Wishing for a newspaper that circulates the thoughts of poor people

Posted on by theageofthediary

In the Philippines there are newspapers but they are supposedly “national” but are Manila-centric in practice. There are a few newspapers that center on a locality but there aren’t much of that. I wonder what if there were more newspapers that concentrated on news and issues that develop in different cities or districts. So there will be a Makati News, Tondo News, Aklan News, etc. What if these newspapers not only circulated articles by journalists but also by ordinary people, specifically from the lower classes, so that the production of information and opinion is not controlled by the upper classes? Would that do something good for the society or would it create chaos?

Would it legitimize opinions that are dangerous? Why do we assume that opinions from the lower classes would be dangerous? Would it bring out stories that we never hear of? Would it bring out truth? Would it create confusion? What would it do to society if the elite isn’t the only one that has a platform to speak?

It could be run by an NGO and the papers would be distributed to the community where those people come from. What will be the rules when it comes to gossip? What will be the rules when it comes to bigoted opinions? Will giving the NGO the right to curate information eventually lead to the legitimization of the upper class’ opinions and thus defeat the initial goal? Just thinking aloud. I don’t know where this idea will go.

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