Local American News Outsourced in the Philippines

Is this the future of Journalism? As if we don’t already have enough problems.

Reports have surfaced within the blogosphere and Alternative Media outlets that an American news wire has been outsourcing most of its content, primarily through the hiring of Filipino writers. Brazil, Eastern Europe and Africa have also been named as other areas that this company goes to for cheap news production. (Yes, I mean this both figuratively and literally).

Journatic refers to itself as “a leading provider of content production services to media companies and marketers.” But this abomination of a “news organization” has irresponsibly taken on the role of “providing raw data and information” to feed off to news outlets for the sake of demand for content in a very quick manner. But in the process, Journatic has raised fundamental concerns in regards to its journalistic processes, from committing plagiarism by changing the bylines of their compositions, and essentially manufacturing false content as revealed by a former staffer named Ryan Smith.

Smith outed the media firm by going on This American Life’s podcast and tells the story of how this company – whose focus is presenting an outlet that is hyperlocal – has effectively changed the game in terms of its core value that raw information can and should be managed more efficiently while actual reporters can provide a more in-depth coverage of a story.

But Smith (also) compared (Journatic) to the “pink slime” processed food some companies have been accused of serving their customers.

From a Filipino perspective, this whole debacle also raises concerns, not just reputation-wise, but also in regards to the quality of the work that is being put out by our writers and reporters. There are a lot of good journalists back home. and around the world, and now they carry the disgrace of the country being involved in something like this. The people who have taken on the job of outsourcing for Chicago’s Reuters-wannabe now have their hands in sullying Filipino journalism.

There have also been issues raised in regards to how these stories are written – commentary in regards to the matter has provided mixed reviews about the quality of the work. This is just about as disconcerting as is the fact that this new form of news production creates a new way for the mainstream to propagandize and cheat their way for the purpose of providing content, regardless if it has been fact-checked or not.

Smith had gone on to the Guardian, which is the UK’s version of the New York Times, so that he can re-tell the story in his own words.

A vast number of reactions and further reporting on the matter had been done, namely by Josh Stearns of Freepress.net,  the Columbia Journalism Review, and one Filipina-American who (shares my own sentiments and) has brought up the delicate nature of how this directly affects Filipino journalists and the faith people have in them.

Now, that very reputation has to overcome both bad faith and the already-established reputation of the country as a hotbed for news reporter killings.

How do you feel about your news being outsourced in the Philippines? As a Filipino, are you concerned?

You should be.

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Feature Photo Credits: WheninManila.com