The Games: Survival of Etched Stores in Cyber Revolt
By Stephen Castañeda and Kristel Anne Vadal
One blink of the contemporary landscape might render journalism at the brink of another pivotal change—while both a thrilling need and a spectacle, the sustained thriving of the electronic media was an impetus for its traditional counterpart.
Since the onset of the 21st century, the internet has initiated its avowed mission of providing swift and seamless—multifaceted—information to anyone who sought its aid. This advancement, brought by the epoch of pioneering technology, prompted the consumers of print media to further lean on the former’s defining edge.
Although newspapers existed as early as the ancient Roman times, their survival could be imperiled by digital journalism and its expanding platforms, begetting the fear that they would be nothing but inked mementos of yesterday’s historic headlines.
New quills but same quarter quell
Despite the staggering consumption of readers online, the fluctuations within the media economy had shaped how the advocates of traditional news moved and chose the steps to continue breathing: test the waters, know the swimmers, and add depth to shallow perspectives.
In the country, mainstream print media was undeniably challenged by the deteriorating number of readers in contrast with the upward scale of statistics for the online and mobile platforms. In fact, only 22% of Filipinos had newspapers as their source of current national and local happenings; the majority preferred watching news online. This study was supported by the Philippine Statistics Authority which reckoned that barely one out of 10 Filipinos read newspapers daily.
Albeit the melancholy of these numbers, print media persisted not to mere exist in the present times, but to usher the truth tellers in their vigorous journey of elucidating the young and the aged fellow men—especially in these lands where disinformation and red tagging were blatantly cultivated.
As firmly uttered by the journalism students from Bulacan State University (BulSU), “Hindi magkalaban ang print at digital journalism.” These had been their forefront lenses in understanding how newspapers kept its beacon of light in exposing the sham of society's illnesses despite the continuous rise of the digital setting. Although they were urged to use new types of quills, writers had the same stories of quarter quell to print and tell.
Torch lit from caught fires
Aside from the technicalities that media companies had adopted to pace with modernization of the press, one focal point of retaining – with hopes of higher statistics – the readers was to study the audience. This would not only maximize the costs of producing the hard copies of the harbingers of facts, but would also tie these stories down to their scale for deeper resonation and longer retention.
A digital journalist and Managing Editor of Bulatlat, Jannes Ann Ellao, further added that, “Kung nasaan ang audience, s’yempre nandoon dapat ang mga tagapagbalita at nandoon din dapat ang mga mamamahayag na magbibigay ng impormasyon.” She reassured that when newspapers target what they purport to represent, they become immortal tools of awakening.
She was in the business of truth telling since 2009, and as she recognized the struggle of being firm with a journalist’s values and responsibilities, the zeal for echoing the voices of the defenders, the abused, and the marginalized helped her to continue this noble job in several platforms.
“Hindi pa mawawala in the near future and print media, baka magbabago lang siya ng treatment sa kung papaano niya isinusulat o fine-frame ‘yung balita,” she added, acknowledging the online presence of the traditional media as a means of its continued endurance.
“Meron at meron paring maghahanap ng long form, ako bilang isang mamamahayag nakikita ko pa rin ‘yung value nu’ng slow journalism na tinatawag ‘yung hindi ka nagmamadali pero at the same time dahil journalism pa rin siya time told pa rin,” she explained.
These narratives were the fires—flickering embers—that lit the torch of the crumpled periodicals.
A ballad of clearer fate
From the inks of print shops, to the insides of unarchiteched homes, and to the bloody-stained streets, newspapers would always be the catalyst of revolution – gradually reclaiming the age digital media had penetrated.
Although students and young professionals alike expressed their sentiments regarding the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the meadows of journalism, the future of print media remains resolute against the joint perks and mishaps of AI.
On the other hand, Marc Lino Abila, Editor-in-Chief of Pinoy Weekly, recognized the presence of a digital divide that limits the access of online information among communities that were not reached by telecommunication companies. This was a great opportunity for the newspaper, as an alternative media, to widen its distribution while resonating the clamor of the people it sworn to serve.
Abila shared his experience of cyclic decisions of staying in this line of work for decades. With his grit to provide dauntless reporting and impartial analysis of societal dilemma, he sung his ballad of its clearer fate: “Tradisyonal na midya pa rin ang pinagkakatiwalaan at mas malaganap na porma. Lumiit man ang sirkulasyon ng print, mayroon pa ring tumatangkilik dito.”
Baleful augury of prints
While digital journalism is gradually clutching a substantial margin in society, still, it is not absolved to the dangers of being weaponized for a ruthless tack.
Misinformation and red tagging are only the tip of the iceberg trying to mold the perfect facade to conceal the horror of technology. Many of its woeful schemes await deeper, waiting for a frail victim to fall before making its final blow.
Fiona Kaye Molod, a freshman journalism student from BulSU Main Campus, highlighted the potential misgiving saying, “I actually fear for our future, ‘di dahil natatakot akong mawala ang mainstream journalism pero dahil baka mawala na ang essence at trust sa journalism in the future. Sa ngayon pa lang ang dami nang fake news ang kumakalat dahil sa madali lang itong gawin lalo na sa digital world.”
“Kung [magpapatuloy] ang mga ito magkakaroon ng confusion na makakapagpababa sa ating kredibilidad bilang mga mamamahayag,” she concluded.
To this day, print and digital journalism is continuously perceived by many as stif competitors, but to journalists and media staff alike, rather than seeing it as rivals, they opt to view it as a strong match that embellish each other’s innate features.
As Ellao elucidated, “Hindi ko siya nakikitang magkakumpitensiya, I think they compliment each other and even those in the traditional media, they also have their own online presence.”
As print media perpetually grappling to survive its threatened pages and digital media slowly seizing the globe, ponderings for the future journalism lies unparalleled and dubious.
Be that as it may, journalism in any form will never cease to exist as long as its power is coming out of the people and its perks bequeath only to them.
Stephen Castañeda is a senior staff writer of Pacesetter. He is a fourth-year accounting information system student from the College of Business Administration.
Kristel Anne Vadal is the Features Editor of Pacesetter for A.Y. 2023-2024. She is a fourth-year journalism student from the College of Arts and Letters.
