Aspects of Interactivity, Hypertext and Hypermedia, and Social Media: Facebook, Friendster, Blogs and Second Orality, Construction of Reality and Multimedia and Ideology Synopsis Paper by: 2000-54307 ARADA, Blancaflor P.
The Media Construction of Reality As I read this article, I remembered the Manila hostage crisis last August 23, 2010. Because Philippine media wanted to report factual details and information, the news network became too involved with the hostage crisis. Based on Wikipedia entry, “TV5 news anchor Erwin Tulfo remained in permanent contact with Mendoza, while superintendent Orlando Yebra and chief inspector Romeo Salvador led the negotiations. By this time, several major television channels in Manila and Hong Kong had replaced their programmes with non-stop live coverage of the hostage situation, and live footage became available worldwide. The news networks were allowed to film police activity, and as the bus was equipped with a television, the gunman was able to watch and find out what the police were doing, and was even able to find the locations of snipers” (Wikipedia, 2013). What made Mendoza snapped out was when his brother and son were taken away by the police in the live television coverage. This resulted to a failed hostage rescue attempt because eight (8) hostages were killed. It may be the Philippine National Police’s fault, or Mayor Alfredo Lim’s or Vice-Mayor Isko Moreno’s, or even President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s, but there is no doubt that the news networks who covered the whole police activity were also at fault. If the media limited themselves and did not directly involved in the hostage crisis, the hostility might have been minimized. The lesson learned from this hostage crisis in media perspective, news networks must limit their live video coverage especially for police tactics and strategies. Because media constructs