Not a matter of more exposure

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

03/12/2010

A study by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), which tracks news coverage on national candidates during the campaign period, said that Erap Estrada, the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino presidential bet, was the most covered presidential candidate by three broadcast networks, having logged a total of 36.29 minutes in news coverage during the first three weeks of the campaign period in February.

The CMFR study stated that Estrada had 14.17 minutes exposure in ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol, 20.7 minutes in GMA-7’s 24 Oras, and 1.02 minutes in NBN-4’s Teledyaryo.

The study was said to have monitored the three news programs from Feb. 9 to 27.

This was followed by Manny Villar, Nacionalista Party standard bearer, who the CMFR said logged 34.51 minutes.

He was the second most covered candidate and the most-covered presidential candidate of the news show 24 Oras, with 21.35 minutes, which is higher than Estrada’s.

Gilbert Teodoro, the administration presidential bet, logged in third, with 34.36 minutes, while Noynoy Aquino, Liberal Party presidential bet, logged in 29.34 minutes, with 18.75 minutes in GMA’s 24 Oras, and 9.53 in TV Patrol.

Not surprisingly, it was Teodoro who had the most news exposure in NBN-4, the government network, getting 17.01 minutes, while Estrada and Aquino had 1.02 and 1.06 minutes, respectively, in NBN’s Teledyardo, a government news program. Villar had 3.53 minutes exposure.

Only three TV news programs were tracked for presidential candidates’ news exposure. What happened to the rest of the TV stations, and the other news programs? Without these broadcast entities included in the study, what good does this study serve?

The other trouble with this type of media exposure tracking is that it does not reflect anything much as far as going by minutes of TV news exposure. Even, as claimed that Estrada got the lion’s share of media exposure in these three news programs, what is not being stated by the same study is how much of that news exposure was negative not just to Estrada but to all other candidates who logged in more minutes?

Let’s take the case of Noynoy Aquino. The study says that Aquino, in ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol, had 9.53 minutes of news exposure, while Estrada had 14.17 minutes in the same show. Does this mean anything, considering that ABS-CBN is known to be biased in favor of Noynoy Aquino?

Aquino could have gotten less news coverage in ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol mainly because ABS-CBN would hardly be expected to air news reports that are negative to him and his campaign.

At the same time, while Estrada, according to the study, gets the lion’s share, or 14.7 minutes in the same TV program, what percentage of that report would be negative to Estrada and what percentage of the news reports would be positive?

The same goes for Villar. He has the lion’s share in GMA-7 with some 21.35 minutes of news exposure. Whether it was negative or positive, the study does not say.

In the case of the government TV and with Teodoro getting the bulk of its news reporting, there is little doubt — if at all, that all the news stories devoted to him and his campaign would all be positive, NBN-4 being a government and pro-administration station.

But negative and positive news reporting, along with the minutes of news program exposure aside, do these media news exposures mean anything to the presidential candidates and their campaigns?

In the end, it really is not the media and their news reports that will make or break the candidacy of a presidential candidate, even if the media want to believe that they make and break presidents and their campaigns.

Everything is a matter of credibility, both on the part of the presidential candidates and the media covering them.

How credible are these TV stations and how credibly are their news reports being held by the electorate?

In the end, it is the people, not the TV stations, that will decide who should be president.

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