#WalangPasok – Correction from The Filipino Scribe re class suspension in Baguio City

Around midnight, the website reported that classes in all levels had been suspended for today, August 17, in Baguio City. The information was taken from the social media accounts of ABS-CBN and GMA News, quoting a post from the Twitter account @PIAalerts.

This morning, it turned out that TFS got it wrong because ABS-CBN and GMA got it wrong. Here’s what happened: At around 11:00 PM yesterday, PIA-Cordillera sent out this tweet:

PIA-CAR/BAGUIO CITY:#WalangPasok today August 17: All Levels
– Province of ABRA
Pre-school to Secondary
– Bokod, Benguet

— PIA Cordillera (@PIA_Cordillera) August 16, 2016

It sounds funny, but both ABS-CBN and GMA News concluded that classes are also suspended in Baguio City in all levels for today, August 17. The Filipino Scribe, for its part, failed to double check the information.

As PIA rightly pointed out in a post earlier today, the mention of “Baguio” in the post triggered all this confusion. It fact, “Baguio” was mentioned simply because the report came from the office of PIA Cordillera, which is located there.

class suspensions august 18 2016 — The Filipino Scribe, together with other media outlets, erroneously reported that classes are suspended in all levels in Baguio City this August 17

PIA Cordillera issued a correction an hour or so later: “Re- midnight news based on CO PIA NewsDesk posting, pls be informed no suspension yet of classes in BaguioCity. #WalangPasok is for Abra.”

There’s one problem though, and that is their inability to disseminate the information directly to the media outlets which already released the wrong news. In fact, even until now, the erroneous posts are still online. One tweet/DM could have done the trick!

Here are the lessons learned from this episode:

For media outlets and netizens (and TFS!)
– Read carefully and double check the information posted online. This is true especially in at a time when information comes every few minutes and where the urge to publish it first seems to trump everything else.

For PIA

– To avoid confusions, it will be better to just use “PIA Cordillera” or “PIA-CAR” instead of mentioning “PIA Baguio.” – At a time when information is disseminated to thousands within a few minutes, it is essential to immediately rectify any wrong information published (and to be able to disseminate that correction as widely as possible).

About Author

Mark Pere Madrona

The Filipino Scribe (TFS) is managed by Mark Pere Madrona, a multi-awarded writer and licensed professional teacher from the Philippines.

Mr. Madrona earned his master’s degree in history from the University of the Philippines-Diliman last 2020. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in journalism cum laude from the same university back in 2010. His area of interests includes Philippine journalism, history, and politics as well as social media.

Know more about him here: https://www.filipinoscribe.com/about/.

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