The Philippine Online Chronicles

A few days before Christmas, a little article written by Marites Vitug titled, “UST breaks rules to favor Corona” made waves online. She raised the question as to why Chief Justice Corona deserved his doctorate in civil law, summa cum laude. This was in light of the Chief Justice's impeachment, and if there was some sort of impropriety in the University of Santo Tomas' awarding Chief Justice Corona his degree. Vitug wrote that she requested a copy of the dissertation— a requirement, but couldn’t find it.

In today's Philippine Daily Inquirer, the University of Santo Tomas replied and questioned the credibility of Vitug and rappler.com— the publisher of the piece. Worst, the University of Santo Tomas sneered at 'blogs', as if it was some disease or worst something to be feared, and kept at bay. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted UST, “Is that a legitimate news organization? What individuals and entities fund Newsbreak and Rappler? Do these outfits have editors? Who challenged Miss Vitug’s article before it went online so as to establish its accuracy, objectivity and fairness? Why was there no prior disclosure made? What gate-keeping measures does online journalism practice?”

It would seem the University of Santo Tomas displays its ignorance of what online, and what blogging is.

Now rappler is sort of newsbreak 2.0. It is an online publication. It is backed by veteran journalists. And by "veteran journalist," top caliber draws. If the name rappler.com doesn't give you pause because of the newness of the brand, then the reputation of their team should. Unless you have been living in a cave the past decade who doesn't know Maria Ressa, Cheche Lazaro, Pat Evangelista, Michael Josh Villanueva, Marites Vitug, and the rest of the crew of rappler.com?

Blogging is merely a method of publishing. Instead of paper, it goes online. And the power of this medium is that anyone can publish. The medium is so easy to use that without doubt even garbage gets published. The Marocharim Experiment talked about it in “Truth is in the (Im)Balance)”. And over at ProPinoy, we talked about “When viral videos get viral.” So how do you know who to trust when anyone can publish?

So much so that Internet observer Clay Shirky called this time we are living in as “The largest increase in expressive capability in human history.”

Blogging makes a blogger or a journalist— nimble. Like anyone with a smartphone can express themselves. This piece for example was written on an iPhone, while having lunch at KFC. And today, tweets travel faster than earthquakes! This social media-- this blogging---this facebooking has become front and center that United States Secretary of State Clinton once gave remarks on Internet Freedom.

Blogging is a media platform no different from the pen and paper. Writing doesn't make you a journalist, but earning your bread and cheese by following the tenants of the journalism profession does.

No one will dispute the credibility of Ressa, Vitug and their team. They are journalists whether their pieces and their faces appear on a big name publisher's broadsheet or on a big television network. Blogging--- social media--- is just the medium they want to practice their craft.

There are those such as myself, and many of those people on the Internet who from time to time seek to dabble and play amateur. The cheapness of this medium make it that easy to publish. You don’t even need to buy web hosting— blogger.com, wordpress.com and so many others make it cheap as free, and accessing your slice of the Internet requires as little as any PC from an Internet Cafe will do.

Rappler.com, and other online publications such as the Philippine Online Chronicles require heavier gear. We have web hosting, and laptops. Web Hosting is as cheap as a thousand pesos a month, and goes up to hundreds of dollars depending of course on traffic, and of course kind. But it is cheap enough too that practically anyone who can afford to pay a mobile phone plan can afford to do this.

In many parts of the Philippines, publishing— the paper kind is no different. Cheap enough just about anyone can have a “newspaper”.

Blogwatch during the 2010 elections was a group of ordinary men and women who took time off their work, to meet various presidential candidates. And it was through this publication--- the Philippine Online Chronicles, that made it possible.

The ProPinoy Project is another--- a blog that I am proud to serve as its Editor-in-Chief. A news and opinion blog whose members-- entirely made of volunteers range journalists to writers, to business owners and OFWs. We even have a policy expert based in Australia.

We're bloggers; to some, amateurs and though some of us cannot nor choose to be named, 'journalist', but that doesn’t mean blogging the art means not following tenants of journalism. The basics remain. The Who, the Why, the When, the What, and the Hows need to be answered. The pieces— whether veteran journalist or ordinary blogger must still write what is true.

How then do we know which Online Publication to trust? They build credibility. Credibility comes from the content published. How awesome is the work they turned out? How consistent is it? Did they cite all the facts correctly? Are their arguments acceptable? Truthful?

The question in this case isn't who rappler.com is. It is packed with enough stars that even one of them is more than enough reputation to make up for the newness of the brand. This blogging medium has from the beginning been so much apt for journalists. Blogging and Journalism fit together and don’t threaten each other’s existence.

As I wrote in “The New Bards”— a sort of “State of Social Media in the Philippines”, we are seeing Old and New Media becoming one. We’re seeing group blogs on the rise. So I agree with @maria_ressa, blogging is the future of journalism. Steve Jobs once remarked that he’s afraid we’re turning into a nation of bloggers, and why editors are important. So why not a blogging site owned, operated and driven by journalists? Surely our world is so much richer, so much better when journalists are using the blogging medium to create content?

Blogging is an accepted medium of expression. Just ask the Wall Street Journal which runs its own Blog, AllThingsD. Even MarketWatch is a blog. Ask Time Warner who bought the blog, Huffington Post.

It is incredulous for an organization such as the University of Santo Tomas to respond to the allegation by shooting the messenger, and not answer the question. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find that surprising and odd. Are they purposely framing their lack of intelligence rather than responding to the question? Was there impropriety? If so, what are the steps being taken to correct? And if not, just show proof. It is the nature of this blogging medium to tell the writer why he or she is wrong. That feedback makes it powerful. Maybe the University of Santo Tomas didn't know that, or choose instead to make their ignorance known.

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