TV monitors

Reporting Asia
CHEERS TO ANC’s Top Story for trying to move beyond the parochial orientation that characterize much of the Philippine press when it comes to news about the rest of Asia.

The program now has a segment devoted exclusively to news and issues from and about Asia, aside from its regular international news segment. Called “Across Asia”, the segment should prove helpful to the viewers who want to understand recent events in the region. Last Oct. 29, for example, it aired updates on a recent earthquake in Pakistan, the discovery of more melamine-tainted eggs from China, and Syria’s decision to close U.S. buildings in Damascus after a U.S. military attack on a Syrian village. Last Oct. 31, the segment looked into rumors on the supposedly deteriorating health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and aired updates on a recent series of bomb blasts in India’s northeastern state of Assam.

“Across Asia” only lasts around two minutes. But it’s a start.
Context plus
CHEERS TO Newswatch for providing a local context to an international environmental study. The report explained how a study on the relationship between cloud formation and global warming by 200 experts from 10 countries could affect the Philippines in terms of environmental management and weather forecasting (Oct. 30). The report discussed what clouds are and how they are formed, among others. It gathered data from the World Meteorological Association and interviewed the heads of Environmental Management Bureau and Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Covering irrelevance
JEERS TO 24 Oras for, once again, airing irrelevant foreign news with animals involved.

24 Oras last Oct. 31 reported about a kitten trapped in the engine compartment of a car, “Kuting na nakulong sa umaandar na kotse, nailigtas” (Kitten trapped while car engine was running saved)). The kitten was apparently discovered only after the driver had traveled 33 kilometers.

The incident would have been a non-news event even if it happened in the country, but was even more irrelevant because it occurred in the US. Do the media need reminding that they could better serve the public if they provide information that is actually relevant to their lives?

(In its Oct. 2008 issue, PJR Reports jeered 24 Oras for a Sept. 8 story about a family of bobcats living in the backyard of an abandoned house in California.)

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