The Tale of The Tabloid
Things are not all as they seem:
The Tale of The Tabloid
By Hector Bryant L. Macale
Scantily clad women in seductive poses. Gruesome crime photos and stories. Celebrity gossip. Sensational news.
These are the stuff of the poor man’s newspaper—the tabloids. Smaller, handier, and considered less respectable than the broadsheet, the tabloids enjoy wider circulations than the doubly expensive big newspapers.
In terms of circulation, the country’s number one broadsheet, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, is no match to the most popular tabloids. According to the 2003 Philippine Fact Book, the top three daily tabloids are People’s Journal with a daily circulation of 469,464; Bulgar, 450,000; and People’s Tonight, 365,811.
In contrast, the Inquirer, the nation’s most popular broadsheet, has a daily circulation of 260,000. This constitutes a “52-percent share of total circulation of broadsheets in the country,” according to the Philippine media baseline study, Freedom of Expression and the Media in the Philippines, which was jointly published in December last year by the London-based free expression advocacy group Article 19 and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.
Notwithstanding their popularity, tabloids are usually not taken seriously. Columnist Rina Jimenez David, in the Aug. 1990 issue of the Philippine Journalism Review (PJR), traced the problem to the “tabloids’ perceived selling points of sleaze and gore, sex and violence, the preponderance of crime stories, preferably with a sexual twist, and the sensationalistic handling of news.”
But are tabloids really living up to their image or are they just victims of labeling and stereotyping?
How much?
PJR Reports reviewed the content of 15 tabloids currently sold in Manila newsstands. Monitored from Oct. 16 to 20 were the following: Abante Tonite, Bagong Tiktik, Balita, Bandera, Bulgar, Pang-Masa, People’s Journal, People’s Taliba, People’s Tonight, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Pinoy Weekly, Remate, Sagad, Tanod, and Tumbok. All are published daily, except for Pinoy Weekly and Sagad, which are published every other day. Thus, only Pinoy Weekly’s October 11-17 issue and Sagad’s No. 401-403 issues were included in the scan.
Tabloids cost between P6 and P8, almost half the price of broadsheets, which are sold from P15 to P25. The lowest-priced tabloid is Pinoy Weekly at P6 while the pornographic Sagad costs P18, the most expensive tabloid reviewed in the study.
Of the 15 tabloids, Sagad was the only one which listed an office address outside Metro Manila. Its main office is in remote Camotes Island in the northern tip of Cebu province. The tabloids’ office addresses were not verified by the monitor.
Unlike the Metro Manila-based broadsheets which are in English, most of the tabloids are written in Filipino, making them easy reading for their target readers in the C, D, and E markets. Only People’s Journal is in English, while Bandera and People’s Tonight have stories both in English and Filipino.
The front page
Like the eyes that serve as windows to the soul, the front page calls readers’ attention to the paper’s biggest stories and at the same time gives them a peek at what’s between the pages. A major determinant of sales, the tabloid’s cluttered front page is often the complete opposite of the neat and formal broadsheet front page.
Do the front pages of tabloids still focus on crime and sex, their articles adorned with pictures of topless women whose private parts are covered with stars? Do the main headlines still scream in bold red fonts announcing the latest rape or chop-chop victim? The review showed that although tabloids still use bold capital letters in red or other colors in their headlines, the stories do not always focus on crime and sex.
Out of the 69 issues monitored, more than half (39 or 56.52 percent) of the tabloids used news about politics and government for their top stories. These reports included politicians and personalities running in next year’s elections and changes made in the government bureaucracy. Most of the headlines about politics and governance focused on the suspension order against Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and the alleged moves by Malacañang to remove local anti-Arroyo officials from post.
Most tabloids used political and governance news as their main stories at least thrice during the five-day scan. Tanod devoted all its five top stories to politics, while Balita, Bandera, People’s Journal, and Pilipino Star Ngayon had it in four out of five issues. Politics and governance were the top headlines for Abante Tonite, Bagong Tiktik, Pang-Masa, People’s Taliba, and Tumbok three times.
Issues and controversies
After political and governance stories, reports about current issues and controversies came next, with 14 headlines, or 20.29 percent of the total. Issues were mostly about the alleged cheating in the recent nursing examinations, the filing of libel suits against journalists by presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, insurgency, and terrorism, among other things.
Compared to broadsheet accounts, however, tabloid reports on politics and issues were short, providing only basic information. This may be partly because of limited space.
Reports in the inside pages were short as well. But these stories, often only about four or five paragraphs long, got to the heart of the matter, unlike some reports in the broadsheets. As David had written in PJR: “Despite their narrow and shallow coverage, the tabloids can offer journalists valuable lessons in brevity and getting to the heart of an issue or event. Headlines are punchy and attention-grabbing, the writing is invariably lively and seldom loaded down with formulaic journalese.”
Some tabloids gave space to issues important to citizens. For example, Bandera headlined on Oct.16 a study by the Department of Labor and Employment showing that one breadwinner is not enough even for a small family.
“Sa tindi ng kahirapan ngayon, dalawa ang kailangang kumayod sa isang maliit na pamilya,” said the report titled “2 Dapat ang Kumayod: Kundi’y magugutom ang pamilya”.
‘A then-juicy virgin’
Crime was only the third headline topic of choice among the tabloids, with seven out of 69 issues giving it the top treatment (10.14 percent). Tabloids treat crime stories differently from broadsheets. People’s Tonight’s top story on Oct. 18, for example, was about a man who allegedly mauled his son. The story began with: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my life (sic).’
Comparing the battered 13-year-old boy to a “lamb about to be slaughtered,” the story narrated how the victim, through “his tired eyes,” “waited for the blows that would finally kill him.” The paper described the boy’s father as “possessed.”
People’s Tonight’s penchant for dramatic leads and stereotypes was also evident in its Oct. 18 and 19 top headlines. In its Oct. 19 story on underage prostituted victims (“Orgy: Lolo, 4 Girls”), the lead went thus: “‘Twas a game only the demented or the desperate would play. The players involve(d) an aging maniac and four whores probably younger than his grandkids. The sport: a sordid blending of five bodies, an erotic mixture of tongues and a wretched gathering of users and used souls.”
Not content with calling the victims “whores,” the story proceeded to refer to them as “hookers.” In the previous day’s story, one of the victims was described as a “then-juicy virgin.” The stories were filled with graphic details that were clearly intended to arouse prurient interest.
‘’Sagad”
In the tabloid Sagad, the front page carried photos of half-naked and naked persons performing sexual acts.
The accuracy of the paper’s top stories is highly doubtful. Although the details of the reports supposedly came from police cases, the graphic details of the stories make one wonder if the reports are all fiction intended to titillate readers. For example, Sagad’s headline in its No. 401 issue was about a woman who discovered her husband and daughter having sex in their house in Abuyog, Leyte.
The report gave graphic details of how the woman discovered the crime, including what the husband and their daughter had been doing. Even the body parts of the suspects were described in full detail.
Sagad’s style of sleazy “reporting” of sex crimes was also evident in its No. 402 issue, when the tabloid reported on the rape of a “pretty, 19-year-old mestiza” in Misamis Oriental. Another story was about a man who claimed to have had an orgy with his wife and another man.
Except for Sagad, no other tabloid scanned in the period featured on the front-page naked pinups of models and actresses or people engaged in sexual acts. Some tabloids like People’s Taliba (and to some extent, Bagong Tiktik) featured actresses in sexy dresses and seductive poses.
Other top stories in the study were about various incidents around the metropolis (three headlines or 4.35 percent). One top story was about business (1.45 percent) while another was on business, sports, science, or health.
Surprisingly, not one top story was devoted to enter-tainment.
All the news
If tabloids did not use entertainment news on their front pages, they made up for it in the inside pages. Out of 3,095 stories in the tabloids scanned (including front-page items), more than a third or 1,093 articles were about entertainment (35.32 percent), making them the big-gest number of stories by type.
PJR Reports included items from the showbiz columnists in the scan since tabloids practically rely on columnists for showbiz news. The study showed that only a small part of showbiz news was written separately from showbiz columns. Curiously, many items written separately from the columns were penned by some of the tabloids’ columnists themselves. The “news stories” were written in the same style as the columns.
Unlike in other sections of the tabloids where news was distinct from commentaries, the showbiz section offered readers a mish-mash of celebrity gossip columns, news laced with opinion, as well as announcements on the entertainment industry.
Sports stories came a distant second in terms of number of news, with 516 reports or 16.67 percent of the total. Most tabloids put the sports news at the back page; People’s Journal Tonight places its sports section in the centerfold. Occupying the back page is the entertainment section.
The 12-page Tanod usually places its sports news items on pages 9 and 10, after showbiz news and community news. Sports news included reports on Manny Pacquiao’s boxing match with Mexican pugilist Erik Morales, the Basketball Asso-ciation of the Philippines contro-versy, the preparation of the Philippine team to the Asian Games, the World Pool Cham-pionship, and the Philippine Basketball Association game updates.
Politics, no. 3
Political and governance stories, which made up most of the top stories in the study, only ranked third among the total news items. Out of 3,095 articles, political and governance stories accounted for only 457 or 14.77 percent. The stories included the suspension order against Binay, an alleged Palace-backed plot to remove local anti-Arroyo officials from their posts, the candidates in next year’s elections, government officials appointed and fired, as well as graft and corruption.
Many political and governance stories in the tabloids relied on only one source and were often biased in favor of or against a certain official or politician. There were also feature stories on officials that looked like press releases. Tanod, for example, kept on featuring barangay officials serving in Metro Manila, along with their organizational affiliations, accomplishments, and goals in life.
There was a total of 405 crime stories scanned in the study, making crime stories the fourth top news item among tabloids (13.09 percent).
Crime and other stories
Among the tabloids, Balita had the biggest number of crime stories with 64 articles. Remate and Tanod were next, with 41 articles each. Both Pinoy Weekly and Sagad did not have any crime story at all.
Although tabloids reported mostly on crimes that happened in Metro Manila, they also devoted space to crime cases outside the metropolis.
News and feature stories on family, career, relationships, health, weather, human interest, among others—considered “miscellaneous” items—accounted for 263 or 8.50 percent of the total number of articles in the study.
News on issues and controversies were among the tabloids’ top headlines, second only to political and governance news stories. Combining the total number of news items, however, only 243 out of the 3,095 articles took up current issues and controversies (7.85 percent).
There were 83 international stories, including showbiz and sports celebrities and events (2.68 percent). Bandera used most of these articles (24), followed by Balita (20), and Tanod (12).
Tabloid reporting of business and the economy leaves much to be desired. Only 19 stories or 0.61 percent out of the total number of articles were devoted to business and economy stories. These usually involved news on electricity, foreign investments, and entrepreneurship.
Amazingly, out of the 3,095 straight news stories, only 16 were sex-related. Of the 16, 13 (81.25 percent) appeared in Bagong Tiktik. These stories included pointers from a book on sex written by an American author. There were also news stories written by Filipino authors on issues related to sex and the reproductive system.
The three remaining sex-related stories were the ones Sagad used as top stories.
The importance of opinion
There were as many showbiz stories as there were showbiz columns in the tabloids scanned. Majority of tabloid columnists monitored in the study were showbiz columnists, who frequently wrote several items in an issue. Out of 298 columnists, 96 or almost a third wrote about show business (32.21 percent).
Many showbiz columnists also had columns in several tabloids, unlike their counterparts in other sections who wrote exclusively for one newspaper. These showbiz columnists included Vinia Vivar, Dinno Erece, ABS-CBN showbiz hosts Cristy Fermin, Ogie Diaz, Alfie Lorenzo, Billy Balbastro, and comedian/show host/talent manager German Moreno.
Aside from celebrity gossip, showbiz columns were also full of blind items on topics such as the sexual escapades and personal problems of celebrities. Not infrequently, showbiz columns were used to defend celebrities who enjoy close ties with the columnists or may even be the latter’s talents.
Politics and controversies came in second as column topics, at 29.19 percent. Political columnists included government officials (such as Ignacio Bunye and Bobby Capco) and politicians (senators Jinggoy Estrada, Loi Estrada, and Alfredo Lim; congresswoman Imee Marcos and former congressman Dante Liban). Conflict of interest does not seem to be a problem in many tabloids who allow news sources to dabble in journalism.
Fortune and feng shui
Aside from politician-columnists, tabloids also give space to people specializing in the occult such as numerology, palmistry, fortunetelling, dream interpretation, and horoscope (9.40 percent). There were 28 such columnists in the tabloids, talking about gambling tips, fortune-telling, and feng shui, among other things.
These columns serve as potential sources of revenues for the tabloids. For example, readers are informed by columnists that palmistry advice can be asked by texting their names and requests to numbers hosted by mobile companies. The more text messages sent to the mobile company’s numbers, the higher the revenues for the tabloid and the columnist.
Sometimes, a columnist might not want to share his earnings with his newspaper. If Sagad readers do not want to wait for lotto tips on the tabloid’s next issue, they can have the tips sent straight to their mobile phones if they send P5 load to the columnist’s mobile number (the ubiquitous “pasaload”).
The tabloids also have a number of columnists who discus-sed sports (23 or 7.72 percent); gave advice about romance (18 or 6.04 percent), and addressed citizens’ complaints (7 or 2.35 percent). Another politician, presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor, has a column in Bulgar which acts on readers’ complaints.
Still, there are columnists whose interests are those of the typical opinion writer. These involve overseas Filipino workers, religion, medical advice, crime cases, jokes, and quotations from text messages. One of these columnists is Francis Escudero, the opposition leader in the House of Repre-sentatives, who has a legal advice column in Abante Tonite. The study showed that there were 20 of these “other” columnists (6.71 percent).
Sex still sells
It is important to note that tabloids still run sex columns and stories. These, however, are no longer as prevalent as they used to be. PJR Reports did not count sex-oriented cartoon series under sex columns, but reviewed them as part of the sex content in the tabloid pages.
Sagad had the highest number of sex columns (11), followed by Bagong Tiktik with five. These two tabloids, especially Sagad, stood out from the rest of the tabloid landscape with their pages full of sex columns and series.
Abante Tonite, the home of the infamous—and fictitious—Xerex Xaviera (the so-called “grand-mama of sex columnists”), still has a column but so do real professional sex therapists like Dr. Margie Holmes. Pang-Masa and Tumbok also have one sex column each. All in all, there were 19 sex-oriented columns in the tabloids.
There may be less sex in the tabloids now, but that doesn’t mean that it is on the way out. If the success and popularity of Sagad is any indication, there is no stopping other tabloids, especially the new ones, in trying to outdo the others by offering more sleaze. Every issue of Sagad devotes a page to pictures of naked women in a section called “Sagad Nude Files: Mga larawang hubad para sa lahat.” This is in addition to a colored centerfold featuring women exposing their womanhood.
Sagad aside, it can be said that tabloids have been giving more space to stories about politics and governance, controversies and various crucial issues that the ordinary Filipino needs to know. True, tabloids still follow the time-tested formula of crime, sex, entertainment, and sports. But by increasingly providing news that are relevant to the lives of citizens, the tabloids may yet rise from their lowly place in Philippine journalism.
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