Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Seares: ‘Guys, media is here’ By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
ITEM 1: Protesters are sitting on the sidewalk. Near them are placards denouncing the President for being short on performance, honesty, and everything else.
A TV news van arrives. The leader tells fellow protesters: “Guys, media is here.” When the news crew comes out, protesters are marching, holding placards aloft and chanting anti-Gloria slogans. Reporter and cameraman cover the “news event.”
Item 2. Two politicians waiting on stage for their turn to speak are clearly bored. One tries to stifle a yawn. The other, eyes half-closed, thinks of something else, only half-listening to the barangay captain’s spiel on the PA system.
Then, they spot news photographers coming. The two sit up, totally alert. One checks his hair; the other puts on a wide smile. The barangay captain keeps talking, a decibel higher, tone stronger. Media is here.
Those and similar incidents are variations on the same theme: Media presence affects people’s behavior.
Impact
Protesters wait for journalists before they do their thing. Or they create a scene of violence, hurling plastic bottles to wear down law enforcers’ “maximum tolerance.” When hell breaks loose, media comes rushing.
A kind of Helsenberg principle: Observing human behavior changes the person being observed. Or what they call Hawthorne effect, to describe the impact of observation on people.
And nothing makes quicker impact than media watching, recording.
Point the news camera at police officials presenting evidence of, say, the Batasan bombing and everyone ludicrously scrambles to look at or touch the mangled cell phone or motorcycle plate.
