Media and Information Literacy PDF

Media and Information Literacy Quarter 4 – Module 9: The Power of Media and Information  What I Need to Know MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCY Cite an example of an issue showing the power of media and information to affect change. OBJECTIVES After going throu...

Media and Information Literacy Quarter 4 – Module 9: The Power of Media and Information  What I Need to Know MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCY Cite an example of an issue showing the power of media and information to affect change. OBJECTIVES After going through this module, you are expected to: 1. Explain the opportunities provided by the internet to empower people; 2. Discuss the effects of the internet as a popularizing agent; 3. Cite personal experiences on the effects of the power of media and information 4. Promote a local tourist destination, hobby or business through social media What I Know Directions: Write T if the statement is true; otherwise, write F. Write your answers on your provided answer sheet. 1. A citizen journalist must be equipped with high-end cameras to tell news. 2. Online selling started during the pandemic. 3. People become effective agents in promoting tourism through social media. 4. Being a watchdog is one of the roles of media in a democratic country. 5. E-commerce can be seen even in Facebook. 6. Citizen journalism involves the gathering and reporting of news by people who are trained as professional journalists. 7. Citizen journalists have the advantage of capturing news where it happens and as it happens. 8. Social media has nothing to do with tourism. 9. e-commerce refers to products being sold through the internet. 10.Community problems and complaints are normal content of citizen journalists’ reports. 1  Module The Power of Media 9 and Information “Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.” - Jay Baer The analogy was well thought of. Social media is not like any ordinary fuel. It is an efficient energy source that gets your engine running nicely and optimizes its power. Just think about us, the social media savvies, as cars loaded with high octane fuel. Surely, we would be going places at top speed, wouldn’t we? Because of the internet, never has information been as accessible as ever, and it is not just us receiving info; it is also us enabled to spread info like wildfire. So how does this go? Let’s explore. What’s In You Got the Power Over the centuries, media and information has empowered people to improve themselves and create an impact for their societies. With the advancement of technology, we have practically become “super humans” in the light of media and information. So what are these special powers that we get through media? Consider the drawings on the side as your visual representation of “Super MIL”. List down the power that he/she possesses. Take note, we are not talking fiction here, so make sure that the powers you list are rooted to reality. Write your answer on your answer sheet. 1. _____________________________________ 2. _____________________________________ 3. _____________________________________ 4. _____________________________________ 5. _____________________________________ 6. _____________________________________ 2  What’s New What’s on a Wall? We are used to seeing graffiti on practically any open surface we can think of – from walls to classroom desks. We may not be able to pinpoint the culprit of "Graffiti on a wall" by Welsh Icons (Dom) is licensed under CC these unwanted art forms, but we may BY-NC 2.0 detect which group or gang can be held responsible. In your opinion, why do some people draw on walls? What could be their motivation in doing so, and most importantly, what is the impact of these graffiti to the viewing public? Is this an exercise of our “freedom of expression” or are these done just for art’s sake? Please share your opinion regarding this on your answer sheet. What is It Citizen Journalism When I was a kid, I used to wonder why there were angry scribbles on any vacant wall in town, as well as posters that promoted not products but ideologies and demands, like salary increase, rights for the laborers, and the like. I asked myself why people resorted to such public rants instead of formal dialogues with the authorities, and I wondered if other people could find meaning from these unwanted posts. Later on, I realized that the wall can be a very essential canvass for expression, because anything that can be placed there can stay "Citizen Journalism" by Nick Gulotta is licensed a long time, and in case someone else cleans it up, the “communicators” can still find ways to write them back. The walls as a medium give a sense of power to express what cannot be communicated through other means. I fully realized the sense of empowerment through media in another incident that happened back in 1998. During that year’s national elections, I volunteered in a Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), a group that aimed to guard the smooth running of the elections. Since I 3 was the photographer in our college’s school newspaper, I was asked to bring my camera in the voting precinct where I would be assigned. On the election day, I was tipped to go to the entrance of the voting precinct to shoot. There, I found a local candidate, casually shaking the hands of people as they enter the venue. Such act is a form of campaign, and it is forbidden to do such on election day. The very sight of me shooting was enough for the local candidate to leave the sight instantly. At that time, I felt I was holding a very frightening gadget, like the Infinity Gauntlet, and that I had a superpower that could change the course of destiny. I felt empowered. This sense of empowerment is much more heightened these days with social media that is capable of making a local news a viral sensation. This is citizen journalism. Mare, Keith, Marimbe and Mukundu (2018) gathered various definitions of citizen journalism. These are: The gathering and reporting of news by people who are not trained as professional journalists (Hermans, Vergeer and D'Haenens, 2009.) The act in which a citizen, or group of citizens play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information with the intention of providing independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that is required for democracy and development (Bowman and Willis, 2003) An alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, which uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism (Lievrouw, 2013). The instance when the people, otherwise known as the audience, employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another. (Rosen, 2008) To simplify matters, citizen journalism empowers anybody through modern technology and connectivity to create, enhance or verify media on their own or with others. Do you still recall the “watchdog” role of media in a democratic society? This is a clear-cut example of the fulfillment of that role. Read this report on how citizen journalism addressed issues in a local community during the pandemic. Since the story happened in India, you may reflect whether the same scenario is happening in the Philippines. 4  IMPACT-DRIVEN JOURNALISM DURING THE PANDEMIC By Devansh Mehta Apr 29, 2020 The people of Hardauli village in Madhya Pradesh, India, were frightened. On March 30, one week after the Indian government announced a three-week nationwide lockdown, six families returned from the city of Pune, a COVID-19 hotspot. Some migrants were coughing, and despite government orders that returning migrants exhibiting symptoms should be tested, the returnees refused to go to health authorities. Frightened and with nowhere else to turn, a citizen journalist from the village reported this incident on a toll-free number operated by CGNet Swara, a journalism outlet working to amplify the voices of tribal and rural citizens in central India, many of whom cannot read or write. Health authorities soon paid a visit to the migrants, and their COVID-19 tests came back negative. The same citizen journalist reported that the fear in the village had been lifted. At CGNet Swara, our focus is on bringing tangible change to our community. We do so by using a citizen journalism model where anyone with a basic non-smartphone can call a toll-free number and press one to report a story and two to hear the stories reported by others. Every day about 80 callers report stories, and 500 callers listen to the fact-checked and verified stories. About half the stories reported are cultural songs and other folklore that our rural, indigenous communities wish to share, while the other half are problems they are experiencing for which they need assistance. Measuring the success of a publication is critical to encourage the support of funders, subscribers and readers. Many organizations measure their success by focusing on analytics such as pageviews. At CGNet Swara we take a different approach, focusing entirely on impact reports — the number of times our reporting led to a problem being resolved. One organization that has led the way on the use of concrete metrics to measure impact is the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which advertises a 56,000% return on investment. This means that for every US$1 donated to them, US$560 is returned to the public as a result of their investigations. An impact-driven model becomes ever-more critical in the context of the present pandemic when journalists need to be able to innovate the tools and technologies that can help them better serve their communities. In the time that CGNet Swara has been using a citizen journalism model to crowdsource problems reported in rural communities, we have helped to solve everything from broken hand pumps to the non-payment of government 5 wages. Each time our reporting results in community change, our staff files an impact report to quantify our success. In the last 10 years since we started this model, we have received more than 700 impact reports, but we see a huge possibility for growth. One of the key metrics we track at CGNet Swara is the total operating budget divided by the number of impact reports for that year. In 2018-19, this came to about US$450 per problem solved for our rural communities. However, in normal circumstances, only 10% of the problems reported by rural communities get solved. Our team saw the opportunity to reduce the cost of each impact to as little as US$45 by facilitating solutions to more issues that were being reported. To increase the number of solutions — and impact reports — we embarked on an experiment to develop a technological solution to increase the participation of urban volunteers, and ultimately grow the number of solutions. We started with a workshop in Mumbai in September 2017 consisting of urban working professionals, students and professors. Each attendee received a list of problems and the phone number of the government officer responsible for solving that particular issue. We made two observations from the workshop: rural government officers often got flustered receiving calls from big cities like Mumbai, and the workshop participants left with a real sense of accomplishment. “You think you are being productive in your day job but calling someone up and solving a remote problem is just incredible. It’s one of the few activities that are a win-win for everyone,” said Rishabh Kathotia, an equity who participated in the workshop. “I would absolutely do it again.” However, we couldn’t rely on in-person events, and wanted to find a technological solution. During another workshop at a technology institute in Bangalore, again with students, professors and working professionals, participants spent time calling rural officers and trying to solve the problems reported by villagers. Afterwards, they presented their idea for a technological solution that could scale up the activities they undertook earlier. Armed with these insights, our team at CGNet Swara started developing an app that could scale the process of individual volunteers adopting and solving problems reported by villagers. We tested the first version of the app with help from undergraduate journalism students from St. Xaviers Mumbai. At the end of their assignment, over 15 students had made an online petition on the problem they had adopted. One villager even reported an impact: the large piles of garbage lying in his area were cleared by the government. We reported on the work of these 6 students and broadcast it to the rural communities to demonstrate the power of both groups working together. The application launched just in time, as soon after, the Indian government announced a lockdown to tackle the novel corona virus. CGNet Swara has gotten a deluge of reports from rural communities. These reports have included fears of local residents flouting social distancing norms and migrant laborers unable to pay their rent or having to eat food with insects in it. We knew many people were at home and eager to contribute in any capacity, so we engaged them as volunteers to help solve the many COVID- 19 related issues reported on our platform. One of our volunteers in Raipur, Snehil Saraf, discovered a case of 90 migrant laborers that were unable to return to their village, and whose employer was not giving them enough food during the lockdown. The migrants reported this story on CGNet Swara, and Saraf immediately tweeted to the government authorities. The district collector paid a visit, and ensured that the owner would provide the migrant laborers enough food for the duration of the lockdown. In the last month, there have been over 90 stories reported by citizen journalists seeking a solution to a predicament they are facing. By working with the government and well-meaning volunteers, about 60% of these concerns have resulted in impact reports. The pandemic has laid bare the weakness of the metrics prioritized by media organizations. Despite rising page views and user engagement, media revenue is in a freefall, with layoffs and pay cuts at almost all major media outlets. With traditional metrics failing, it is an opportune time to consider metrics for a new journalism model, one that prioritizes impact in the communities they claim to serve. What’s More The Online Selling Phenomenon Aside from citizen journalism, there are other instances by which people are empowered by media, one of which has become so obvious these days because of the pandemic. With normal trade affected by the months of lockdown, many people can manage business through the basic yet powerful online platform. I believe that you are very much aware of how online selling flourishes these days. Lazada and Shopee have become the virtual malls for people who want easy access to products without leaving their homes. Food can be served conveniently through Grab Food and Food Panda. But more 7 than these, small scale enterprise flourished through online selling via FaceBook Live and deliveries through “pasabuy.” For many Filipinos whose jobs or businesses were affected by the lockdown, these became means of earn a living in the new normal. Read this online article that further explains how online selling thrives in the time of the pandemic. HOW ONLINE SELLING IS THRIVING IN THE NEW NORMAL June 15, 2020 | 1:44 pm By Hannah Mallorca, Features Writer, The Philippine STAR The growth of many e-commerce platforms is the effect of transition from traditional shopping channels to online platforms during quarantine. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused the rise and fall of several industries worldwide. Even though e-commerce platforms have long been on the rise, the process was fast-tracked when quarantine guidelines were put into place. With the absence of traditional shopping channels, customers have flocked to ecommerce platforms to secure purchases and transactions. Many stores and restaurants have also transitioned online to serve their target market. To discuss the current state of online selling in the new normal, The Philippine STAR’s Career Guide shared insights on the progress of e- commerce platforms and other online means during this time. The online discussion featured Entrego retail director Xervin Maulanin, PurpleBug Inc. president and CEO Marlon Gonzales, La Carnita Modern Mexican Cantina cofounder Lenlen Mesina, Lazada Philippines head of business development Petrus Carbonell, and Seven Days of Greens co- founder Roel Uy Chan. Growth of e-commerce platforms Even though various e-commerce platforms were established pre- pandemic, its identity strengthened since the start of quarantine. Mr. Carbonell shared that Lazada has witnessed significant growth. “So far, we see a lot of demand. We’re also seeing people who are more interested in starting their businesses online,” he added. “I think this will continue even after quarantine and if you think about it, these trends have always been present. Ang nangyari lang ngayong quarantine, na-accelerate siya.” According to Mr. Carbonell, some of the most popular products in Lazada’s platform are groceries, medical items, and ready-to-eat products. 8  Mr. Maulanin noted that the transition from traditional shopping methods into online has pushed e-commerce platforms to sell more essential goods and daily needs. He added that delivery personnel are also considered as frontliners due to their service during the quarantine. “Lumalaki ang volume natin compared to before. We’re still a long way to go before online shopping becomes the predominant channel for us, but I think we’re going to see a lot of acceleration there. We’re very excited to see ano’ng magiging trend nito,” he said. Transitioning from traditional shopping methods to online The pandemic has caused many businesses to transition to online to cater to its customers. Many restaurants have also moved towards delivery services to serve their target market. According to Ms. Mesina, proper research and development are needed to ensure the quality of Cantina’s products even in the new normal. “At the moment, what we’re trying to do, instead of dispensing or distributing the product, we had to come up with product lines that can be experienced by the customers in the comfort of their homes, that’s why we really value the support and the service of third-party suppliers when it comes to delivery,” she shared. Ms. Mesina also noted that the quarantine is an opportunity for many businesses to understand how to navigate into e-commerce and to incorporate online payments. “You need to make sure that you’re able to deliver what you’re promising to your online market and that the product is available from you. It’s also not just being available, the products must be consistent and of very good quality kasi ‘yun ‘yung magiging labanan when it comes to online selling,” she added. On the other hand, Mr. Gonzales said that quarantine has challenged e- commerce platforms, restaurants and other online sellers to develop its services since it will reflect on customers. “People will always buy if maganda ‘yung feedback na makikita nila. What we’ve noticed din karamihan ng returning customers namin are referrals so very important ‘yung feedback na nakikita nila online,” he said. Mr. Uy Chan stated that the new normal has also urged online sellers, e- commerce platforms and restaurants to refine collaboration methods with its partner channels to ensure quality service. “The principle behind online selling is still intact and similar to traditional selling wherever you go. It’s still just a channel,” he added. In addition, Mr. Carbonell noted that e-commerce platforms and online sellers would continue to grow, even in a post-pandemic society. 9  “In terms of the potential of people reaching success, I would say that the sky is the limit because we see new millionaire sellers every time that we run a campaign. I’m not saying that everyone who goes online will be successful, but we see many cases that the potential is huge,” he said. Online selling platforms have witnessed significant growth in customer behavior during the pandemic. With this, it’s up to business sectors to improve its services to ensure loyalty among its target market. What I Have Learned Let us set into Philippine context the power of citizen journalism. Gather three different news items posted by Filipino citizen journalists from social media platforms that went viral and were broadcast in any of the major Philippine networks. If possible, include a screenshot as an evidence. Use another sheet for this activity. Follow this format: Who contributed? Patrick Mariano When was it published? October 16, 2020 Where did it happen? Nangka, Marikina What happened? Truck drivers bought all the ice candies of the sidewalk vendor who endured the rains just to earn a living. 10  What I Can Do Tourism.com Another field that benefits from the empowerment through social media is tourism. Perhaps you would agree that oftentimes, your choice of a travel destination highly depends on the posts that you see in social media, and the more “Instagrammable” or "File:Whang-od tattooing.jpg" by Mawg64 is licensed under CC BY- photogenic the place is, the more you SA 4.0 would be enticed to go there. Take for instance the case of Apo WhangOd, the popular indigenous tattoo artist from the Cordilleras. Because of the social media posts about the traditional hand- tapped, charcoal-inked tattoo art procedure practiced by the famed centenarian Apo Whang-od, many were enticed to be tattooed by the old lady herself, even if it meant having to travel for hours to her village in Buscalan, Kalinga. Thanks to media, Whang-od’s presence became viral, and more and more people came to see her. Currently, she cannot work hand-on on all her increasing clients, but she has trained some younger relatives to tattoo. If before, Whang-Od dictates the tattoo design she would bestow on her clients, today, visitors can check out the catalogued design to be followed by the younger tattooists. However, this indigenous artist still gives her “personal touch” to the design by tattooing her three-dot signature. Now, here’s your task: What do you consider as your hometown? Promote your hometown as a tourist attraction. Use the best picture you can access (either from your personal collection or from other online sources) and explain why this deserves to be visited. Use another sheet for this activity. You may use the sample format or you may create your own. Calamba may be known for its hot spring resorts, but sometimes, going back to the basics is much more overwhelming. Isn’t it that the best things in life are free? Along the shores of Laguna de Bay in Barangay Sucol are small natural hot spring ponds that offer a relaxing experience with only the sky above you and the rustic view as your 11  backdrop. These little ponds are called Malakokok, and they surface only during the summer season when the lake water level is dry. So if you want an inexpensive way to commune with nature, far from the sounds of modern living, you ought to try this place. Assessment Vloggers are powerful media and information advocates. The content that they share can influence public opinion, mobilize netizens to make a stand, and command a choice. Below are short narratives of online content created by YouTube vloggers. Based on these narratives, identify whether the vlogger is a: A. watchdog B. tourism promoter C. commerce influencer Write only the letter of your corresponding choice on your answer sheet. 1. Will Dasovich, a Filipino-American vlogger, narrates his experience of living in America during the pandemic. 2. Letisha Velasco from Pangasinan promotes affordable cosmetic line in her make-over vlogs. 3. Andi Eigenmann and Philmar Alipayo vlog about their simple life in Siargao through their channel “Happy Islanders.” 4. Kiko Rustia posts content on where to buy the most reasonably priced products in the Philippines. 5. Social media influencer Mimiyuuuh vlogs about a trip while mentioning the clothes she brought from Lazada. 6. Betina Carlos shares her recipe for red velvet cakes together with its production cost. 7. Basel Manadil (The Hungry Syrian Wanderer) posts positive reviews about the Philippines and aid victims of natural disasters. 8. Nuseir Yassin (Nas Daily) from Israel explains in one of his vlogs that the Philippines is his favorite country to visit. 9. American YouTube celebrity Carson Moody, a.k.a. Bisayang Hilaw posted about a beautiful blue man-made lagoon in Negros island. 10. DJ and vlogger Gandang Kara posted her kidnap prank with Papa Jackson showcasing 88 Hot Spring Resort in Pansol, Calamba, Laguna last October 26, 2020. 12  Additional Activities "Spiderman over the Lima, Peru cityscape" by T.78UopXx is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 One of the most memorable quotes for 1. me comes from the movie Spiderman: “With great power comes great 2. responsibility. Now, put this in the context of the power of media. List down 3. at least three ways by which you can exercise your power responsibly as a media and information literate individual. 13