Rights that can’t be heard: Addressing the need for extending closed caption law in social media platforms for COVID-19 pandemic related coverage

• Main Author: Daos, Bernadette De Vera
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Closed captioning—Law and legislation; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020- , in mass media; Law
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_law/24
• Institution: De La Salle University

People’s constitutional right to information has long been enshrined under Article III. Sec. 7 (Bill of Rights) of the Philippine Constitution1 and was furthered under Executive Order No. 02 Series of 20162 (EO-02 S. 2016) by which the law mandates that every Filipino shall have access to information, official records, public records and to documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development. In 2016, Republic Act No. 10905, entitled “An Act Requiring All Franchise Holders or Operators of Television Stations and Producers of Television Programs to Broadcast or Present Their Programs With Closed Caption Options,” was passed into law. Closed Captioning (CC) studies proved that captioning a video improves comprehension, attention, and memory retention of the video and benefit everyone who watches it. Captions are particularly beneficial for persons watching videos in their non-native language, for children and adults learning to read, and for persons who are partially or totally Deaf or hard of hearing. Closed captions are designed to offer a text alternative for every noise that’s important in understanding the context of a video. The idea is anyone should be able to watch with the sound turned off and still get the full experience of what’s happening on screen. This study aims to prove the necessity, beficiality, and practicability of the need to extend closed captioning on Social Media Broadcasts by video producers and broadcasters in Facebook and Youtube. Captions help Deaf with comprehension, accuracy, engagement, and the retention of information transmitted in course videos. COVID-19 is proving to be a major global pandemic and threat to every person in the world. And to reduce the spread of this virus, Philippines is in need to deploy measures to protect its citizens by providing strong communication dissemination through different kinds of platforms like social media (Facebook and YouTube) to ensure that every citizen receive the correct and up-to-date information about the pandemic.