May 01, 1996

What’s wrong with our media today? All of a sudden there is a rise in “vulgar journalism.” Local TV programs are dominated by movie TV programs in our society. Shows as if these are the most important programs in our society. There are more Talks Show now than ever before, exposing the private lives of actors and actresses, topics that should only be discussed in the privacy of the family’s bedroom. Enlarged photographs of grisly crimes and victims of domestic violence are even bannered in the front pages of broadsheet newspapers making them look like “big tabloids.” These have become our national past time, our “social lubrication” when we talk to friends and strangers alike. This has become our “communion” (common-union).

Why? To sell more copies and make the issue a national agenda? What for? To make a vulgar nation of us all? Some newspaper columnists even follow this “vulgar” formula to earn more readership perhaps?

Media have a natural affinity with the bizarre, the abnormal and the strange. To sustain media and for their survival, they depend on sensationalizing news, amplifying any kind of violence, uncovering private lives of public figures or celebrities, and passing on as news gossips. This is a sure fire formula for attracting Filipino readership, listeners, and viewing audiences. With wider readership and bigger audiences come more advertisements and subsequently, more income.

But is this just a matter of income, a function of economic?

We know that in the US, a rich and powerful country, the Los Angeles’ National Inquirer is a best selling tabloid, with nationwide circulation. The Globe based in Chicago is another major best selling US tabloid. Another rich nation that formerly controlled the world, England, publishes in London, the Sun, another best selling tabloid specializing on the hidden lives of Britain’s royal celebrities. So it seems that economics is not the only reason.

It seems that our human nature has a propensity for the abnormal, the bizarre and the strange. This is the product of original sin when Adam and Eve wanted to know “good and evil” in the garden of Eden. Since then, we were never the same.

This kind of media, to flourish and survive, need to cater to the lower instincts of our human nature.

But we are in the age of the resurrection. The power of the Risen Lord has made all good things possible. Can we not invite media to participate in the redemption of our “damaged culture?” It is the media that should mirror our society but it does not follow that it should leave it there in its rawest form. Media can also lift up our basic human instincts and raise it to the level of the sublime because there is that other side of us, the divine side.

We are concerned because we recognize the power of media, not only to inform but also to form individuals and society. The public picks out role models from media. From the media, they pick up moral solutions to their daily problems. They internalize the values, attitudes and behavior of the media diet presented to them, hour on the hour, day by day, day and night. Media are the new teachers in the electronic age. They are the new prophets of cyber space that goes beyond the confines of the home, the school or the church.

Media people do have responsibilities to tell the news as it is, as it really happens but at the same time, they need to put them in a context that does not kill the Filipino spirit, but challenges it to higher heights. Media can also do this. There is a choice.

We would like to call media people of good will to be true to their profession, to provide extensive and balanced reporting, to be guided by their professions’ Code of Ethics and to focus more on the welfare of the country and our people. We can do this with the power of the Risen Lord.

Devotedly in Christ,

(Sgd.) + JAIME L. CARDINAL SIN, D.D.

Archbishop of Manila