New media

August 25, 2008

The week-long Kadayawan festivities in Davao City went on smoothly even as bubbles of skirmishes percolated in some areas in Mindanao. I think everybody can now breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing that we survived the festivity with not a single violent incident especially if it would have been so easy for trouble to spill over into the city.

Being the main urban center in Mindanao, Davao City is always a prime target for attacks from any rebel group or sympathizer. If Davaoenos and visitors ever felt apprehensive mingling in the crowd as they checked out the different activities, they sure did not let on. I might hate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s guts but I give credit where credit is due. The reason why people can safely walk the streets is a testament to the management capability of the mayor. And I’m not talking about the Davao Death Squad either who have been very active weeks prior to the Kadayawan but suddenly, like clockwork, the killings stopped. I’m no psychic but I could tell right now that bodies will probably turn up in a week or so.

Like clockwork, I tell you.  

Anyway, on to more important things. During the street-dancing competition, some news photographers  complained about being excluded. Apparently, organizers introduced the green sticker this year for those who want to cover the the Indak-Indak for security reasons. Well, I’m fine with that. Organizers, however, failed to inform each newspaper organization about the new measure and so some news photographers were embarrassed when the police blocked their path. Of course, their media IDs weren’t any help.

Meanwhile, off to your right, where Bolton Street intersects with San Pedro Street, bloggers and camera club members were busy snapping away with their cameras. The green sticker emblazoned on their IDs and camera holsters. Well, apparently everybody knew about the “media briefing” where they gave out the passes except the community newspapers.  

There were many horror stories about how reporters and photographers covering the events were treated and I hate to belabor the point, but when two or more journalists are subjected to the same uncouth treatment, a disturbing pattern emerges about how people really view journalists.

I have the benefit of hindsight and so I’m looking at this objectively but I imagine it’s no fun being shooed away by police officers because they didn’t have stickers on.  Ironically enough, the role of journalists at that point was no different from the intent of Kadayawan organizers by employing bloggers and camera club members – promoting Davao City as a tourist destination.  

Now, reports are circulating that a budget of P5,500 for each photographer and blogger was alloted by the city government. While, I don’t care about the money, it would be good to audit where that fund went because somebody might have made big bucks at the expense of legitimate journalists. It’s funny to me especially when, during events, introducing journalists is always preceded by the phrase “friends from the media.” Indeed!

What’s done is done, I guess. It’s interesting to note however the influence of bloggers by virtue of their presence in this year’s Kadayawan. Of course, it’s absurd to think we might have witnessed the passing of the guards because nobody in his right mind would think that blogging have surpassed newspapers in terms of influence. Still, the new dynamics is interesting when we consider that just a year ago, they were not as widely acknowledged by the city government. In fact, it’s interesting enough for me to keep watch how they will fare in the succeeding events.  

Wait, I’m a blogger, too!