She killed Bill Gates and there would be hell to pay.

One day in early April 2002, an editor of a Cagayan de Oro City newspaper ran a report saying the world's richest man, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, had been assassinated.

Unfortunately for her but happily for Gates, the story was a hoax.

The editor had picked it up from an e-mail alert that was making the rounds, supposedly from the CNN website.

The source seemed credible so, without another thought, the editor copied the story and pasted it onto the next day's issue, not realizing the significance of the date she had received it.

It was April Fool's.

Angry calls from readers and ridicule from her colleagues followed, and two months later, the editor resigned.

This story illustrates rather dramatically how newspapers and the journalists that work in them have much to learn about using technology to improve their work and the perils they face if they don't.

There is a learning curve to using technology for the first time.

A new cell phone will come with a manual; a computer, with a "Read Me" file or a "Help" key. Anyone with a new gadget would have to learn how to use it to enjoy its benefits.

The same can be said of Philippine community newspapers that want to use the new tools made possible by the Internet and e-mail.

The Cagayan de Oro City editor who ran the Bill Gates hoax learned two painful lessons: First, technology can be a tool for fooling people.

Second, the same technology can be used to obtain and verify information.

Technology provides new ways of doing journalism but the basic requirements-the need to verify the accuracy of information, to attribute it to a source and to maintain fairness and balance-remain.

A journalist's job

The ubiquity of computers, digital cameras, electronic archives, mobile phones and the Internet makes it vital for journalists to navigate the learning curve.

Technology can be used to play a bad joke on others, but the consequences on journalists- who are expected to report only the truth-can be devastating. The fake Bill Gates report was sent via e-mail and received by some 50 other journalists in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The story appeared genuine, as if lifted directly from the CNN website.

But looks can be deceiving, especially online. The hapless Cagayan de Oro City editor should have known that she could just as easily have used technology to verify the accuracy of her information, especially because the primary responsibility of journalists is to pursue the truth.

In the official reprimand that followed the Gates fiasco, the editor's superiors said she had failed to exercise editorial judgment because she did not follow the rule on double confirmation, especially for controversial or questionable news.

News value chain

Technology affects the whole spectrum of activities in the news value chain. It presents opportunities and challenges to reporters, editors, business managers, news consumers and advertisers.

To journalists, technology means unprecedented access to research and news sources beyond geographical boundaries.

Liberty Pinili, Sun.Star Cebu senior reporter, says a community journalist can now access more references or people for information using the Internet.

Stella Estremera, Sun.Star Davao editor-in-chief, says even "(newsroom) dinosaurs" can at the very least type on a computer. Most community journalists know how to use e-mail and surf the Internet for the day's news. "But very few use the Internet for research not because they don't know how but because they simply don't do further research," she says.

"Not an easy friend"

Jason Fry, The Wall Street Journal Interactive assistant managing editor, in his talk "Newspaper Writing & Editing," says the best defense against the noise and challenges of the Internet is to rely on journalistic values.

"The Web is your friend. But this friend is not an easy friend, especially if you have not paid much attention to what it is doing to journalism," he says. (Taken from the article "It's still journalism" on the Poynter Institute website at www.poynter.org)

To editors, technology means a 24-hour workflow with news posted on the website as they happen and without waiting for the next day's issue.

Marlen Limpag, network online editor of the Sun.Star Network Exchange (Sunnex), says the website office operates almost 24 hours daily even during newspaper holidays like Christmas Day and Good Friday. Breaking news is posted on the website at www.sunstar.com.ph as soon as the report is received from any of the Sun.Star newspapers in the country.

To business managers, technology means having advertisers not only in the newspaper but also on websites and short message system (SMS) or text messages via mobile phones.

To advertisers, it means more ways of delivering the message.

To news consumers, new media mean increased interactivity, participation in a community and wireless ways of getting information, according to the book "News Media and New Media: The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook" edited by Madanmohan Rao.

Community newspapers

The Philippine Press Institute (PPI) lists 94 member-publications nationwide as of November 2004.

Of this number, 74 are distributed in 12 geographical regions outside of Metro Manila (National Capital Region or NCR). These community or regional newspapers cover the news and are printed within their cities, provinces or regions where they are circulated.

Many more publications outside of the NCR may not be PPI members. A report by the PPI to the Unesco for the Globalization of Island Community Newspapers project of 1999 said community newspapers are less well off with moderately developed computerized systems.

"Nevertheless, there is a very large number of community newspapers in the outlying islands with the wide-scope task of reporting information of great importance to everyday life, to the economy and to the country in general, covering areas of information not normally available to or carried by the metropolitan newspapers," the briefing paper says.

New face

The profile of a Philippine community journalist has changed with the wide use of technology. Today, a community journalist may be armed with a mobile phone, a digital camera and, at times, a notebook computer to send stories and photos direct from the field to the newsroom. A reporter's knapsack that 10 years ago contained a paper notebook and pen may now contain a notebook computer with modem and a mobile phone to connect to the newsroom's server.

Thea Riñen, Cebu Daily News editorial director at the time of the interview, says reporters and photographers are equipped with these technology tools to allow them to gather information or photos and send these to the office from wherever they are. "In a highly competitive environment, it is important that information reaches us fast," Riñen says.

All stages

There are many advantages to using technology, says Michelle So, Sun.Star Cebu executive editor. Assignments to reporters on the field are relayed faster with mobile phones than with the beepers or pagers of 10 years ago. In addition to mobile phones, some reporters are equipped with personal digital assistants with foldable keyboards instead of the heavy laptop computers.

Sun.Star has an intranet with a search engine that allows its reporters and editors to get into the archive of past stories so they could add background and context to their news stories.

Its website offers discussion boards and blogs and processes news from Sun.Star newspapers located in 12 major cities around the country.

Ermin Garcia Jr., publisher of Sunday Punch, a weekly newspaper in Pangasinan, says technology is used in practically all stages of the operation-data gathering, editing, printing and marketing for advertisements. One of the oldest community newspapers in the Philippines, Sunday Punch maintains a website at http://punch.dagupan.com that also hosts an active discussion board among Pangasinenses from around the world who financially support the website.

"Hand-to-mouth"

PPI executive director Jose Pavia Jr. says Philippine community newspapers use technology extensively in all areas of their operations.
This phenomenon has placed community newspapers on equal footing with national publications, adds Cyril Pereira, former chairman of the Society of Publishers in Asia based in Hong Kong.

"The desktop publishing revolution reduced the barrier to entry for the newspaper industry," Pereira says in an e-mail interview. "It allowed small publishers to compete against the big publishers. The Internet revolution allowed content distribution and access without printing and presses."

But not all community newspapers can afford the latest technology.
"There are still newspapers that, for lack of resources, are not able to provide themselves with all these things. It's a hand-to-mouth existence for some community newspapers," Pavia says.

The digital divide, or the gap between those who have and those who do not have the technology, is evident in the provinces where there are fewer computer shops and fewer telephone lines through which to connect.

"Community newspapers play a unique role. They are close to their communities, they know their communities well," Orlando Carvajal, Sun.Star Publishing Inc. executive vice president and general manager, says. "On the Internet, that unique role is not lost at all," Carvajal says.

The globalization of information has increased the demand for localized information. "This is the paradox of the globalization of information," Jesus Garcia Jr., Sun.Star Publishing Inc. board chairman, said in the video marking Sun.Star Cebu's 20th anniversary on Nov. 25, 2002.

This is a welcome paradox for community newspapers that are in the best position to meet that demand.