets would still uphold truth (I wish), and fair journalism. As a campus photojournalist in college, we are taught that we should be factual and fair. However, in the advent of social media, anyone can just write anything (whether there is evidence or not) and this can be passed on as truth. Anyone can even write their own Wiki pages and create a "real" online persona. 

Whether journalists would follow their principles or would allow themselves to be dictated by money, that is up to them. We, the masses, must be very vigilant and do our very own fact check before we even believe what we see on TV or read online. 

#Halalan2022

-pictures from the internet-