“One of the media’s primary roles
in our world is to inform[1].”
(above images[2] from Medium.com)
Last year, after William Dar was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Rodrigo Duterte, if I remember right,, Mr Dar and his team at the Department of Agriculture, DA, visited the media offices of Inquirer and Manila Times, requesting for active media support for inclusive aggie development in the Philippines.
Good reception. Pictures taken of the media visits, reports written, published online.
The End.
No dedicated news. No part-by-part media reports of what the DA is up under the new leadership. No serious reporting about “The New Thinking for Agriculture” preached by Mr Dar with its “8 Paradigms.” No media-initiated interviews with any of the new officials of the DA, not even with Mr Dar.
With all the lockdowns and Covid-19 scares, we cannot expect the media people out in the countryside going after stories:
Still, the media must inform the people.
So, why not inform with Science for Development?
“Science with a human face” – ICRISAT.
Those 5 words in quotes above made up the slogan the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, adopted with Mr Dar as Director General 2000-2014. It was for ICRISAT based in India; today I mean it for PH media: PH media informing the Filipinos about agricultural knowledge with a human face.
If the media people cannot go out, they can interview Mr Dar for instance about:
Where is Ani & Kita coming from
and where is it going?
Question: Why have the media not been doing something like that?!
Because media people have not been taught in any schools of journalism about inclusive development– where the media are included in helping science move from lab to field, theory to practice.
Just because they are not directly involved, media do not see that media are not exempt from agriculture and what is happening out there, lockdown or not.
And yet all the media gleefullypick up the story when a farmer leader or group speaks out against something or other in agriculture! Such as low buying price of rice – and blaming it on government.
PH media do not have to know much about agriculture to be able to write on it intelligently and productively. They can always ask questions, including silly ones – the interviewee won’t laugh.
If PH media cannot visit the cities, towns and villages in the Philippines near or far from Metro Manila, they can always interview DA officials who are or who have been there. Easy – digitally!
It is not that Secretary of Agriculture William Dar is not approachable – I know him to be not suplado, not standoffish, not cold, not unsociable.
On second thought, the media are the ones who may be suplados! They are not friendly enough to approach Mr Dar and ask questions. If they have doubts, they can arrange for a virtual multi-interview anytime. If they don’t understand the subject matter? I say, keep asking questions. Otherwise, they are suplados!@517
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