The media should resist all commercialist trappings and not favor profit over truth-telling. Journalists and news media organizations need to brush up on the normative standards of journalism, if only to realize that bias is inherent and should not be hidden.
With the increasing false information amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication published a series of media literacy videos to help Filipino students become more discerning of news they read or watch and to demand better journalism.
Even if this sounds nebulous, journalistic outputs are inherently biased for the truth. Journalists are therefore expected to use as sources of information the experts (i.e., truth-tellers) instead of “fake news” peddlers.
In the fourth episode of Bulatlatan, community doctor Dr. Gene Nisperos debunked the many narratives peddled by government officials regarding COVID-19 pandemic.
“Just because he is the president does not mean you don’t need to fact-check his claims.”