‘Social media effective tool in countering work of terror groups’

MANILA, Philippines – Who’s afraid of tech-savvy terrorist groups?

A multi-awarded investigative journalist has raised the alarm against the use of social media by terrorists who use the web to radicalize and recruit followers into their fold.

Sheila Coronel, academic dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in New York, said on Sunday these voices of outrage could be tempered by “voices of moderation.”

Coronel was the keynote speaker at the opening of “Uncovering Asia: Asia’s First International Investigative Journalism Conference” on Sunday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Quezon City.

The conference was attended by over 300 delegates from 33 countries, with about 70 of the world’s top investigative reporters, data journalists, editors, publishers and security and legal experts among the lecturers.

The conference, which was organized by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), closes on Monday (Nov. 24).

Coronel said that using social media platforms in this day and age has become a “race,” and a matter of “who is more adept at it and better at work in being credible and engaging an audience.”

“Social media is used by journalists to reach out, engage audiences and sometimes to get information from audiences and to even get attention for their stories,” she said. “The key thing in investigative journalism is to find something to investigate and prove wrongdoing.”

She said that social media, aside from functioning as an investigating tool in some cases, was just a way of amplifying the message of the investigative

report.

She said social media has played a big role—but has yet to play a central role—in investigative reporting.

Coronel’s address focused on the role of investigative journalism as an instrument of change in Southeast Asia.

Coronel said there were several investigative reporting centers around the region back in 1989.

“When we started PCIJ, investigative journalism was a little known word in Southeast Asia,” she said.

She cited investigative journalism’s role in various countries in Asia and its effect in holding powerful institutions accountable. “It’s clear to me that speaking the truth is an Asian value,” she said.

Coronel pointed out the case of Pakistan, which was exposed in 2012 by the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan as having several public officials, including its president, remiss in paying their taxes.

She said because of the report, Pakistan became the fourth country in the world to make its tax records publicly available.

Coronel said that one need not look far for topics on investigative reporting. Asia, she said, has been a “map maker’s paradise.”

She said themes of contemporary investigative reporting in Asia ranged from food and product safety, condition of workers in the global economy, the deteriorating state of public services, environmental degradation, and man-made and natural disasters.

“Disaster has been a major area of accountability reporting,” Coronel said.

She noted that before the time of handheld devices and social media, “the mere idea of a printing press made people tremble.”

Coronel said journalists have been “walking on paths trudged by others before.”

“Speaking truth to power is an Asian value,” she said. “In some societies, the role of the watchdog press is appreciated.”

She noted a metaphor used by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos during martial law to describe the press: “We are mosquitoes, we are irritants on the skin of power.”