Let's be honest. From Baby Boomers, Millenials, and Gen Zs, our day-to-day lives aren't complete without looking at our smartphones. From memes, pop culture, and even news, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube have become our primary sources of information.
We have become accustomed to trusting vloggers and bloggers that put out content for us to consume. However, along with these advancements, we seem to neglect that with the rise of the digital age, comes a great responsibility to be vigilant about what we consume as readers.
Recently, according to appointed press secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles, accrediting vloggers to cover President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang will be a priority of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).
Her statement has gathered a lot of reactions and with that, we ask the Gen Zs take on this issue. Here are some of their response.
Self-interest is not enough for credibility
A lot of up-and-coming vloggers and bloggers have been making waves on social media platforms, video after video, post after post; while some of them mean good, there are also those who use these platforms to spread lies and hate.
"Marked by blind idolatry, every negative text that points to one, sadly, gets to be refused to be recognized; in absence of fact-checking, people just go straight to protecting individuals who piqued their interests (of course, most of them do not even have factual reasons to be acting as such). Things depend to their belief, with or without basis."- Jovel, 21
"The reason why people nowadays tend to trust vloggers over mainstream media journalists is the authenticity of their opinions, along with knowing that they are not controlled or censored by big corporations.The more vloggers associate themselves with mainstream media, the higher the chance they could soon sellout to be an instrument/puppet of propaganda on behalf of a mainstream media corporation." - Raycer, 23
Mainstream media isn't the training ground, it's the battlefield
Being part of mainstream media is not just a hobby, it is a profession that needs to be taken seriously. While it's easy now for a person that has a camera and a smile that can capture people's hearts to become an influencer, this is where we draw the line between their differences with journalists. These journalists took rigorous training to become the professionals they are today.
"I do not agree that they should be part of mainstream media because mainstream media spans a wider audience. What would become of reliable news outlets and journalists if people with no actual training, knowledge, and practice could be part of mainstream media? Given that there are a lot of people already deceived by fake news, having vloggers and bloggers into mainstream media would only aggravate social conflict." - Tasha, 23
"They can share their opinion only by what they believe is right, unlike journalists that had been professionally doing it for many years with further research by doing interviews just to not make it a one perspective currents of thoughts." - Rose, 25
What we can do as netizens
Today, everyone can have the ability to influence anyone with what they want as they wish. Times are changing drastically, with social media platforms being the leading sources of information people can easily access. While this is a privilege, we should also be aware that these will also come with its disadvantages.
"Worldwide media, especially ours, have been jeopardized for the longest time. We cannot afford to be fed by blind opinions and fake news. Putting vloggers and bloggers in the same level as the journalists is a massive disrespect to the journalists, audience, and truth. They should not be part of the mainstream media as they would only imperil everyone to the scariest extent." - Jovel, 21
As much as we enjoy what we read and watch on these platforms every day, turning a blind eye to the wrongs of social media won't make you any less of the people doing them. Let us strive to shed light on what is right and help in educating one another with information that will help fight fake news peddlers.
