The 2014 SONA in HD

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

(Courtesy: Radio Television Malacanang)

Only tech-versed viewers who habitually flip channels might have noticed. The fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Pres. Benigno Aquino III also goes down as the first to be shot in high definition (HD).

There’s little fanfare for the Presidential Broadcast Staff – Radio Television Malacañang (PBS-RTVM), which bags the credit for this long-overdue upgrade. They’ve always handled the SONA pool feed, being charged after all with documenting the chief executive’s speeches and activities.

At these events, the SOP for network live news crews is to hook up with RTVM’s feed since they have more camera angles, and more importantly, prime access to the president. However, the RTVM feed was at times of lower quality than that of the networks’ own cameras and fell prey to technical glitches that made it risky to air.

RTVM stayed in the technical cellar for years, as the privately-owned networks bulked up on the latest equipment. Moves to update their tech capabilities went gradually, going only as far as the government’s budget could allow.

Then in 2012, the Philippines was picked to host the 2014 World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia.

Covering the US polls–A blend of tech and content

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

Previously: Lessons from the US election coverage

The overwhelming use of technology, with an amount of showmanship, was a trademark of the US TV networks’ coverage of the 2012 polls.

Veering away from its “hologram effect” in 2008, CNN lighted up the top of New York City’s Empire State Building in red and blue depending on which states went to Pres. Barack Obama or his challenger Mitt Romney.

NBC turned the skating rink at the Rockefeller Center into a giant map of the United States and colored it real time according to the count.

That’s not to mention the graphics, touch screens, and number-crunches that were used on election night.

It is just another incarnation of the progress that began when the networks first counted votes with computers in 1960, and when someone on TV first thought of lighting up maps into blue and red states to illustrate those results.

Election night 2012 in New York City: NBC’s Democracy Plaza and CNN lights up the Empire State Building (Courtesy Max Bradford/NBC and CNN)

The US media also thought outside the box with interactive ways of enhancing the election night experience through the Internet.

And both politicians and the media made greater use of another interactive means–social media–in feeling the pulse of voters.

Filipino viewers will be looking for some of these new technologies in the coming 2013, and more so, the 2016 elections.

Not left behind

While the networks are surely mum on which they might use here, the experience of the 2010 elections shows there will be some novelties in store.

“The US-based networks were the ones who got it first, and who got it right,” said Cheryl Favila, ABS-CBN News Production head. “Of course, if you belong to an Asian country, and find that presentation impressive, you’d like to get that technology also.”

But budgets predictably limit the quality of technology local networks acquire, Favila noted. The technology may be similar but the software is simpler compared to those used by US networks.

For instance, ABS-CBN was offered a virtual set like the one used by the BBC. Favila said they opted for augmented reality which they felt would be more reliable and helpful to the network’s news presentation.

“It’s not really keeping in step, but I would say we also don’t want to be left behind, even if our capability is only limited,” she said.

Superior or not, the technologies are merely riveting ways of packaging data into easily-digestible information for viewers.

The Pinoy media and the US elections

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Among the elements Philippine viewers noticed during the recent Presidential elections in the United States was the absence of a central body overseeing and tabulating the vote.

Even during the local US Embassy’s public-held election watch events here on November 7, there seemed to be no other source of election results than the news media.

At one such gathering in a mall in Quezon City, the center of attraction was a giant LED screen which, in between intermissions and speeches, showed CNN’s marathon election night coverage.

As a time zone of precincts closed each hour, the network anchors would sift through exit poll and survey numbers to gauge how the voters would choose.

Minutes later, CNN would call which states would be won by either Pres. Barack Obama of the Democratic Party or his Republican challenger Gov. Mitt Romney.

A cheer later arose from the crowd assembled at the mall when CNN began to project a substantial increase in state votes that would bring President Obama closer to re-election.

From CNN’s live shots, the scene in Manila mimicked those all over the US. Party supporters and spectators at public spaces monitored big displays of telecasts from CNN, FOX, NBC, and other US networks.

All of the news organizations had separate means and resources for collating the popular vote. Yet somehow, their final calls matched up—President Obama had won four more years.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

It wasn’t long after the unified projections that Mitt Romney conceded his defeat.

In the Philippines, the influx of numbers would still have been called “partial and unofficial.” And the local news media would still have taken their cue from the Commission on Elections before declaring any candidate as the winner.

This prompt resolution of the vote prompted local humor blogger @I_amHolo to tweet: “In the US, CNN is Comelec.”

Indeed, the US elections have been opportunities for Filipinos to compare the workings of their democracy with that of the country that introduced this system to their shores.

And now with globalization and a ubiquitous, 24/7 media, the similarities and differences have become much more highlighted.

Mighty are the teacher’s words

(Less than an hour before Christmas)

If not for this feature on NBC Today that I chanced upon via local channel 2nd Avenue 29, I might not even hear of this man. (Click the pic above to watch)

He’s not as world-famous a poster boy for change as Barack Obama. But uniquely, this Indianapolis Bible teacher changes his world with pen, paper, memory and heart.

You see, Dan Stroup does not end his lessons on life and God’s word in his 8th grade classroom.

Yearly on their birthdays, his students–current and graduates–each get an old-fashioned snail mail from him. For a number, their first this school year. For others, their second, twelfth, or twenty-ninth.

And it’s no generic “Happy birthday, God bless.”