Dear Editor,

Mainstream media is still the media.

The responsibility of journalists in reporting news, issues and current events, and the forming of public opinion are a privilege, a solemn duty, a sacred task. Media practice is not a profession, but a vocation — in the same vein as teaching students for teachers, and treating patients for doctors. Otherwise, you have no reason to be where you are — or you must have been doing a disservice to the nation.

The media is not a propaganda tool for those who have vested interests to push and/or protect. Rather the media appeals to the dictates of conscience and can neither be dictated upon, bought, corrupted, manipulated, be playful and hypocritical. It is incumbent upon you, if you are a part of the media, to do things beyond "tradition" and "predilection."

The media's omnipotence rests in its immaculateness, the reason being it is indispensable to nation-building. Beyond being informative and/or entertaining, the media must be vigilant, steadfast, purposeful, mission-driven (not by hype or profit), courageous, colorless and upright — or it is not the media.

It behooves journalists in TV, radio, newspapers and news sites to perform their jobs not in the way bloggers and vloggers (or trolls) do theirs in social media. News reporting and editorial exhortation are far way above the realm of "trolling" for anyone's works to be categorized as works of the media. The state of the nation cannot be any different from the kind of media it has.

We must expose charlatans, scoundrels, thugs, crooks and the culprits in public service and society, but that doesn't give us the right to bash, malign, "persecute," and condemn them using trial by publicity. "Walang personalan" should be the strict motto of every media personality. But be keen, on our toes — and relentless. On top of this, justices, judges or magistrates should and must be free from "politics" in rendering court judgments.

For those in the media who seem detached from the imperatives of the time, I beg you to connect to the world (or the world at hand) and become relevant, useful to the motherland and to today's Filipinos. Heed the call of the time, whatever time or generation you are a part of.

Reni M. Valenzuela
renivalenzuelaletters@yahoo.com