What is journalism?

It is sometimes suggested that any communication of information or the relaying of ‘real’ events is
journalism. This is certainly wrong. For example, the broadcasting of proceedings in the senate on the
franchise renewal of ABS-CBN, unvarnished and unadorned by any form of editing or commentary, is not
journalism – it is merely the relaying of an event. The publication or broadcasting of football results is
not journalism, it is merely information. Journalism involves the sifting and editing of information,
comments and events into a form that is recognizably different from the pure form in which they first
occurred. Journalism is about putting events, ideas, information and controversies into context. It is
about selection and presentation. Above all, perhaps, it is about the assessment of the validity,
truthfulness or representativeness of actions or comments.

Types of Media

The term news media refers to the groups that communicate information and news to people. Most
Filipinos get their information about government from the news media because it would be impossible
to gather all the news themselves. Media outlets have responded to the increasing reliance of Filipinos
on television and the Internet by making the news even more readily available to people. There are
three main types of news media: print media, broadcast media, and the Internet.

A. Print Media

The oldest media forms are newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, and other printed
material. Although print media readership has declined in the last few decades, many Filipinos still read
a newspaper every day or a newsmagazine on a regular basis. The influence of print media is therefore
significant. Regular readers of print media tend to be more likely to be politically active.

B. Broadcast Media

Broadcast Media are news reports broadcast via radio and television. Television news is hugely
important in the Philippines because more Filipinos get their news from television broadcasts such as TV
Patrol and 24 Oras than from any other source.

C. The Internet

The Internet is slowly transforming the news media because more Filipinos are relying on online sources
of news instead of traditional print and broadcast media. Filipinos surf the sites of more traditional
media outlets such as Rappler, One News, CNN, Inquirer.net, etc. Weblogs—known colloquially as Blogs
—have become very influential since the start of the twenty-first century. Leading bloggers write their
opinions on a variety of issues, and thousands of people respond on message boards. Although many
blogs are highly partisan and inaccurate, a few have been instrumental in breaking big stories.

Media Literacy: A Review

Our brains depend on information to work optimally. The quality of information we engage with largely
determines our perceptions, beliefs and attitudes. It could be information from other persons, the
media, libraries, archives, museums, publishers, or other information providers including those on the
Internet (UNESCO, 2019).
Media literacy, put simply, is the ability to identify different types of media and the messages they are
sending. When we speak of media, it encompasses print media, such as newspapers, magazines and
posters, and theatrical presentations, tweets, radio broadcasts, etc. Being able to understand these
various forms of information with an ability to make sense of what is presented is key.

As an informed viewer, the burden is on you to first be able to read or view the media and decipher
what messages are being conveyed. Analyze the images to decide whether they present a fair depiction
of both sides of the argument. It is pivotal for us to consider the source of the information and ask
ourselves what the person’s objective is. This can clarify whether it is a reliable source or not.

Therefore it is important when using various forms of media to consider the purpose of the information
you are viewing, also to consider the credibility of the source, as well to draw a conclusion about the
viewpoint or position being presented.

History of Journalism in the World

Printing presses existed in China thousands of years ago, mechanical means of printing in the western
world can be traced back to the 1450s and the first Gutenberg Bible. This process created the possibility
of accounts of events developing from the spoken to the written word. The first period in which there is
solid evidence that printed accounts of events were made available to a mass public is during the English
Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century It is not entirely clear when a first publication that can be
termed a newspaper was first published but most historians agree that it was probably in the 1620s in
Italy and Germany. Until 1694 anyone in England who wanted to publish first had to get a license from
the state.

The abolition of the Star Chamber in England in 1641 allowed some press freedom and the same year
saw the first publication of reports of parliamentary proceedings. The English Civil War provided the
need for both information and propaganda by the competing Royalists and Parliamentarians, each of
which produced their own news sheets. Unfortunately, victory for the Parliamentarians resulted in the
reintroduction by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 of a strict licensing system for newspapers, and even – after
the restoration of the monarchy – a new Printing Act in 1662, which contained stringent controls on the
press. The London Gazette, founded in February 1666, has survived through the ages and is now the
world’s oldest surviving periodical. The first daily paper in England was the Daily Courant, which began
publishing in 1702.

History of Campus Journalism in the Philippines

The history of campus journalism in the Philippines started when the University of Santo Tomas
published El Liliputiense in 1890. The University of the Philippines published The College Folio, now The
Philippine Collegian, in 1910. The Torch of the Philippine Normal University, The Guidon of the Atenbeo
de Manila University, and Ther Varsitarian of University of Santo Tomas were also published two years
later.

Carlos Romulo y Peña edited The Coconut, the official student publication of the Manila High School,
now the Araullo High School. It was published in 1912 and is now considered as the first and oldest high
school newspaper in the country.
In 1923, the La Union School published The La Union Tab, the first printed and regularly issued high
school newspaper in the country.

Other student publications were:

1. The Pampangan, Pampanga High School – published in 1925

2. The Leytean, Leyte High School – published in 1925
3. The Rizalian, Rizal High School – published in 1926
4. The Coconut, Tayabas High School – published in 1927
5. The Volcano, Batangas High School – published in 1927
6. The Toil, La Union Trade School – published in 1928
7. The Samarinian, Samar High School – published in 1928
8. The Melting Pot, Tarlac High School – published in 1929
9. The Granary, Nueva Ecija High School -– published in 1929
10. The Torres Torch, Torres High School – published in 1930
11. The Cagayan Student Chronicle, Cagayan High School – published in 1931

In 1931, 30 out of 106 high schools in the country had campus newspapers registered at the Bureau of
Public Schools. In 1950, this number increased to 169; by 1954, to 253; by 1975, to 500; and by 1986, to
more than 900 newspapers in English and in Filipino.

Principles of Journalism