New, more powerful ‘mosquito press’ emerges
ONE indication that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has become extremely unpopular that he might not make it to the end of his term in 2028 is the fact that there has emerged an alternative, intensely anti-Marcos press, roughly the equivalent of the so-called mosquito press of the martial law years.
This mosquito press negated the narrative of the mainstream press that the strongman Marcos tightly controlled and helped form public opinion against the dictatorship, enough to create a people’s uprising triggered by a failed coup d’etat.
Ironically, it was the dictator himself who coined the term “mosquito press” to describe the small, independent publications that persistently criticized his regime.
Marcos likened these alternative media outlets to mosquitoes — annoying but not deadly — implying that, despite their efforts, they posed little threat to his administration. Indeed, all of these mosquito publications, among them We Forum, Malaya, WHO magazine, and Mr & Ms Special Edition, had printed copies of at most 2,000 but were circulated hand to hand and through xeroxed copies. Indeed, many of the reporters and editors of the mosquito press would set up or join what would become the post-dictatorship mainstream papers, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star.
The analogy ends in terms of size. Because of the internet and social media platforms, mainly Facebook and X (Twitter), the reach of this new anti-Marcos media is much, much larger than those of the martial law mosquito press. Going through the pages of the biggest of this new mosquito press, I calculated their followers (equivalent to print newspapers’ subscribership) to be over 2 million. I am certainly not among the biggest “players” in this new field, but followers of my Facebook and X accounts together number 103,000 and 4,600 “friends” on my personal FB page, which has exponentially increased my column’s readership.
Dwarfed
This is dwarfed though by such ordinary anti-Marcos “citizen-influencers” as Krizette Chu, with 479,000 followers of her FB page; Sass Rogando Sasot, a pioneer in this media, with 278,000; MJ Quiambao, with 254,000; Tito Moreno, with 185,000; former Duterte official Lorraine Marie Badoy, with 83,000; and former broadcaster Jay Sonza, with 86, 0000.
I’m a big admirer of the authors of this new mosquito press, which are almost all written by ordinary individuals writing solely for the sake of democracy and patriotism.
Furthermore, what has quickly increased and will continue to increase this new mosquito press’ reach (the equivalent of readers of a newspaper, but not necessarily subscribers, which are “followers”) is social media’s much-criticized “algorithm” which tracks a social-media user’s preferences or sentiments, as indicated in the FB or X pages he reads, and sends similar posts.
For instance, the Facebook account of Cathy Biñag, who claimed that she witnessed President Marcos Jr. and his friends’ cocaine-sniffing parties, now has 90,000 followers. The US-based “Maharlika” (Claire Contreras) who released the alleged video of President Marcos sniffing cocaine and exposed the first lady, Liza Araneta-Marcos’ purported huge role in the Marcos administration, through her Maharlika Network, has 87,000 followers.
Print media has set up their own social media platforms — this newspaper’s FB page, for example, has 1.1 million followers — but they post mostly news articles, especially entertainment news, rather than their columnists’ opinion, which the “mosquito press” posts mostly are. These social media platforms of print (and broadcast) media are, in fact, mere freebie replacements for the actual newspapers.
Anti-Marcos
The internet-based new “mosquito press” is mostly anti-Marcos, while mainstream media are pro-Marcos for various reasons, mainly because of their owners’ financial concerns. The most pro-Marcos newspaper is the Philippine Star, which is owned by the media empire run by Manuel Pangilinan for his boss, the owner, the Indonesian Anthoni Salim. That is certainly ironic as the paper was set up by columnists and the Belmonte family, who had been vehemently anti-Marcos during martial law. Star doesn’t have a single columnist critical of Marcos.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer had once been the most vehement hater of the Marcoses. It seems to have mellowed, with many of its editions (as well as those of the Star) becoming de facto supplements for the property development industry. I wouldn’t be surprised if occasionally Speaker Martin Romualdez’s brother, Philip, whispers to his wife, Inquirer president Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez, that her paper better toe the government line. The Manila Bulletin hasn’t rid itself of its consistently pro-government stance, whoever the president is.
The recent attack by the Marcos administration on the Dutertes has proven that the “mosquito press” can easily counteract mainstream media’s brainwashing. All of mainstream media, bar none, were biased against the former president in the Congress’ attempt to portray him as guilty of widespread extrajudicial killings in his war against illegal drugs. These were (and continuously) similarly so biased against Vice President Sara in the House of Representatives’ efforts to investigate and impeach her.
The Marcos campaign (together with Speaker Romualdez) against the Dutertes by now has obviously backfired, with members of the so-called House quad committee, which undertook the persecution of the Dutertes, recently complaining that their “reputations are being ruined by bloggers.” The quad comm chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers claimed, without presenting any basis, that criticisms against the quad committee were the handiwork of “narco trolls” funded by drug lords. He even made a privilege speech claiming that these “trolls” were “spreading lies, causing chaos, and manipulating public opinion.” (The modern definition of a troll, originally a legendary ugly dwarf or giant, is a person who makes a deliberately offensive or provocative online post for a fee.)
I cannot find a pro-Marcos netizen approaching a similar reach on FB or X as that of the anti-Marcos ordinary netizens, who are quite obviously ordinary citizens. I know columnists, friends even, who are very pro-Marcos and/or anti-Duterte, but I guess they don’t have that fire-in-the-belly (or the post-by-post financing) to defend him day in and day out, unlike the anti-Marcos netizens.
Social media, indeed, has become a citizens’ tool against the powers that be. Marcos and Romualdez are clueless about this fact.
The second part of my column, “Marcos impeachable on the colossal loss of Scarborough,” continues on Friday.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
X: @bobitiglao
Website: www.rigobertotiglao.com
The post New, more powerful ‘mosquito press’ emerges first appeared on Rigoberto Tiglao.
New, more powerful ‘mosquito press’ emerges
Source: Breaking News PH
No comments: