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How do you make AI say “Cebu?”
A key problem with using text to speech (TTS) services like Amazon Polly is the foreign accent it renders certain words. One such word is Cebu, which systems often pronounce as “say bu.”
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Sun.Star Cebu’s Facebook page scrapes bottom with Kim’s behind
Do newsrooms still have publication standards apart from engagement? Apparently not the Sun.Star Cebu Facebook page, judging by its recent posts. There is a noticeable shift by the page to the prurient.
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Churnalism, bad reporting pull scandal out of comment thread
The accusation published by Manila Bulletin that singer Moira dela Torre was paid P5 million to perform at a Leni-Kiko campaign rally is an example of what journalist Nick Davies described in his book Flat Earth News as “churnalism.” It is described in the book Breaking News by Alan Rusbridger as “reporters with too little […]
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How not to write a news story: Manila Bulletin and “online marites” as source
A recent story by Manila Bulletin illustrates the inanities of traffic whoring by the rewriting-social-media-posts beat. The story amplified a serious accusation – that the artist Moira dela Torre was paid a “whooping” (the amount does trigger a fit of coughing) P5 million for her performance in the Robredo-Pangilinan campaign in Zamboanga City. But throughout […]
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Google searches “accurate predictors” of presidential election results, researchers say
Google Trends predicted the winners of the past two presidential elections in the Philippines. Except for former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, Google Trends predicted the winners of the previous four presidential elections in the United States and the past six in Canada since the company’s search data were made available in 2004.