Media and journalism issues

[New School] Pantries, eggs, and sensationalist mass media

Cheska Racimo

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[New School] Pantries, eggs, and sensationalist mass media

Graphic by Raffy de Guzman

'Stronger communities are not created by condemning individuals and isolating them from our social circles'

On April 19, six women were bashed on the internet after a video of them taking all of the goods from a community pantry in Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig City circulated. The media immediately jumped to cover the story and put these women in the spotlight.

In an interview on 24 Oras on April 20, two of the six women said that they were extremely hurt by the amount of backlash they received. They explained that they had gotten permission from a barangay tanod before taking the food. They also said that the food they got was not just for them, but would be given to others as well. 

When the uploader of the video was interviewed, she said that she was shocked that they not only got two trays of eggs, but that they also took the trays. She stated that when she confronted them, the six women said that they were also going to give some of the food to their neighbors. However, when the uploader went to confirm this with the neighbors, the neighbors said that they did not get anything and that the food was only given to the women’s relatives.

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Whether the six women needed that many eggs or not, one thing is clear: the media has again tried to capitalize on “failure” by highlighting and sensationalizing this single, unfortunate story.

Community pantries exist so that families and communities may benefit from them. So is it really that terrible if people take two trays of eggs? The media should not center the narrative on the few individuals who supposedly committed these egregious acts, but rather they should put the spotlight on the conditions that caused these people to do these things. Need we remind the media that they are duty-bound to disregard surface-level stories and investigate them further?

By centering on the isolated acts of a few, the media squanders the opportunity to educate and encourage people to place their own interests behind that of their communities. The media chooses instead to profit off of neighbors turning against neighbors, to profit off of our worst compulsions. They encourage us to judge those in our communities who are worse off, instead of encouraging us to dig deeper and uncover the structural causes of these issues.

The acts of the six women are a glimpse into a day in the life of the masses. Rising inflation, rampant joblessness, a widening income gap, inadequate social amelioration programs, unfelt social services, crippling taxation, and corruption – all of these are contributing factors to their poverty and desperation.  

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Many point to the six women and say, “Kaya ‘di umuunlad ang lipunan, dahil sa mga taong katulad nila.” But the “greed and opportunism” of the masses is not comparable to the greed and opportunism of billionaires. For the masses, greed and opportunism are a means to survive their current conditions – conditions that are volatile and always uncertain. A common worker does not know if they will have enough to feed themselves or their family the next day, or even the next meal, which is why they resort to a “hoarding” or “greedy” mentality.

These conditions only exist due to systemic poverty and the exploitative system of wage labor. Workers do not get properly paid for what they do, and the “savings” from this is what is dispersed to the rich and middle class, who then purchase the rice, canned goods, and other items donated to the community pantries. 

The media should instead shift their attention to the greed and opportunism of the few billionaires who have grossly accumulated wealth under these circumstances, and the government’s failure to support its citizens during this crisis. Though they are not seen in queues and workplaces and do not sweat it out with laborers, they are the ones who are profiting excessively from the desperation of the more than 4.2 million unemployed and 7.9 million underemployed. It is the greed of the few which is causing the larger population to suffer, not the greed of the people whose suffering they have caused. 

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[OPINION] Community pantries are ‘bulletproof’

[OPINION] Community pantries are ‘bulletproof’

The community pantries in Pasig City and other parts of the country is the response of the people to the injustices created by the greed of the rich. Against the backdrop of supermarkets and stockrooms filled to the brim, and the lack of government support, these pantries flourished to remind us that there is a better way to feed our communities: one that does not have to rely on the amount of wealth an individual can accumulate, but rather one that acknowledges that we all have the right to eat, and relies on our efforts and contributions as individuals and as a collective.

At the core of community pantries is the creation of stronger communities. Stronger communities are not created by condemning individuals and isolating them from our social circles, like what was done to the six women, no thanks to the media who agitated netizens. We can only combat our oppressors and dismantle oppressive structures if we begin to see our interconnectedness and work together as a whole. – Rappler.com

Cheska Racimo, 18, is a senior high school student and a member of Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK).

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