Filipino bloggers disrespected by TV station & PR agency
Between all the blogging parties, awards, and conferences, you’d think Pinoy bloggers have gained equal footing with mainstream media. Noemi Dado’s and Arpee Lazaro’s and recent experiences prove otherwise.
Noemi Dado vs. ABS-CBN
The first is already familiar: ABS-CBN show TV Patrol World used a photo from her blog without asking permission first. It was even worse this time because it was a photo of her daughter. It took 3 weeks for news anchor TJ Manotoc to apologize to Noemi.
TJ Manotoc, the reporter of the segment called me an hour later after this was posted (oh do I have to blog to get a reply?) but I was unable to pick the call. I just talked to him a while ago. He explained how he got the photos. He interviewed Rhett Eala for the Philippine Flag segment and was told that he could use any of the publicity photos. His team googled for the images and my daughter’s photo came about. Since they were in a rush, they didn’t bother to get the source of the photo. Ooops, not a good idea I said.
Arpee Lazaro vs. Jayce Perlas
The second is another version of awful: Jayce Perlas of the Perlas and Luna PR agency barred him from registering at a Samsung event because his invite could not supposedly be confirmed. A few moments later, two other people asked Arpee which publication he was associated with, and when he explained that he was a blogger, they were confused. They did not know what a blogger is.
Bloggers attend events all the time and understandably, some of us do behave badly. But if it is necessary for us to be humiliated please give us just cause. The lot of us are mostly decent, have above-average spending power and should be treated with respect as you would traditional media people. Bloggers are member of the new media and we are not a hype that will go away anytime soon. I ask PR agencies to please do your homework about bloggers before you have us invited to your events. As far as I know, I never emailed any company asking them to invite me; they’ve always emailed me to attend and even email me again to thank me for going. Mr Perlas and those like him should try to have a bit more PR in their PR work.
You have been warned
If there’s a type of industry that should be properly informed, it should be the media and press relations! You keep acting like you’re better than what it means to be a third world country, and yet you dismiss intellectual property rights, invade other people’s privacy, and have no initiative to stay informed.
You don’t know what copyright infringment is? Funny how you complain every time your shows are uploaded on YouTube (yet use clips from the website—most likely without permission—on your segments anyway).
You don’t know what blogging is? That’s just sad and ironic, since you’re a tech company.
And yet you consider yourselves better than bloggers, or everyone else?
Learn to show respect. A blog can share all the bad moves you’ve made to the whole world. And wait ’til traditional media fades into the background and blogs become as influential as they are abroad. You’ve probably heard that several newspapers and magazines in the US have shut down print production and have gone exclusively online.
Considering the Philippines is so in love with America, it’s only a matter of time for us to “imitate” them. The question is, will your fancy media company or PR agency survive the layoffs by then?
Ample warning, folks.
When Blogs Become Unacknowledged Mainstream Media Sources
Blogs being scraped and plagiarized by other blogs is one thing, but what do you do about the beast that is mainstream media? It’s very disappointing for this type of thing to happen, since television and newspaper companies often consider themselves far more legitimate and reputable than anything that comes from the Internet.
Yet we are experiencing an emerging culture of taking things without asking permission, much less giving proper attribution. It could be a bunch of different reasons, mostly revolving around ignorance, but what does that say about supposedly educated professionals in the fields of journalism and mass media? Where are these people’s ethics?
This is a lesson for both providers of content and those who are in need of it: Just because you can find it on Google doesn’t mean you can use it for yourself. If the TV stations strongly oppose putting their shows on YouTube, then they should treat online content with the same respect they expect. Konting respeto lang.
Similarly, if you put anything on the Internet, it is bound to be plagiarized. Certain measures can be taken to avoid this, but the most desperate of people will still find a way to steal your content: remove watermarks, paraphrase sentences, et cetera.
I’m sure bloggers would be honored for their writings, photographs, and other creations to be featured in “the real world”. There’s a reason why Creative Commons emerged as a more generous alternative to copyright. And for those who don’t already know, we have a local group that has ported the Creative Commons licenses into the Philippine legal context, so creators are more protected than ever. The problem is, people don’t read. We don’t read street signs, we don’t follow instructions. We just go online and take whatever it is we need without worrying about the consequences. CC licenses are already easy to read, but we don’t take time out to understand what “non-commercial use” even means! Because chances are, we won’t get caught anyway.
Then again, the Philippine blogging community is growing more assertive and formidable each year. And this dilemma is one of the best ways we can prove that. Act now, fellow Pinoy bloggers!
