TV Patrol World’s top story last Friday, 05 June reinforces the popular viewpoint that the quality of news it broadcasts to the public is akin to the stories we read in some lowly tabloids around the metropolis.
Shorn of the elements that make a news story worthy, last Friday’s top story, headlined – “Maghapong pag ulan sanhi ng pagbaha at malawakang trapiko sa Metro Manila” diminishes TV Patrol World’s ability to rank its stories based on importance. Whatever the policy of the TV Network in dealing its news stories is out of the picture here. News, first of all, must be new. And the story reported by certain Wheng Hidalgo literally defeats what we have learned in journalism. With this primary precept in mind, any reporter ought to show in the story that he is reporting something that the people do not know. Even a blind man or anybody who opted to stay home during that rainy day could aptly picture the situation in Metro Manila’s thoroughfares. By quality I meant the breadth of appeal, hence the story’s significance.
The reporter should have swinged her story to a different angle that is more interesting.
Another aspect is the use of “exclusive” in some of TV Patrol’s stories. ‘Exclusive’ seems to be the most abused word in delivering its news reports. In journalism, one must not confine the word to its pure literal meaning. Semantics (in the journalism profession) would dictate that the ‘exclusivity’ of a story is qualitative in essence. Now, question may arise as who determines or measures a story’s essential quality? The head of the news and current affairs who is expected to be a seasoned journalist takes the job on how the story would be treated. Thus, you don’t expect a story about a police raid on a prostitution den labeled or boasted with the word ‘exclusive’ alongside the headline even if the story was gathered solely by the reporter. In this country, prostitution has become sadly ingrained in our society and there is no longer new when we hear a den being raided by the police. Likewise it goes without saying that a reporter is expected to gather stories and if need be, exclusive.
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