UPDATE: The class is multimedia: You may include evaluation of reports, commentaries, posts, tweets, memes, in all kinds of media, on the President’s speech in Malacañang last night and the ensuing Q & A (i,e., all kinds of reports, commentaries, posts, tweets, memes , in all kinds of media including the social media on the President’s speech and the media conference). Two or more paragraphs — you can write in your own site/ platform/account and paste the link here, or write in the comments section here, or email your post to me either as a link or as embedded paragraphs: Pls do not use “postbox” in your email or any app that cannot be opened by anyone except yourself. The deadline is extended to 1pm today Jan. 29.
For ethics students C110: This is a continuation of this afternoon’s discussion. You may post the second bonus media monitor here for ten points as discussed a few minutes ago inside the classroom, with the discussion extended here. Pls examine how the Malacañang press corps followed thru the presidenital announcement with their questions, or how media organizations storified the presidential media conference with their news reports, i.e., news reports of the presidential announcement and the media conference. [you don’t have to evaluate the news subject (PNoy) — you can if you want to — but we will be looking at your evaluation of the news report or the news reporter.],
You may also email your evaluation instead of posting here. You can state whether the report/ reporting is a form of good practice (specify why), or a violation of media ethics (specify the pertinent provision), or involves an ethical dilemma (specify the principle of ethics involved) (fair, foolish, or in an ethical fix). Mere rants without substance will not be given any points.
You may use a pseudonym or your student number or your name. Deadline is up to the end of the morning news tomorrow at 10am. Those who cannot post for the bonus points may post a regular media monitor on any story in the media (any media: online, TV or radio, social media, newspapers, etc. ) for five points, with the same deadline at 10am tomorrow.
Here’s the Agence France Presse story on yesterday’s carpet bombing of Tanduo, Sabah by the Malaysian military, reprinted below. See how the Agence France Presse was very careful in not using any loaded words or derogatory labels. It took pains in writing out: “Filipinos loyal to the former Sultan of Sulu” instead of the shorter, more convenient but loaded and derogatory “gunmen” , “intruders”, “terrorists”, etc. . These epithets connote crime, criminal suspects, etc.. They make the state-party Malaysia fall outside the pale of international humanitarian law that prohibits carpet bombings of civilian-populated areas.
Throughout the story, Agence France Presse took pains in being accurate, journalistically correct and politically correct.
See how the Inquirer and Interaksyon handled the storification of the news item. Inquirer and Interaksyon used generic nouns while at the same time being accurate and correct about it. The Inquirer simply referred to the Sulu “Royal Army” members as:Filipinos (see their headline: “Filipinos survive attack”) . It’s accurate, correct, objective. Interaksyon referred to them simply as : Pinoy (see their headline: “No dead Pinoy found 9 hours after Sabah assault”. Accurate, correct, objective. But look at Rappler’s headline of the exact Agence France Presse story (Agence France Presse precisely took pains in referring to the combatants as “Filipinos loyal to the sultan” throughout the article)…. Rappler headlined it as: “Pinoy gunmen survive Sabah raid”.
Gunmen.
Headline-writing can be tricky. A tabloid headline writer might have bannered: “ ‘I’m alive!!’ – Sulu commander”.
I know that you want your headlines to be short and crisp, but not at the cost of sacrificing correctness, or of avoiding loaded words, especially in conflict-reporting.
Here’s the Agence France Presse story, it also appears in my news site : for a comprehensive coverage of the Sabah conflict with 12 stories and 12 angles on the confrontation, pls click:
(i also have soft news on that site from Readers Digest, Vegetarian Society, Good Housekeeping, Yahoo Shine, New York Times, etc. — see for yourself!)
“Manila, Philippines – Filipinos loyal to the former Sultan of Sulu survived a bombing raid and ground offensive launched by Malaysian security forces on Tuesday, the group’s spokesman said.
“More than 200 men loyal to the sultan who have been in Malaysia’s Sabah state for about 3 weeks moved outside the area that was attacked before the offensive operation began, the sultan’s spokesman, Abraham Idjirani, told AFP.
“ “They heard a lot of explosions and saw two bombs being dropped by Malaysian aircraft,” Idjirani said in Manila. “But this was happening away from where he and his men are.”
“Following the morning air raid, Malaysia’s national police chief said that “mopping up” operations had yet to find any dead militants, but expressed fears that at least some of them might have slipped away.
“Idjirani said he spoke with the leader of the armed men in Sabah by telephone at 3:00 pm (0700 GMT).
“ “They are fine,” Idjirani said.
“Jamalul Kiram III, a self-styled Filipino Muslim sultan, sent the men to Sabah in a bid to enforce the sultanate’s centuries-old ownership claim on the state.
“On Tuesday afternoon, Malaysian officials and the Malaysian media reported that their army defeated the Filipino gunmen. The Star newspaper of Malaysia said, quoting police sources: “The Sulu armed group was totally routed by [the] Malaysian security forces’ overwhelming firepower.” “
