Journalists should embrace TikTok, Meta, and Twitter to report the news, otherwise “bad faith actors’’ would lord it over these platforms, broadcast journalist Jeff Canoy said.
Canoy, chief of reporters at ABS-CBN Corp., confessed that he hesitated to join the TikTok bandwagon until he observed that certain social media players spreading disinformation and misinformation were running the show.
The hesitation of many journalists to embrace and to boldly go, it allowed for bad faith actors to push their own agenda.
JEFF CANOY, ABS-CBN
“The hesitation of many journalists to embrace and to boldly go, it allowed for bad faith actors to push their own agenda,’’ he said at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s Conference on Investigative Journalism (IJCon) on April 30.
So in 2023 Canoy’s team launched vertical reporting for Patrol ng Pilipino on social media, particularly TikTok, covering the whole gamut, from audit reports to the lack of National Food Authority rice in public markets.
It has garnered 45 million views since then.
“If I’m able to convince Doris Bigornia to do vertical for Patrol ng Pilipino, anyone can do it,’’ Canoy said during the plenary session, titled “Toward Collaboration and Public Engagement,’’ at the Novotel Hotel in Quezon City.
The vertical reports are mere “access points’’ to longer format of videos and longer stories, he said, citing The Washington Post’s strategy of leaving “no orphans on the web.’’
Let story travel
These should be driven by facts as well as carry its own tone and information take-aways, Canoy said.
“We have to be able to curate the truth and debunk the fake. And most importantly, a skill that many journalists have to learn nowadays is to have their stories travel. We may have the best investigative story, but if we don’t allow it to travel in a sea of content, we’ll end up losing,’’ he said.
While the future of journalism is “multi-platform,’’ Canoy stressed that its tenets of verification, data-gathering, and fact-checking remain the same.
“In an explosion of content, what we need in social media is the expertise of traditional media to fact-check, and to ask questions, and to keep asking those questions,’’ he said.
For his part, director Marlon Rivera, whose credits include the film “Babae sa Septic Tank’’ and commercial “Para kanino ka bumabangon?’’ shared innovation tips on how the media could engage the public.
Language is heard first
Rivera, who spent years in marketing and advertising before joining the film industry, said journalists should write articles or do voice-overs as close “to how you speak it.’’
“Language has to be written as closely as you can write it in the way it is heard,’’ he said.
Language has to be written as closely as you can write it in the way it is heard.
FILMMAKER MARLON RIVERA
After all, democracy and freedom are not fought only in newsrooms, on the streets or in the halls of power, but first and foremost, in the mind, the filmmaker said.
Rivera agreed that “truth is information’’ especially in the era of disinformation, but some Filipinos preferred to listen to personalities, instead of institutions. Journalists, he indicated, should be conscious of this.
“We follow people, we don’t follow institutions. The institution is sacred, but you are now the presenter of things,’’ he said. “The messenger is now the message.”
Rivera said that journalists should approach social media with the view of understanding it, not altering it to suit their own needs.
“We’re the ones who need to adjust, not to compromise our principles but to find ways of understanding,’’ he said. “If we come into other people’s places, with a conclusion and a position, we don’t want a conversation.”
‘Delikado’
For the Emmy-nominated investigative documentary “Delikado,’’ producer Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala said they decided to focus on three environmental crusaders in Palawan because the issue of illegal logging “is nothing new.’’
“They’re very fiery, committed, passionate land defenders. Very ordinary folks who risked their lives and the future of their families,’’ she said. “For me, what they do every day is heroic, but for them, they don’t overthink it.’’
By producing the documentary, Alikpala said they “took into consideration the power of cinema.’’
We can do an immersive experience with audio and video. It can forge connections and build empathy, so we decided to do this.
IMPACT PRODUCER KARA MAGSANOC-ALIKPALA
“We can do an immersive experience with audio and video. It can forge connections and build empathy, so we decided to do this,’’ she said.
Alikpala explained that her work as impact producer “is making sure that people who see the film are the people who can spark change.’’
For “Delikado,’’ she said they wanted visibility for land defenders and their work and drive support for land defenders’ movement and environmental campaigns, among others.
In the Philippines, there was neither cinema that wanted to distribute it, nor a TV network that was open to airing it, Alikpala said. In the end, the 2022 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival picked “Delikado” as its closing film.
“That was our grand premiere,’’ she said.
What does this have to do with investigative journalism?
“It would be good to have a video component to your stories, whatever platform or format because there is some power to video that print and other mediums don’t have,” Alikpala said.
“When I would do TV documentaries, minsan nabibitin (it comes up short). I hope something good comes out. But with impact campaigns, I will make sure that somehow, something will happen,’’ she added. — TJ Burgonio, Hanah Reformado and John Dewey Ocfemia
