There is a trend right now where book launches are treated not as social events but as a way to inform people through symposia where authors are tasked to present the salient points of their research.

The event I attended at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City last August 17 (Friday) — which thankfully pushed through despite the bad weather — was promoted more as a roundtable discussion on monitoring news media coverage of the 2007 elections. There was no mention of the launch of the book where we published the results of our research from February to May 2007, and I don’t mind this at all. In fact, I was happy that copies of the book were given out for free on that particular day.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) published on page 2 of its August 19 (Sunday) issue a news article titled “Media watchdog lauds PDI’s election coverage.” While it is understandable for our friends at the PDI to present mainly the information that concern their publication, there are other important findings on the other print, radio and television programs that we monitored.

For those who want to get copies of the book, it only costs 250 pesos. Please get in touch with the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) to order your copy. I think this is a must-read for those whose research interests include elections and media.

I should also mention as early as now that we will also publish a manual on how to conduct media monitoring very soon. This manual could be useful to advocacy groups, academics, journalists and journalism students who want to monitor how the mass media cover specific issues and concerns. Thank you for reading.