NEUTRALITY IN reporting is impossible since journalists’ varied approach to delivering the truth demands subjective evaluation, a veteran reporter said.
In a forum titled “Campus Patrol,” ABS-CBN News chief of reporters Jeff Canoy said journalists are “biased” as their values protrude from the way they craft their stories, but objectivity would come into play when they verify information.
“Actually, all [forms of] journalism [are] biased because the way I would describe this room would be very different from how someone else describes this room. We all have different historicities that will dictate how we view the world—the way we select words, pick sound bites, the way we structure our story,” Canoy said on March 21 at the UST Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. (BGPOP) building.
“Those are all influences of our own biases but again, what matters is the process [of gathering and verifying data],” he added.
Canoy, a Palanca awardee, said boosting news literacy is key to countering false and misleading narratives. Teaching the public how to absorb news could be the first step in attaining this process, he added.
“We can only fact-check so much but at the end of the day, it really goes back to education. It is difficult to explain to people what fake news is if they don’t understand the news to begin with,” he said.
In the same event, Bayan Mo, i-Patrol Mo campaign and training officer Dabet Panelo said fact-checking should be a “way of life” as it is a shared obligation between the media and its audience.
Verifying the integrity of news, Panelo said, should not be considered an option or a responsibility that one may pass to others.
“[Fact-checking] is not a mere choice; it’s not a mere option. ‘Oh, I don’t know how to fact-check so just do it for me.’ It should be that every time we see something on social media, we must remember to consider the source, check the author, check for supporting sources, check the date, check your biases,” she said.
“Even if it’s against our biases, we always look at the truth. We go for accuracy so we will have informed decisions.”
Also present during the event were ABS-CBN News head Francis Toral, who gave the keynote address and Dateline Philippines news anchor Karmina Constantino, who pointed out in her lecture that sometimes standing for the truth comes with being stigmatized as an “adversary.”
“If that is my anchor and foundation for every question I ask, why should I be bothered enough to deal with these labels that I am biased… In all of my works, I’ve always stood for people. Every administration that went by has seen me as an adversary, not for the sake of mere opposition, but because I have always stood for the people,” Constantino said.
The “Campus Patrol,” held at the Dr. Robert C. Sy Grand Ballroom of the BGPOP building, is a media literacy campaign launched in 2024 by ABS-CBN News in collaboration with ABS-CBN Integrated News Events and Partnerships and citizen journalism platform Bayan Mo, i-Patrol Mo.
The annual campaign seeks to teach students about the changing landscape of media in the digital age. F — Kayla Pauline Gonzalez and Raymond Vince Manaloto
