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What we lost
There are many online fora and seminars nowadays — from technology, to business, to history and culture. But unless you attend or listen to the replays of each one of them, you won’t know about the very rich information being shared in these discussions. Apart from the major business events, the very interesting or informative…
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Circles of trust on social media
Not everything shared on Facebook is true. At times, what is shared is wrong. This is either because there was a mistake in the gathering or presentation or facts or there is a deliberate intent to mislead. The approaches to these two errors are different: Mistakes in reporting we correct; disinformation we fight. Disinformation is…
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Sunog and disinformation
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia asked reporters about “sunog” in a recent press conference. This was in relation to a story based on a social media post that was eventually deleted. The reporters told her the common term now is “kuryente.” When I was active on the field, it was “sunog.” You get burned by a…
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Religion beat
The global kerfuffle over a statement by Pope Francis on civil union for gay couples shows the need for a religion beat reporter to offer important context on history, church precepts and processes, and a local point of view. As it is, we’re likely to get just he said/he said reporting about something potentially epoch-marking…
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Bad words
Ronnie was crying at the back of our classroom. We were in Grade 4 at the Mt. Matutum Christian School in Polomolok, South Cotabato and Ronnie’s crying was disturbing our class. He was standing with arms held parallel to the ground and knees bent in a position called “sitting on the air.” It was the…