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Budding Brains

The Need for Cultivating Journalism in 21st Century Philippines

The ancients came up with a lot of quirks to inform the general public.

Ancient Egyptians had used papyrus to create one of the first manuscripts. Pre-colonial Filipinos invented a primitive mail system by making bamboo 'mailboxes'.

Yet every form of communication involving agents in different directions we're delayed and mass communication wasn't even conceived yet.

But then four millennia later, the universe cracked.

Humans had discovered the Internet. Today, we thrive in an age of live interaction, where people from different locations, races, and timezones can communicate simultaneously.

Now, trivia like knowing one's breakfast in the Philippines could be broadcasted to a Korean taking a shower.

Not only that, this information could be amplified to an exponent of a thousand recipients at once (as outlets like Facebook and Instagram demonstrate. With everybody leveled on this unified platform, who will sift false data, bias and malicious intent?

What authority would be credible enough to impose upon our freedom of expression in order to uphold the right to accurate information? And how should we diversify this authority so that we can decide better when it comes to information publishing?

More and more, we struggle to navigate this barrage of overloaded information. That's why we need to develop journalism now more than ever.

But withholding journalism from
certain groups of people, certain ages or social statuses would only homogenize human culture and stymie us from the growth so essential to people at this phase in time.

Not only must we educate professionals, politicians, and the voting population on the significance of responsible journalism.

We must cultivate journalism in students as well, embed even more deeply into their curricula. The Philippines has no doubt been empowered Internet access. We've now entered the global playing field, and now we can quickly come to the aid of the helpless, abused individuals who've overlooked for so long in history.

But is Internet access really setting the ground rules for just and righteous societies? Or is it just helping those already in power to climb even higher up the ladder and manipulate the platform where so many people can readily fall victim?

Without journalism, powerful or just plain abusive people will spread fake news, scams, libel and bias through the Internet where these villains know that lots of users aren't educated enough to know the difference.

Not that we don't know we're not being fooled with our every click.

But at least we can incubate this fire for justice, truth and sensitivity among young people, who make the majority of the Internet population.

Even just debunking fake alerts of doomsday earthquakes, warning against reported Internet swindlers, explaining the truth behind a certain controversial bill can guide the public away from the abuse.

We need to reintroduce journalism as a relevant tool. We need to enforce controls over this craze before it all goes haywire.