Philippine E-Journals

The Vanishing Newsroom

Gerardo Mariano

Discipline: Literature, Humanities

 

Abstract:

Let me begin by saying a few words about Balitang Kababayan, of which I was billed as its creator and editor. Actually, it was a collaboration with my colleague, Amelita Lopez. I wrote the news portion while she did the entertainment. Balitang Kababayan was online from 5 August 1995 to 1999. It was the first attempt to electronically publish news regularly about and from the Philippines. Previous efforts were sporadic, delayed, or unreliable. It went online ahead of the major broadsheets, some of which at that time were tentative (and some still are) about taking their product to the Internet.