JUST because we wrote about the UST Growling Tigers’ loss does not mean we had lost heart for the Tigers.
For campus journalists, writing about your home team is always a struggle. The heartbreaking news that the Tigers won’t be part of UAAP Season 77 Basketball’s Final Four was no exception. There were several missed opportunities and moments of frustration for Thomasians, the V staff included.
Some supporters of the Tigers have criticized the V for emphasizing the failures of the basketball team, especially with the entry of Bong dela Cruz as coach. But we simply wrote about what happened in the game, win or lose. Our job is to report the facts.
I appreciate how loyal Thomasians have stood up for the team, but the campus journalists’ primary role is to report the news. Do not expect us to report about what really happened and then delete the story after reading angry tweets and comments.
I am not saying that the whole Thomasian community should wallow in the Tigers’ defeat. As their supporters, we should be the first to stand behind them and console them. We should continue to take pride in them for carrying UST’s colors. We saw how the team did its best to bring the crown back to España.
As Thomasians, we need to keep on believing.
But each time we, campus journalists, take on our reporting duties, we forget, albeit temporarily, that we are basketball fans and we remember that the task at hand is to do responsible reportage.
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Just recently, a photo of a mini footbridge built by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) got snickers among netizens, who thought the project was a stupid idea and another waste of money by the government.
The noise started when a netizen nicknamed “Nick” commented on the photo:
“MMDA mini foot bridge project at Quirino Grandstand is one of the ‘Weirdest Project (sic) in the World’. Only in the Philippines. We didn’t only waste money, but (sic) it made us look dumb in the International Engineering Community (sic).”
It turned out that the mini footbridge was built by the MMDA Children’s Safety Park to teach children how to follow safety rules on the street. A photo of that mini footbridge was later uploaded to the Facebook page of MMDA. It showed children being taught by an officer on how to use the bridge safely.
Lawyer Yves Gonzales, former MMDA traffic director, wrote on the website When in Manila that the project was “an ideal venue for school-aged children to learn traffic rules and road safety in a controlled environment.”
The online hatefest wasn’t exactly new. It’s easy for netizens to create a stir, bash anyone, and label anything as stupid or dumb without verificafion. The problem is we get easily swayed by comments. One careless post can generate hundreds, even thousands of hate tweets or comments.
I hope this teaches us a lesson: We should know whereof we speak.
