On Fire
asantiago@theguidon.com 

Dolphy’s passing was officially confirmed by his partner, Zsa Zsa Padilla, at 9:06 PM last July 10. Rufa Mae Quinto, however, had announced it to her Twitter followers at 8:25 PM.

Whether or not Quinto had gotten the news early (as the rumored girlfriend of a Quizon) is not the issue here. Nor is it the fact that she thought it appropriate to send her condolences on Twitter.

The issue here, according to the Internet, was the fact that she chose to relay the news even before Dolphyís family had taken the chance to confirm it themselves. “Delicadeza man lang,” the online herd said, without taking into consideration that they themselves had retweeted her message. Or at least spouted variations of it.

We can’t deny that the Philippines is a culture that loves to gossip. Nightly, we’re beleaguered with headlines such as “Hunky actor, liligawan si sexy starlet!” that we find it the norm to constantly be talking about other people, without regard as to whether what we’re talking about is factual or just mere hearsay.

From the sampayan to the smartphone, we’ve been so ingrained in the chismosa culture that it’s become almost second nature to just report without verification. There’s this stigma that we always have to be ahead when it comes to knowing the news.

Social media has made it possible for anyone with a 3G connection and a Twitter account to play journalist. At the rate it’s going, however, it could well be considered the everyman’s edition of The Amazing Race. Instead of a million dollars, however, everyone is racing for the opportunity to be the first to “report” something, without taking the opportunity to prove information.

Another recent example hits closer to home. President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 23 was a cause of class suspensions in schools all over the metro–—including, supposedly, the Ateneo.

But because of unverified news spreading on Facebook and Twitter, the fact that only the grade and high schools, and not the Loyola Schools, had suspended classes was ignored. We even created a hashtag—–#PogiSiVPVergara–—to urge our admin to just hurry up and cancel classes already. We didn’t pause to think as to whether the news was real or not, because it had already spread amongst our followers or Facebook friends.

We live in a time where fast reporting has seemingly come at the expense of diminishing accuracy. The real-time element of social media has given way for news to be relayed faster, but it is also a double-edged sword in the sense that we’ve given up on veracity and replaced it with speed.

It’s time for us to take back the element of truth when it comes to factual reporting. Whether it’s through social media or a conversation with friends, we need to make veracity our first priority. Never mind if we’re “late” when it comes to the news—–wouldn’t you rather maximize your 140 characters with a tweet that’s well-informed and factually correct?

Quinto’s Twitter mistake was eventually forgotten in the days following Dolphy’s passing–the nation decided to focus instead on his colorful life, rather than the distasteful manner as to which his death was relayed. What we can’t deny, however, is that it’s already left a bitter aftertaste—–all due to our haste to say we got the scoop.