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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Saturday, March 4, 2017
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ONE OF my favorite quotes remains to be “journalists write the first draft of history,” as quipped by a 1940s Washington Post publisher.
In the less tumultuous times of our titos and titas, the media proved the sole source of credible information — newspapers, radio stations, and television broadcasts. What the media reported would eventual go down in history and be considered fact.
The popular opinion of the people was once also dictated by these same channels of information dissemination, being the most accessible means to gain news and current affairs.
Back then our thought leaders — whom we mirrored our “well-informed” opinions — were journalists, news anchors, and the people in power.
However, with the advent of social media, the power to shape the country’s collective opinion has become largely democratized.
Now everyone has in their hands the power to become a citizen journalist, or an influential thought leader. Now, with just a few clicks on Facebook, any ordinary Filipino citizen can broadcast his or her ramblings and personal judgments, the potential audience: the world.
Case in point: Mocha Uson. The former risqué dancer, actress and sex columnist is now arguably the most powerful self-confessed “non-journalist” on Philippine social media.
Mocha Uson’s meteoric rise as a political commentator has baffled a lot of people — her page now has 4.8 million likers, her reach vastly exceeding the two largest media conglomerates in the country.
How has the former sultry C-list starlet seized so many avid followers?
Simply put, the people have felt disenfranchised and betrayed by the mainstream media in the past few months. The ka-DDS (Duterte Diehard Supporters) see journalists reporting on the Duterte administration’s many faults and inconsistencies as an active smear campaign to take down their canonized leader.
Then comes Mocha Uson to welcome them into her plentiful bosom, someone who shares their opinion and offers daily updates that feed into their “Duterte will save us all” fanaticism.
In light of this recent change in the times, even the Malacañang has announced that it may soon open its doors to “bloggers” like Mocha Uson, as well as the uncompromisingly pro-Duterte “Thinking Pinoy.”
Imagine that: the Palace Press Corps competing with iPhone- brandishing, Facebook-livestreaming, Twitter-ranting bloggers for airtime and the chance to interview politicians and senior cabinet members.
So, who’s afraid of Mocha Uson?
Given that, “unbiased” “objective” “impartial” journalists should be who’ll dictate how the current administration will be remembered and how it will go down in our history books (and not the people who are unabashedly self-confessed disciples of a particular leader). Or maybe we should all be afraid./PN
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