1 month ago
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How do journalists thrive with shrinking newsrooms, especially in communities outside Metro Manila?
Two Cebuano journalists, who have built their own audience independent of an established news outfit, offer a peek into a changed media environment.
When veteran broadcaster Jason Monteclar broke the story in May 2024 that the Cebu City government was planning to spend P21.96 million to rent portalets for the city’s hosting of Palarong Pambansa 2024, he did so not from a radio announcer’s booth where he made a name dishing out commentaries.
Monteclar reported this in a vlog post on Facebook.
“Pangupot gyud mo ha kay naa koy isulti ninyo nga morag mabali gyud na inyong hinapay sa kantidad nga gustong igasto sa city government,” he prefaced his comments in crisp and conversational Cebuano that lends well to satire and ridicule. (Hold on to your seats because I have something to share with you that will reverse the parting of your hair with the amount of money the city government wants to spend.)
“Gani dili palit, abang lang mangabang sila og portalet kanang portalet ba nga ibilin lang sa dan nya ihianan. Mugasto sila og 21,963,000 para lang sa portalet og nahibawan pa lang lagi nga ato lang usik usikan sa gobyerno may pa sa tambagan ta mo magpalit na lang mo og bulawan nga arinola kay klaro pa inig human nato og gamit gold pa ang color sa atong ihi nga tanawon,” he said with a melodramatic tune playing in the background.
(They’re not even buying the portalets, they will rent them. You know those portalets that are left on the road for people to pee in. Had we known they would just waste our money, it would have been better if they bought golden chamber pots, that way the color of our piss would be golden.)
That video was posted on Monteclar’s Facebook page on May 20, 2024, at 7:11 am. Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, who was then in an acting capacity, called for a press conference and in a Facebook Live on the same day at 9:29 am announced a review of the budget and put biddings for contracts on hold. Garcia credited Monteclar’s commentary for his decision.
“Usa ra ko kabuok, dili ko institution unya nituhop unya poor quality ra gyud ang production (I’m just a single person, I’m not an institution, but what I said pierced City Hall, even if the production was of poor quality),” Monteclar told Rappler.
When he started with the help of a friend who was good at technical stuff in July 2020, he only had two viewers, sometimes 10. He has since built a following of 58,000. His commentary on the portalets generated 76,000 views, 380 comments, and 2,200 engagements. His influence goes beyond these numbers as traditional media often follow up on issues that he raises.
Monteclar has been able to interview former senator Manny Pacquiao, Mayor Garcia, and former Cebu City mayors Michael Rama and Tomas Osmeña, among others. His earnings from the monetization of his videos support his operations, which consist of him and a cameraman.
He said their guerrilla-style operations are designed to be set up in less than three minutes — to avoid small talk with the interview subject and being flattered as a way to influence the interview.
Monteclar, who started his journalism career in 2005 with Bombo Radyo, is with dyCM but said he focuses his commentaries on his vlog.
Summarizing the biggest stories
Monteclar is one of two broadcasters in Cebu who have built their own news brands independent of a traditional media organization on YouTube and Facebook.
The other one is Leo Lastimosa, a veteran TV and radio anchor and newspaper columnist. Lastimosa used to be station manager of dyAB, the AM radio of ABS-CBN, and news presenter of TV Patrol Central Visayas. When the station was closed in 2020 after the network’s franchise wasn’t renewed, Lastimosa and a group of former dyAB journalists started Sibya TV on YouTube and Facebook.
Lastimosa eventually ventured on his own and now livestreams twice a day, seven days a week primarily on YouTube. In the morning he goes live with “Baruganan” (Stand) and in the evening with “Panahum sa Kilom-Kilom” (Opinion at Dusk).
Baruganan is a summary of the biggest stories the previous day and would sometimes run for two hours. He scored record viewership for his channel at the height of the quad comm hearings at the House of Representatives when he would have up to 15,000 viewers per episode, up from the average 5,000.
He said people couldn’t keep up with the long hearings that ended late at night and would tune in to Baruganan in the morning to get a summary of what happened. In “Panahum sa Kilom-Kilom,” he would focus on one topic, providing a more in-depth discussion.
Lastimosa told Rappler that he only does livestreaming because he does not know how to edit videos for uploading. But he plans to go beyond commentary and news roundups, and create original news content in the future.
Lastimosa said guiding his decision on programming are his longtime followers who are deeply loyal to him. Many were his listeners on dyAB who followed him to Sibya TV and now to his own channel. One of these core groups of followers is Nemesis Saceda, AVP of HSBC Group in Singapore.
“Dili kumpleto akong adlaw kung dili ko maka tan-aw sa Baruganan ug sa Panahom sa Kilom-Kilom. (My day isn’t complete if I can’t watch Baruganan and Panahom sa Kilom-Kilom),” Saceda told Rappler in an interview. He watches even on the train on his way home from work in the evening.
Saceda comments on every livestream and sometimes watches on two devices, skipping ads on one device and not with the other. It’s his way of supporting Lastimosa, on top of sending contributions monthly through GCash. He is proud of the online community that they built anchored on Lastimosa’s show. He said he got to know like-minded people through Lastimosa and they even have their own group chat.
Power in the individual’s hands
A study on Lastimosa’s platform by a group of University of the Philippines Cebu instructors found “intimate relationship between the messenger and his audience.”
The study by Dr. Crina Escabarte-Tañongon, assistant professor Mia Embalzado-Mateo, Marlen del Mar-Limpag, and assistant professor Raden Gerald Agustin analyzed 59,101 words in comments on livestreams by Lastimosa on YouTube from May 31, 2022 to October 29,2024. They found that Lastimosa had built a “respectful, courteous, and engaging audience.”
When asked about income, Lastimosa said video monetization is enough to pay for such things as power and internet connection.
Monteclar and Lastimosa are examples of journalists becoming content creators. The shift is described by Rosental Alves, founder of Knight Center of Journalism in the Americas, as a “move from the era of mass media to an era of a mass of media.”
He said in the book Content Creators and Journalists: Redefining News and Credibility in the Digital Age that the world will move from being centered on institutional media to being “I-centric” with individuals empowered with capabilities that once were only available to institutions.
Monteclar and Lastimosa play an important role in the Cebu media ecosystem, said lawyer Maria Jane Paredes, who teaches communications at UP Cebu and the seminary. Michelle So, retired editor-in-chief of SunStar Cebu, however, said the problem with freelance journalists like the two, is if they get sued for libel. There is no institutional support, So said.
In separate interviews, Monteclar and Lastimosa said the threat of libel was a top concern. Media associations often just look after traditional journalists formally employed in newsrooms. Lastimosa had been sued for libel, with the case filed by Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia reaching all the way to the Supreme Court. He was acquitted.
Paredes said freelancers and journalist-creators can tap other groups that can serve as support systems such as the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines or the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.
They would need the support, Monteclar said. He learned from sources that a top Cebu City official was so angered by his commentary on the portalets that he was pushing for a libel case to be filed against Monteclar.
Asked about a media environment that allows individual journalists like him to build a news brand, Monteclar said, “Revolutionary kaayo na. Gibutang ang gahum sa kamot sa usa ka indibidwal as long as naa lang nimo bai ang passion. Unya naa sab ka gamay nga isog kay di man gyud pwede nga di ka isog anang trabahoa.“
(It’s revolutionary. It puts the power in the hands of an individual as long as you have the passion and some amount of courage. You can’t do this job without courage.) – Rappler.com
Max Limpag, a freelance journalist from Cebu, is an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024.
