by Gloria Leodivica Ines Araneta

A young multimedia journalist opened the discussion on the evolution of journalism and the modern way of storytelling in the digital age.

Karl Tejare, a multimedia journalist based in Bacolod City, spoke to veteran journalist Ardy Araneta-Batoy during the Jan. 3, 2025 episode of Newsmakers ug Uban Pa radio program and discussed the effects of technology in the evolution of journalism and storytelling.

He first focused his discussion on how journalism can be managed by a single person in a bid to merge traditional and digital journalism.

The extensive use of technology, he said, has revolutionized the way people tell stories and present these stories to audiences.

He also gave a shallow dive on content creation as a way to deliver stories by people creating short form content and delivering stories especially for the current Generation Alpha.

He said people nowadays have short attention span and are more likely into consumer short-form videos.

The young media practitioner also explained how people earn as content creators and make the job as a means of livelihood.

It can be observed that with the popularity of platforms such as Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram and You Tube, many people have earned thousands, if not millions of pesos, because of content creation. 

In fact, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has started to dig into the finances of some of the biggest content creators ordering some of them to file and pay taxes.

There have been reports that the reward system of these platforms allows content creators to earn huge sums of money and make a living out of making content online.

FAKE NEWS

He also cautioned people on the negative side of content creation being consumed online.

Tajare who is a graduate of University of St. La Salle, Bacolod, said that fake information could be easily spread across the Internet; and because of this, people should be sensitive enough to fact check.

Multimedia journalists, he said, are bound by the tenets and code of ethics of journalism, while content creators are not.

The multimedia journalists are bound by editorial checks unlike content creators who may not have any layer of editing, he explained.

The challenge now, he said, is how to counter viral unverified content that sometimes would spread from platforms.

He said that more often, unverified information on X, formally Twitter, could start a viral fake news story.

Aside from X, there are other content aggregators and social media platforms that work in identical fashion such as Blue Sky and Threads.

The digital age also poses challenges such as cyberbullying and cyber libel and because of the reach and speed of social media, such  things become a challenge, he noted.

His takeaway is for people to use social media responsibly and be careful in the stories being told.