CONSUMER POST: NOW, IT'S SHRUNKEN PANDESAL AS WELL.

In the interest of keeping up with the rising consumer products, this writer is sharing the golden founds of products that have become so precious of late to buy.

Filipinos, update yourself with a downgrade of your usual Pandesal.

The staple Filipino breakfast food, "pandesal", which is always prepared hot and fluffy by the neighborhood "panadero" (local baker) in almost all places in the country is also facing a tough downscale moment. Go check yours being served in your local town if you have not caught up with it yet.

 

For a 2-3 peso price, this "flex" of pandesal had shrunk almost to a coin-size portion. Just thank your local "panadero", for still pursuing the business and serving this bread despite having to adjust--the pandesal, which is now smaller than a bite size.

 

For accuracy purposes, the pandesal shown here is actually around 2 to 2.5 inches when measured flat when a ruler is used. 

Consumer post for NRP, by Anna Liza VB. Copyright 2023.

 

Second Part: The Unglamorous Life of Writers

[ Read Previously] THIS IS NOT A SIMPLE FLOWCHART FOR WRITERS, PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 29, 2023.

Let’s Call Them Anonymous: A Look at How People on the Sidelines Treat People in Media

It is not easy to build a name. More so a career in media. It takes a long walk, a long drive to hit the “publish” button, whether it is for print or digital media. However, behind the work of a media writer comes countless experiences that can demoralize or de-amplify a writer’s passion for writing. Without meaning to.

First, a writer is deprived of copyright ownership in the context of employee to employer service agreement, where a company hires a writer and the latter provides willful time to serve and fulfill objectives at work.

In real industry work, a position won’t be secured by a writer without acceding to the terms bound and founded by his or her employer from the start of hiring.

The second point of this article, that’s all about the “unglamorous” life of writers, is how media workers can be disputedly "VIPd", but not really VIP in the full sense of the word.

VIP is a label mostly intended for people who hold significant positions at work, which often takes a lot of skill, training, recommendations, and approbations from others; and yes, even votes for political positions.

But for media writers, the sidelines are the main thrust of the work, hours that are not in the full regalia of camera panning and privilege signing, which has been accustomed to by celebrity VIPs.

It must be noted that writers are deprived of longevity of employment from the very start by status quo media companies who are more concerned with getting protection from the influentials and giving them positions as columnists or easy buy as media owners.

The writers meanwhile had to be content with being “contractual” or freelancers, sometimes on a temp basis, or “up for renewal” commitment.

The fault in this system is the lack of employment opportunities and future security of the writer.

A good number of writers that I know of in the past chose to find work abroad or locally, in a different industry or lured to skilled work for the promise of better workers’ benefits. Some decided to pursue scholarships while there were those who simply stayed away because industry work did not pay well. A thankless job we call it.

 

Writers are made to work long hours, in an era of supposed media proclivity for clout building.

 

It’s the status quo they don’t want to admit. Only the well-heeled are given a dignified name and a worth-it work agreement by companies.

Anecdotes of Writers

 

I was reminded of a fact that at one point, one fellow media practitioner who could not find work for a very long time, politely got a break for camera work with writing duties. But sadly, that same female media practitioner for a company with foreign vested interests as employers, in many instances, did not give her salary directly to her.    

It is her “job recommender” who acted as a middleman, so she can be hired.  He happens to be a relative of hers, who had close connections with an insider, and her salary on her behalf. 

THIS WAS LEGIT WORK FOR A COMPANY where the practitioner was treated with such informality, like a cloaked slave of her recommender, where she clocked in the hours and skills for a media company; but it is her job recommender who benefitted from the remuneration.

In another situation, a writer enthusiastically shared her articles to a now-defunct newspaper.

Her stories were published in the daily, which was all about non-news but features and women’s articles; but she did not get paid for them.

 

Upon following up on the payment for her writeups, the writer was told over phone,  “kami nga hindi nababayaran ng kumpanya, ikaw pa? Pasensya na pero walang pera ang kumpanya…” the response was given by an insider Manager. Said broadsheet stopped publication and the staff moved on to form another broadsheet.  The writer was left unpaid for her articles.

 

In a third story, was an anecdote of a former colleague, when she was a practitioner for a top media station.

She shared her many instances of being bullied, sometimes bluntly, sometimes passive-aggressively by co-workers in the station. She was sometimes heckled at and was threatened to be spitted on, just because she was a woman. Stereotyped as an “easy” woman in the station.

She was pretty calm and she knew she could not do anything about the way women were treated especially those in the lower ranks of their career.

 

Yet another, anecdote is when a writer was faulted for owning a laptop, and her colleagues chidingly and tactlessly joked about destroying her computer for the pure fun of jesting. 

She left for home and her computer refused to function hours after the joke was given her.

THESE WERE NOT MAKE-BELIEVE STORIES. But actual real incidents for writers and media practitioners in the country, who go through a hard-fought battle to stay and pursue their profession in an industry that denies them stability; longevity of work, and worker’s rights; these apart from the anonymous benign treatment they get from strangers when they go out to the field, whether in front or behind the cameras.

 

One cannot simply fault communication graduates and practitioners when it is the anonymous people, the fence sitters that help build animosity for them. These discrimination and bias start with the way media professionals are treated by the industry they must work for; whether the job is done out of pure dedication, calling, professional choice, or passion for writing.

 

News Review Philippines 2023. Copyright by Anna Liza VB.

Revised at 12:56 pm local Philippine time.

IT'S NOT JUST THE RICE GRAINS

 THE COSTS ARE STILL HIGH.

Tomatoes are not on the easy-pick aisle.

 

SITUATIONER LAS PINAS 7:45 AM: MONSTROUS TRAFFIC, BOTTLE NECK IN MAIN ROAD

JUST A DAY AFTER THE CONTINUAL RAINS IN THE METRO, AS SPOTTED IN LAS PINAS CITY, TRAFFIC HAS BEGUN BY THE WAYFARE. 

The buildup was seen this morning around 7:45- 8:00 am, with cars on a bumper-to-bumper stall, while motorcycle riders occupy half,  of the main drive space along CAA road in Las Pinas City.

 CONSUMER RIGHTS REGARDING RETURNS MUST BE SIMPLIFIED 

When buyers don’t get what they want, what is the best recourse of action?

 

 

An example of online shopping dissatisfaction is when product quality does not meet consumer expectations. The photo shows supposedly a mini-table when assembled, but can't make its way through fulfillment, because of its unsteady structure and mini-parts; hence the need to outsource a service provider to fix the item bought online.

 

EVER SINCE THE THRIVE OF E-COMMERCE, a good number of consumers probably would have thought that shopping is made easy, since now, one does not have to go outside, take a chance on the weather, make it through the snail traffic just to buy an item or load up on a grocery haul.

Admittingly, the goals of door-to-door delivery for e-commerce platforms are actually a sweet concoction of idealism and best-effort help on the economy-- to treat customers like royalty while earning profits on the side.  At least these are what can be assumed via the positioning of most e-commerce sites around the time of the pandemic.

 

But it is never without falter, remiss, or misgivings. And the fault sometimes is not in the app but in the very sellers or merchants of prestigious local shopping sites, which this writer actually has come to learn about.  

 

THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

The faults in the falter, just to clarify, and be concrete about local shopping experiences, are in seizing up on the actual items received by a customer, and the way returns are handled by a merchant.

Below are the weaknesses of e-commerce shopping sites that can be attributed to their massive contact points to reach the customer and the bias of sellers in ensuring customer satisfaction when it comes to product returns and quality.

 

THE PRODUCT POSTS  DO NOT MATCH CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS. 

      Product posts from the point of view of a shopper must not only be picture-perfect but detail-oriented as possible.   But while shopping is supposed to be for the need or enjoyment of customers, some sellers, unfortunately, post products that they cannot deliver.

 

Hence sharing an example, of online shopping circumstances:  

>>>>  A shaded, tent tarpaulin order, which did not arrive, and what came instead was a t-shirt.

 

>>>> In another instance,  a shirt also came that did not fall within my order-scope, but was delivered nevertheless.

 

>>>> In another example, was an order of a mini-rice cooker but what came actually was a vague plastic part that looked like a a gadget stand.

 

>>>> Also to share another online retail experience, is when a table has been ordered from a local shopping site, supposedly a second-hand unused item that instantly crumbled once assembled, hence the need for further repair to make the ordered item functional.

 

This Is Not a Simple Flowchart for Writers

Soon in an article, the unglamorous life of writers. Beyond the gaze of the readers' swoon. Below is a flowchart teaser on the relevant article forthcoming here on News Review Philippines.

The photo above shows an insider example of how writers are exploited locally, in one or two situations, that have become commonplace whether amateur or professional, and also experienced by communication practitioners.

Chart created with Canva.

Authored by the writer, Anna Liza VB. August 29, 2023. 

Thank you.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ THE LATEST POST, IN RELATION TO THIS CONTENT:  "The Unglamorous Life of Writers", published yesterday September 9, 2023.

To comment or send a rejoinder:  newsreviewph@gmail.com.

THE PITFALLS OF SOCIAL MEDIA YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISSING ON

 THE PITFALLS OF SOCIAL MEDIA YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN MISSING ON

It is totally overrated.

 

By this time about 70 to 90 million Filipinos is the number range for the actual social media users here in the Philippines alone, and the numbers can still vary and improve depending on the timeline.

 

With the way things have been, social media seems to have become the “be all and end all of media”, since the onslaught of the many challenges that taunted the industry, when media stations have closed down, while some are still struggling to survive.

 

These recent developments that have affected the media landscape, such as the shutting down of networks and companies, whether permanently or simply posturing for further ambiguity--  as modern entities of news and communication; and purveyors of entertainment, seem to have underlined its lack of boundaries or finiteness in establishing its stakes in the industry.

 

Moreso, it appears to have been forced to do a "transformation", without enough breathing space to study the normalcy of how ordinary netizens consume information on mass media.

 

Like a funnel and into a pitfall of further depthtitude, local media have become icebergs while many are blind-sighted in their solutions to survive while morphing and rebranding; testing further the possibilities of venture into other forms beyond print and broadcast.  Such is their aggressiveness to encompass other multimedia formats, shattering rattle media formalities, and making way for supreme interconnectivity.

 

There are many consequences that surround these developments. 

 

Media companies also have easy prey to the influence and clamor for further social media brazenness and ineptitude that could cloud their mission/vision and also hyper-fluctuate their unique identity in the middle of change.

 

ABS-CBN, from a distant view, had to let go of its known formula for news transmission;  and has appeared helpless, which pushed it to wallow and waddle through the murky online news streaming;  shutted to compete with countless minor players,  like a sub-channel of another media company. 

 

THIS CHANGE ALONE, ALONG WITH THE LOSS OF LOCAL TALENTS, IS NOT JUST AN ARROW SHOT  TO LIMP THE SOLID IDENTITY AND UNPARALLELED BRANDING OF THE NETWORK AS A SUPER TELEVISION NETWORK.

IT ALSO LENT CHANNEL 2 AN  IMPRESSION UNEXPECTED,  THAT IT CAN BE SUBSERVIENT TO OTHER MEDIA COMPANIES, a downgrade of sorts, AND RELEGATE ITS TOP SPOT TO CO-TEAM  WITH OTHER COMPANIES. 

               

With ABS-CBN side-swept by political pressure and trends, its powers were fainted by the dominance of social media. The exiting of companies or tapering down of broadcast; and minimalization of published pages, also signalled the birthing of many brave minor players who are eager to jump into fame or submit to the lure of having their own media companies.

 

Here lies complications for further media industry fragmentation and shift of power from the media owners and visionaries to the palm of the unskilled, ordinary, and  inexperienced information providers who want influence; or aim to domineer, dominate, or takeover an industry, without enough altruism to provide fair and balanced news reporting, and tasteful,  educated news and entertainment.

TO BE CONTINUED…

revised August 29, 2023, 6:03pm local time Philippines

MUD ADVERTISING AND ALL ABOUT THE NEGATIVE FAME

 Nothing is as compelling in the creative industry as the beauty and discipline of advertising. With it, products and updates on a market, and news about industries that matter, even advocacies and “community announcements” are propagated with words, using any printed,  electronic, or digital  media,  that holds a message to a point of value.

But advertising the way it’s meant has always been there to “serve”, be it good news,  a piece of information, or a well-intended fact from which the public can benefit from.

In recent years, along with the rise of online media, there came a slowing down of good news trumpeters. Instead, advertising became more pronounced and rather exploitative.  What came is a return to “boldness” in the way advertising is packaged.

For example, some online ads, do not merely promote and sell vantage points for new products. Some ads deviate from acceptable standards for advertising, previously disallowed by governing bodies.

A sweep read at the many frequent ads on display online these days can expose oneself to ads that hound customers with a charade of bodies and curves, closeups, and “show-all” product photos that aim to sensationalize and get attention with their own style of advertising. 

The real fault in some ads? These exploit women and models,  in such uncompromising postures enough for one to mind not the product but the model in photos.  It is not just the curves and the skin  peek that are shown in some non-mainstream, advertising, with a message loud and bold that it’s okay to flaunt.

Say in a product that must be talked about in a hush most cautious tone, the ad is graphically stated without much caution for decency and vulgarity by some advertisers and online sellers. These are blatantly common in online media and commercial sites.

Another kind of advertising that this writer would like to posit, is a seemingly innocent streamer in the community.  However, the display of tarpaulin although fraught with respect for the rights of those who have fallen from grace in a community, is also well-meant and intended, to let the public know about an erring individual.   Vagueness is not in the ideals of this kind of advertising which must be best called- mud advertising, the way it throws mud on the integrity of a person.  It is advertising if it is posted using a medium that is commonly used for advertising like what a tarpaulin is commonly used for.  And if it is situated along prominent areas where there is expected foot traffic. Moreso, tarpaulin advertising goes beyond a personal announcement and falls on the level of advertising if the message is posted more than once or twice, or with a schedule definitive of intention to get as much viewership or exposure.

                Can we consider negative news reporting as a form of advertising when it involves not just a personality but a person with business interests in the community? This is an ethical question that must be weighed by media providers which deliver the news, anyhow they can serve it for the public to partake of.

The thing with advertising these days, there has been an erasure of lines from advertising to the content, and the substance of news articles that are packaged as branded content. Because straightforward advertising  could turn off a lot of readers and sway them to stop the ad button once an ad interferes with their preferences,  advertisers have found it inevitable to repackage their products on media, and make them content-appropriate or  “content-embedded”.

What this writer also means to put forward in the open is that sometimes news and advertising have been interloped to a point of fault.  The disparity before is very pronounced. In later years, the shift in pleasing the numbers of followers has become a norm in changing the look of advertising, making these almost seamless with news and content at the forefront, while advertising seems to be at the helm of strategy.

We go back to tarpaulin advertising that carries a controversial announcement, advertisers can take caution not to overuse their intention to do good for others by using advertising as a ploy.  Or make an outcast out of an individual concern so as to diminish another’s integrity in the face of the greater community.

Mud advertising be it in the form of below-the-line advertising must not be a standard to address a competition, resolve a problem or warn about an issue that needs to be resolved with compassion and dignity.

Also, negative advertising must not be a gateway to other kinds of advertising that can disintegrate  regular standards of media normalcy so as to accept substandard advertising.

The helpless must not count on negative advertising that gives indignity or embolden others to follow suit, even if it is only meant for posterity,  to add on new followers, or bring sympathy,  and even sides for the unnoticed.

 

 

IS GETTING AN EXIT AGENCY ALREADY APPROPRIATE FOR FILIPINO EMPLOYEES?

 

Apparently, there are already companies in Japan that do the hard work for employees who want to quit their job and make it seem effortless. 

The kind of company that offers a resolution to avoid the awkwardness of employees when filing a resignation and dealing with their boss/es on direct approach terms.

Truth be told, such a company could have more place in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world. 

Employment locally has always been intrusive, starting from the screening stage where every detail is asked including medical and work history. These are necessary in order to give prospective employers a necessary heads-up on how an applicant is at work, while in the office, or even when handling remote positions.

The process can include a long wait and more pressure is hatched at the back of the applicant to please and make a good impression even before employment begins.  

When filing a resignation, however, the process can vary per employee’s temperament, style of negotiation, and workplace experience which can eventually dictate how a resignation is expressed, filed, or announced.

The standard acceptable process is to let an employer aware of an employee’s intention to resign, at least about a month before the actual date of effectivity. This is debatable however as some employees would opt for shorter advice for resignation to proceed and take effect.

But since a resignation involves not only a cessation of responsibilities for a specific work designation; company to employee relationship;  and a halt on the professional ties with the employer or boss/es, an employee may find himself or herself in a dire inconvenient position to express such intention to resign, in a very abrupt or direct approach, to avoid the toxic negotiation and discussion process.

The thing with work culture locally is that bosses have enough clout to dictate the future work of employees. Not a few employees would like to tread on a very balancing strategy on filing a resignation so as not to earn the ire and prolonged disappointment of their employers.

 

At times, employers particularly those in middle-management positions, are more deaf than responsive to employees’ needs and interests. 

Because every employee loss especially a fast turnover can hint at bad management style or workplace negativity, there are managers who exert enough pressure to keep their employees on deck. But when unable to do this, some opt for negative recommendations or feedback to the detriment of the employee who has expressed intention to leave work.

 

There are many instances when middle managers and those with the power to wield, go as far as “mud sling" an employee's record when hearing about an employee's resignation via grapevine.  They can do so without hilt or fault because the employees left behind are usually part of their own certain clique of loyalists.

Some managers also spill juicy irrelevant facts about an employee that can compromise a person's integrity in the face of other employers, in order to save face and get a decibel of approval from their colleagues when accepting a resignation.  

These are not unusual attitudes of managers locally, thus the complications of a work exit can be as tricky as getting a job from the start. Office politics allows these to permeate the work ethics of personnel thus leaving employees with a hesitancy to discuss resignation plans way before an official letter is filed.

 

To avoid pressure on employees, an “exit agency” can be more useful to have because it frees an employee from all the stresses and negativities of having to deal with bosses when quitting work. 

However, there are also companies locally with well-meaning Human Resources personnel who help the employees express their resignation thus aiding the smooth negotiations for the job turnover. 

 

Since this is a generation that has always looked out for solutions to pain points of ordinary people, human resource and manpower agencies should also best an effort to make resignation easier for employees, and make the process more like an ordinary "quit call", just like the companies that are in our neighboring country that go the extra mile to make sure employees' interests are always upheld to the very last.

There Cannot Be More Fines, We Are Not A Country of Fines

 

Count them if you can pay them.

 

There is a better alternative to getting the products and services these days that makes everything equal and goes above the reality of being  "consumer-deprived" or devoid of essentials for household and life-survival. 

In all the things we spend for, we have always had a leeway to choose whether we pay via cash, credit card, or installment basis.

The old way of purchasing things which is slowly becoming outdated is to pay for items and services in cash. Because not many can afford to retain credit cards, cash reigns supreme in the great economy where every consumer must be favored and taken care of. 

But in a dismal economy fraught with new hopeful developments, one showing a bearish attitude towards the simplest of buyers, the best deal option is to use e-wallets, hence the popularity of digital money.

E-wallets are convenient when the pandemic waved its feel on the populace wanting to veer away from face-to-face contact either in small stores or in commercial establishments. Another wise option for the regular shopper is to rely on digital wallets that offer installments, making purchases affordable that have been toned down in mini-proportions.

This mode of paying in "pea-sized amounts" offers a problem solved on the pain point of a regular consumer. 

However, even as modes of payments now are more technology-driven and trend-inspired, what service and product providers fail to take note of, is to remove another pain in the throat of ordinary consumers—that of paying penalties, fines, or hidden charges to ensure continuity of services and assure of continued supply of consumer products.  

Let us not deviate from the usual spends of the ordinary Filipino.  

Utilities that require its subscribers to settle fines or penalties in varied amounts.  Reconnection fees can fetch as high as low as Php 600.00, to Php 1,500 depending on a company's requisites.

Meanwhile, as for the micro-loan consumers, the fees and penalties are not as definite and can be as flexible depending on which one has offered a micro-loan product.  This can be as low as Php 50.00, for ordinary micro-loan amounts, depending on the delay or schedule in settling the payments and the interest/s dictated by the principal amount.

In tax settlements, the penalties can be even more astounding and might range from Php 300 to less than Php 2,000 per month. In vehicle registration, penalties can also be charged against the owner of a vehicle. 

In the timeline of the pandemic, everyone is expected to make ends meet and keep the odds at bay when it comes to paying obligations. By consumers' standards, the current cost of living "is already high" in the country, at a time when jobs are scarce offline and online, and product availability can also prove to be scarce or limited.

An example analogy of how penalties could be used for another purpose by the consumers, instead of having the penalties paid, and thus make way for more  items on an ordinary mom's grocery bag is below:  

Example: 

 

• A PHP 50.00 penalty charged by a microloan can suffice to cover the allowance of a grade-schooler or pay for a cup of munggo beans, or a kilo of rice, enough to cover a day’s meal for a family.

• The PHP 300 penalty can afford a consumer 6 kilos of rice enough to augment a week's sustenance for an ordinary household.

• The Php 600 penalties slapped by another utility company can be enough to pay for the water service consumption of a city-dweller subscriber, for about a month.

• A Php 1,200 penalty charged by another lifestyle-essential utility company can be enough to pay for the transportation of a schooler for two weeks or more, should an ordinary consumer/s be freed from paying it.

These simple comparisons of how consumers can make better use of the penalties they pay, in order to procure products and services, must be understood in clear and simple terms by the company or business that charges these penalties.

If a subscriber/consumer moves heaven and earth to be able to pay or afford local products and services that are requisites for their own standards of living, why deny the consumer the opportunity to be free from paying such fines when these would mean a heartbeat of a meal; an extra mile of reach to a destination; or an extra day of guaranteed meal for a schooler?

Fines are as debilitating as the obligations of debt that ordinary consumers shoulder in their own blindsighted ways to follow a structure of fines dictated by the businesses they rely and trust on.

 

 News Review Philippines

2023

Posted in real-time by the writer, Anna Liza VB.

For comments and suggestions, or press invites please email newsreviewph@gmail.com.