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Patient Zero: A study on the Philippine Information Ecosystem | Rappler

On May 5, 2020, ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ leading radio and television network, was forced to go off air after its franchise expired. (The Philippine House of Representatives eventually rejected the bill that would have allowed it to operate for another 25 years.) This resulted in loss of jobs for thousands of media workers employed and contracted by the network. It reduced Filipinos’ access to information in many remote areas and made ABS-CBN refocus distribution on its digital resources.

Even before the shutdown, however, the Philippine media environment had already been in a state of flux for years, with the relentless growth of the mobile and digital space. This development affected not just media consumption, but also the way Filipinos interacted with the information ecosystem. The COVID-19 pandemic forced people to rely even more on digital, not only as a source of information, but also as the primary mechanism for connecting to the world of work and learning.

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Source: Patient Zero: A study on the Philippine Information Ecosystem | Rappler