Campaign Trail Story Dominates Election News

3rd Report on the Discourse Analysis of TV Coverage of the National Elections 2016

REPORTS ON the campaign sorties of the 2016 presidential candidates continued to dominate the airtime allotted by TV news programs for election-related reports from March 6 to 19.

CMFR monitored the primetime news programs of the three biggest Manila-based TV networks (ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol and TV Patrol Weekend, GMA-7’s 24 Oras  and 24 Oras Weekend, and TV5’s Aksyon) during that two-week period.

Figure 1. Total number of election-related reports

Figure 1.2 Total number of election-related reports per category

CMFR recorded a total of 223 reports on the candidates for president,  or the general conduct of the 2016 elections—or 29 percent of the total number of reports aired during the monitoring period of 778 reports.  The primetime news programs of ABS-CBN (TV Patrol and TV Patrol Weekend) aired 80 election-related reports; 24 Oras and 24 Oras Weekend 78; while Aksyon aired 65 reports. (See figure 1)

These reports were almost evenly distributed throughout the news programs monitored, with 30 banner stories, 93 reports aired in the first half and 100 in the second half of the programs. (See figure 2)

Figure 2. Placement of reports

Presidential candidates as subjects

Approximately 73 percent—or 162 out of the 223 election-related reports—were about presidential candidates. (See figure 3)

Figure 3. Reports on presidential candidates

Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares dominated the airwaves with 76 reports from March 6 to 19. The number of reports featuring Poe increased due to the release of the Supreme Court decision dismissing the petitions seeking her disqualification from the presidential race. (See related report)

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was the least covered with only 28 reports. Most of the reports on Defensor-Santiago mentioned her inactivity during the period and her failure to attend the second round of the PiliPinas Debates.

VP Aspirants

Only 49 news reports featured the vice presidential candidates, mostly in connection with the survey results and the campaign sorties during which they were present with their running mates.  The most covered among the vice presidential candidates was Representative Leni Robredo, with 24 reports. (See figure 4)

Figure 4. Vice presidential candidates appearing in the news

Despite a high number of reports on his running mate Vice President Jejomar Binay, Gringo Honasan was featured in only 15 reports. The coverage of Binay has mostly been on the accusations of corruption he and his son are facing; Honasan has not been linked to any of Binay’s alleged illegal acts. The reports on Honasan were  only one report higher than the number of reports about the least covered  vice presidential candidate, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (14 reports).

Senators and Party-List Groups

The number of reports on the senatorial aspirants increased during the period as the survey results on the Top 12 candidates for the Senate were released. Nineteen  candidates were featured in 25 reports. The increase is likely due to the ongoing Senate inquiry into the role of the RCBC in the $81-million money laundering incident.

Senators TG Guingona and Serge Osmeña led the pack, with eight reports each. Senator Vicente Sotto followed in second place, with seven reports.

Figure 5. Senatorial candidates in the news

As in the last two monitoring periods, the party-list groups were not given much attention by the TV news media. CMFR found only four reports featuring party-list groups and their nominees. These were aired when the electricity rate hike was opposed by Bayan Muna and when some party-list groups endorsed Poe.

Candidates as Sources

The TV news programs interviewed or quoted Poe the most number of times, with 32 reports, because of the release of the SC decision on the disqualification cases against her.  Santiago was the least quoted due to her inactivity in the campaign during the period, with five reports.  There were several reports in which either the official spokesperson, the families, or the close associates of the candidates for president were the ones interviewed.

Figure 6. Presidential candidates as sources in the news

Duterte’s running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, was the most quoted vice presidential candidate, with eight reports. Senator Francis Escudero followed with seven. TG Guingona was the most interviewed senatorial candidates, with four reports.

The party-list groups and their nominees were not used as sources except as mentioned above. Several reports quoted Akbayan part list’s second nominee, Barry Gutierrez. But as in the previous period, Gutierrez was often quoted only as the spokesperson of Daang Matuwid or of presidential candidate Mar Roxas.

Themes

The TV news programs kept their viewers abreast with the daily campaign activities, or lack thereof, of the candidates. Ninety-one out of the 223 reports aired during the monitoring period were on the conduct of the campaign.

Figure 7. Themes of reports

With the release of the Supreme Court’s decisions on Poe’s disqualification cases and on the printing of voter’s receipts, the number of reports on election-related laws and regulations increased to 64 reports.

Fifty-seven reports discussed political controversies, including anomalous transactions involving some candidates for president as reported by the Commission on Audit and the Anti-Money Laundering Council, and the alleged bribery attempts on the Supreme Court justices to ensure the disqualification of Poe. The COA reports were about the alleged misuse of  Yolanda funds, the “overpriced” Makati parking building, and Davao’s Special Education Fund.

A notable effort was 24 Oras’s series of reports on the state of local elections, which looked into the personalities and political clans running and fielding candidates in several provinces of the Philippines.

Slant

The majority of the election-related reports were neither positively nor negatively biased for any candidate or party-list group (146 reports or 65 percent of the total). As in the previous monitoring period, the reports which were slanted for (49 reports) or against (34 reports) a candidate cited only a single source and did not provide any corroboration.

As a result of the coverage’s mostly being focused on the daily campaign trail activities of the candidates, and of  reporters’ being assigned to cover particular candidates, there were also episodes in the news programs that had several reports on a single issue or controversy, with each report featuring or citing a different candidate, party or source each time.