Why Take Life Seriously?

Imagine life without gestures, without words—no means of communication. People will probably live like they are all alone—no community, no society, no culture. That is how vital communication is.

Before the invention of mass communication, people could only communicate with one another face-to-face. This process of communication is called interpersonal where there is a conversation between the sender of the message and the receiver.

People developed language along with the diversity of words. Man later devised the alphabet, which made way for writing and became a big contributor in storing important documents like the history and important scientific discoveries. Communication during those times is slowly circulated through oral and written means and these ways only reached limited places and limited number of people.

The invention of mass communication paved the way to go beyond these limitations. It all started with the development of printing press which combined three elements that highlighted communication breakthrough: duplication, rapid mass production, and lesser printed-material cost. Through these developments, mass-produced printed materials spread information faster and farther than ever before. Such widespread information ushered in the concepts of nationalism, allowing the people to think of themselves not merely as members of families or tribes but as part of a country where interest was broader than local or regional concerns.

Mass communication became more massive with the invention of telegraph, proliferation of radio and television, and later the widespread use of the internet. People can now communicate with a larger number of its kind and a more vast scope of places—even reached the whole wide world. A person can consider himself not just a part of a region or country but a part of the world.

The developments in mass communication allowed a wider scope and more means for mass media to distribute information or share crafts. The press in particular has their larger audience with a bigger responsibility of informing people using different media.However, because most media institutions are privately-owned, they become profit-driven institutions. This means media becomes business or what is generally defined as a production, distribution, and sale of goods and services for the benefit of the buyer and the profit of the seller. This objective of maintaining profit levels is dangerous for democracy and very discouraging for journalists.They say media ownership is public trust. The media is considered as the watchdog or the fourth estate–following the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government. The watchdog functions as a check on the government and should be independent from other centers of power. Media exists as a power to challenge the power centers when they become abusive and corrupt. This media function is guaranteed by the Constitution in Article III Section 4 which states that, “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, and of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.” Given this guarantee, informing the people is not just a media function but also a social responsibility–media is expected to be accurate, fair, and objective.

In a newspaper organization, business is considered as one of its main subdivisions having four sections namely: advertising, circulation, promotions or public affairs, and administrative. It was cited in the Pyramid of Philippine Media that business indirectly affects the quality of information that the audience gets. This is because the media institutions are dependent on advertisers from whom they get most funds to continue their operations.Alito Malinao, in his book Journalism for Filipinos, said that all publishers are in the newspaper publishing business not for any noble objective of keeping the people informed but for financial gains. As A.J. Liebling, in his book The Press, puts it succinctly: “The function of the press in society is to inform. But its role is to make money.” Further, Alison Carper stressed that newspapers embracing the marketing approach often find themselves practicing a particular kind of formula journalism–the kind that emphasizes format at the extent of the content.In Albay, one of the reasons why local newspapers discontinue operation is the insufficiency in revenues coming from commercial advertisements, subscription and street sales. In order to sustain this financial insufficiency, many news media are adopting market-driven strategies that emphasize entertainment and lifestyle coverage at the expense of serious journalism.  However, Albay community newspapers’ response is cutting down on the hiring of employees. In effect, the content is compromised. Most articles in the editorial content of these community newspapers consisted only of government releases.These are mostly written for the benefit of the government. The press can no longer check the other side of it. The information in community newspapers are already “cooked” for the fragrance of government officials’ names.It is only one of the many possible effects of employing business strategies to maintain profit required in running the venture of community newspapers in Albay. As what Vladimir Lenin claimed, “Freedom of the press is a lie, so long as the printing works and the largest stocks are in capitalist hands.” With these, it is therefore necessary to check whether community newspapers in Albay maintain balance between their business strategies and their social responsibility function and to know whether their business interests complement the people’s right to fair, objective, and complete accounts on issues affecting them.