Manila, Philippines – As everybody welcomes the new Latin American Pope Francis inn the Vatican City, snapshots of the two leading broadsheets in the Philippines caught the attention of “netizens” and newspaper readers because of different news headlines.
The headline of the Philippine Star today earned different reactions while being set on the side of Philippine Daily Inquirer’s headline which bore the real-time turn of event.
The image containing the headlines of the two broadsheets that were uploaded over the social networking site Facebook generated a lot of shares and comments. The picture was even tagged as:
“Timeliness is next to Godliness. It is clear who didn’t stay up late.”
With this issue circulating via the internet at present, can we conclude now that online media has more potential in giving more reliable and timely news and information because of its click-erase-change capability, that can happen in just a blink of an eye?
Yesterday, I logged on to my Twitter account to find out the latest news about the conclave.
Based on my observation, most of the news agencies in the Philippines with social media accounts including Rappler.com and ABS-CBN News.com are very active in posting the latest news and happenings up to the time wherein they tweeted that black smoke appeared in the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
I immediately re-posted it on my Facebook account so I can also update my friends and officemates who want to know the result of the conclave.
It’s really amazing how news and updates circulate fast within the Twitter world. In this regard, we can give the credit to the internet as a very helpful platform in times we need urgency.
On the other hand, this does not mean that we have to criticize the efforts of those who are in the print media because of this incident.
We all know that it is an honest mistake but, they have to ensure the public that they are also vigilant and updated when it comes to current events that needs real time updates such as these.
As readers and audience, we also have to do our part. Being vigilant to know the latest happenings around us is very important. We should check our facts from different sources, especially in times like this- the principle of check and balance is still best tool in knowing the larger truth.
Quoting one of the comments of a netizen about the issue, indeed “Nobody is perfect”.
Whether you’re an online or print media practitioner, responsible journalism should not be disregarded. We need to feed the public with updated, credible and substantial information they need for their everyday lives.
If you have delivered your duty on time, you don’t have to feel bad because it only proves that you have passion, dedication and hard work towards your craft.
About the Author
Marvin Ortiz is a digital marketing and internet marketing consultant for businesses worldwide. He is the founder and managing director of DigitalMoz Onine Marketing in the Philippines that endeavors to help businesses be found and get more sales from the internet.
