N.B. – This was published in The Lobbyist (April 5) where I write a column (Subtext).
What’s the lesson to be learned from President Benigno Aquino III’s dip in his net satisfaction rating? According to his deputy presidential spokesperson, the government should now be “more aggressive” in its propaganda work.
The Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported last March 28 that the President’s net satisfaction rating fell to +51 (i.e., 69 percent satisfied minus 18 percent dissatisfied) in a survey it conducted last March 4 to 7. This represents a 13-point decline in Aquino’s net satisfaction rating in November 2010 of +64 (i.e., 74 percent satisfied minus 10 percent dissatisfied).
Aquino claimed that the decline is due to his administration’s failure to properly inform the people of the so-called good news. Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte was quoted as saying that “[the dip in the rating] was a signal [for the government] to be more aggressive. We have a very Filipino trait of being too shy to boast…So bear with us if we will now be thick-faced about it (kung kakapal ang mukha namin).”
This simply means that in the next few months, we can expect an all-out propaganda blitz from government media organizations and the Presidential Communications Group on the so-called good that the President does. The formula here is quite simple and predictable.
- Reportage shall be mainly one-sided and shall give prominence to “official” sources of information.
- Very limited space or airtime will be given to the so-called bad news. And if ever these will be reported, they will be slanted to favorably project the government.
- Concerned government officials might limit their public pronouncements to safe, general answers and not dwell on specifics, especially when it comes to controversial issues.
- Concerned government agencies might deprive journalists of crucial information they need to objectively report issues and concerns.
- Public information shall be defined along the lines of government propaganda, as in the past.
In this context, I am not at all surprised that the proposed Freedom of Information Act is not among the priority bills of the Aquino administration as its passage could seriously derail efforts to maintain the public information regime it inherited from past administrations. The current administration, in terms of public information policy, proves to be no different from the previous ones as it uses public information offices and government-owned and -controlled media organizations for its own ends.
Secretary Sonny Coloma was once quoted as saying that he wants to transform NBN into something like the UK’s BBC Network. The latter is known for independent reportage even if it is subsidized by the British government, periodically criticizing the latter for controversial programs and policies like its support for the US-led war in Iraq. With the recent pronouncement of Aquino and his deputy presidential spokesperson, any transformation on the part of NBN and other government-owned and -controlled media organizations will only be toward projecting the government in a good light to boost Aquino’s net satisfaction rating.
It must be stressed that what they plan to do goes against the core principle of public information. In theory, the main objective of public information is to package data and analyses in a manner that makes the people appreciate the bigger picture of social reality.
However, the prevailing culture in the Aquino administration prevents officials from appreciating the importance of giving government-owned and controlled media organizations editorial independence which is crucial to the proper implementation of public information in the strictest sense of the term.
Clearly, nothing has changed when it comes to public information as the powers-that-be still make it synonymous with government propaganda. And in the case of President Aquino’s predicament, the government’s media machinery will be used to provide only the kind of information that would boost his net satisfaction rating.