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Some
things hardly change or simply refuse to.
For
instance, the combined circulation of all newspapers in
the country prior to the martial law era was at two
million.
Today,
the combined circulation of all newspapers in the
country still stands at two million, some papers hardly
selling even half of their circulated copies any given
day. We may take that to mean that the newspaper
business hasn’t improved. Maybe readership hasn’t picked
up. Or probably every copy of any newspaper is now
passed on to several hundreds of readers hungry for
information.
Readers
don’t just chomp on the day’s news with their breakfast
coffee. As media guru Marshall McLuhan would have it,
“people don’t actually read newspapers. They step into
them every morning like a hot bath.”
With
pittance readership figures in mind, it can be inferred
that not too many Filipinos are taking hot baths these
days but it would be safe to say—lest nonreaders’
feelings are hurt—that we’re not bothered by the smell.
Bringing
hot baths to some 80 million people via two million
printed sheaves of paper may be worth the risk to life
and limb of a Filipino newsman worth his byline. A total
of 76 journalists have been killed since 1986 when a
civilian-backed military mutiny brought an end to
strongman rule. The death toll made the country second
to war-torn
Iraq
as the most dangerous place in the world for
journalists.
In this
neck of the woods, a newsman’s ghastly death in the
hands of assassins hardly prompts a yawn from the
reading public. But any young showbiz personality’s
mysterious pregnancy would be lapped up hook, line and
sinker. That could spawn a tidal wave of chatter in the
other media that have supplanted the printed word—radio,
television, the Internet, even in the swap of messages
among text maniacs that may cost a few hundred pesos a
week in prepaid cards. Why, a newspaper at P10 to P18 a
day still comes cheap and offers a lot more text.
Today’s
readers can take their pick from various media for their
daily bath. Maybe bathos.
As the
global celebration of Press Freedom Week came to a close
yesterday, members of the press need not bother about
standing death threats or possible libel suits or
digging up facts hidden from public view and
interpreting such facts.
The
biggest task ahead may be to mull over strategies aimed
at pleasing, maybe grabbing the attention of the fickle
reader—may their numbers increase. |
