It’s easy to ditch the media, if you think the institution is biased, corrupt and useless.

Regardless of whatever pushes you to make such sweeping generalizations, you can just stop watching, reading, and consuming right now.

But you won’t.

Because whether you like it or not, the media is just as important as you are in a democracy. It has been and will always be.

So you think you can dismantle and discredit an entire industry just like that? Just because you now have the Internet that kisses your ass, your prejudices, your rage, and your ignorance? No.

And it bothers you, that the media is powerful. It can build and destroy tomorrow’s history. It can choose to err and cause havoc, withhold warnings in times of disaster, be silent about laws and policies, ignore the worsening traffic, and not report crime at all just to feign your feeling safe.

But the media is indestructible. So you resort to demonizing and demoralizing it thinking by doing so you will break the wolf’s legs and make it a lapdog.

“Journalism doesn’t exist in this country anymore,” read a Facebook comment. You’ve even baptized media with a new name — presstitutes, a portmanteau of the words “press” and “prostitutes.” But of course we’ll just shrug these off at crunch time. We don’t have much time to waste to beat the deadlines.

But have you ever considered how disadvantaged most media workers are — working long hours, multiple shows a day just to earn a living? In the television industry, most media workers toil under expiring contracts without proper benefits.

Yet day in and day out, we press on with our jobs. Jessica Soho was right when she once said, “Anyone who survives the newsroom, can survive anything. I will not wish this job on anyone, not even my worst enemy. It is a thankless job.”

[Entry 169, The SubSelfie Blog]

About the Author:

Ephraim Aguilar is a ukester, a vegetarian and a striving minimalist. Presently, he is an Executive Producer for News TV Live and Balitanghali Weekend and a News Producer for State of the Nation with Jessica Soho. He was also previously a Southern Luzon Correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Journalism 2006, Bicol University. Read more of his articles here.