When too much is too muchDevoting 50 percent of airtime to one story was excessive
by Bryant L. Macale
Published in PJR Reports, September-October 2011
This is an updated version of When too much is too much, Sept. 16, 2011
“Excessive” was the fitting description of the amount of television airtime given Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup’s candidacy in this year’s Miss Universe beauty pageant last Sept. 13. It was one more demonstration of broadcast news media’s predilection for showbiz and fluff and the increasing time given to entertainment and celebrity news.
How they did it
PJR Reports (PJRR) did a timekeeping monitor of major news programs TV Patrol, 24 Oras, and Aksyon last Sept. 13, the local date for the Miss Universe competition (held in São Paulo, Brazil). PJRR recorded the total airtime of the programs (excluding commercials) and monitored how much of it was devoted to Ms. Supsup, who emerged as third runner-up in the contest.
Supsup’s feat was cheering news. But it was not the first time the Philippine candidate has landed among the finalists in international beauty pageants. In fact the country has won the Miss Universe title twice.
Of the three programs, TV5’s Aksyon devoted the least airtime to Ms. Supsup—four minutes and 29 seconds (or 15.06 percent) out of its total Sept. 13 news airtime of 28 minutes and 49 seconds. While the anchors led the newscast with the announcement of Ms. Supsup’s finish, its three reports about Ms. Supsup were aired at the end of the newscast. These included an account from the network’s reporter in São Paulo who was covering the event.
Aksyon committed a major lapse, however, when it reported without attribution a supposed quote from a famous personality that turned out to be false. Aksyon said that American celebrity and media mogul Oprah Winfrey had said in an interview that the Philippine candidate deserved to win the crown based on her performance in the question-and-answer portion of the competition. Ms. Supsup answered the question from one of the judges in English during that portion, and was the only one among the five finalists who didn’t require an interpreter.
Aksyon did not cite its source for the alleged Winfrey quote.
It turned out that the alleged quote, which was repeated in Twitter, Facebook and other sites in the afternoon of Sept. 13, was false. As early as that afternoon, it was already doubtful that Winfrey ever said anything about the chances of Ms. Supsup since no journalist or social media user had found any video or printed statement to confirm it.
Since the source of the Winfrey quote was already problematic hours before its airing that night, Aksyon should have at least warned its viewers that it was unconfirmed, or, what would have been even better, should not have reported it at all.
Yahoo! News Philippines quoted a moderator on Oprah’s official website as saying that Winfrey did not issue “any comments of this nature.” (“Oh no, Oprah didn’t say that”)
Meanwhile, 24 Oras devoted 20 minutes and 44 seconds of its total airtime (66 minutes and 46 seconds) to reports on Ms. Supsup (30.76 percent). Its first seven stories that night were on her background, her Miss Universe finish, and the public’s reaction.
These reports were followed by a live interview by news anchors Mel Tiangco and Mike Enrique with Timoteo Supsup, the beauty queen’s father, which took more than five minutes. Tiangco’s and Enriquez’s questions were mostly on the trivial, such as who gave Ms. Supsup her name, if she has a boyfriend, and the family’s plans to celebrate her fourth-place victory.
TV Patrol topped the other networks by providing more than half of its news airtime that night (34 minutes and 18 seconds out of 65 minutes and nine seconds or 51.87 percent) to Ms. Supsup. Worse, these reports—including an interview that was divided into two parts—were dispersed throughout the entire newscast hour. Sprinkling entertainment reports throughout a news program has become a key element in “dumbing down” the TV network audience, and contrasts with past TV Patrol and other news program templates in which there was only one segment for entertainment news which was usually relegated near the end of the newscast.
Clearly, this is done to hold the attention of the mass audience. But it also waters down the salience of more relevant and important news.
Earlier that day, ABS-CBN had already broadcast the Miss Universe special. But ABS-CBN’s flagship news program milked the news dry that night. TV Patrol started its reports about Ms. Supsup with a news teaser titled “Tagumpay ng Pinoy (Victory of Filipinos)”. The first 19 minutes of its newscast were all about her.
TV Patrol finally moved on with other stories buried that day in the newscast—such as a story on former Sharia court judge Nagamura Moner’s admission that he was involved in the 2004 election fraud, and the resumption of the anti-smoking ban of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority—but not without first asking its viewers: “Dapat bang sinagot na lamang ni Shamcey Supsup sa wikang Pilipino ang tanong sa kanya (Should Shamcey Supsup have answered in Filipino the question she was asked )?”
TV Patrol’s interview was divided into two parts which, again, were distributed throughout its one-hour coverage. The first took more than four minutes while the second was almost three minutes long.
TV Patrol’s newscast ended with anchors Noli de Castro, Korina Sanchez, and Ted Failon discussing the results of viewers’ poll. The program devoted 11 reports/segments on Shamcey Supsup (including the announcement of the poll and the discussion of the poll results) out of 24 reports/segments.
The lopsided coverage of Ms. Supsup’s Miss Universe candidacy relegated other stories of national significance to the sidelines. These included two events that also happened that day: Monero’s Senate testimony, and the two bombings in Cotabato during the visit there of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Jesse Robredo.
Newspaper coverage
PJRR also monitored how the Manila-based broadsheets covered Ms. Supsup’s Miss Universe candidacy from Sept. 14 (the day after the airing of the final pageant judging) up to Sept. 18. PJRR also looked at the coverage of some community newspapers.
The monitor showed that the Manila-based broadsheets were more restrained than their broadcast counterparts.
For example, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s main photo on its Sept. 14 front page was of the top five winners in the beauty pageant, accompanied by two articles and one essay. Its headline that day was on Judge Moner and his Senate testimony. (“Judge ties FG to cheating: Incredible, Mike A says of Moner’s testimony”). The Inquirer on Sept. 15 had a photo of Ms. Supsup in her bikini as its main front page photo, although its lead story was on an assessment, posted in Wikileaks, by the US embassy in Manila that the Philippines cannot defeat local communist rebels.
Other broadsheets like the Manila Bulletin, The Manila Times, and The Philippine Star on Sept. 14 had photos of Miss Angola (the winner) and Ms. Supsup on their front-pages accompanied by news articles. Malaya Business Insight had a photo and story related to the contest on Sept. 14 in its non-business news section.
Debunking online rumors on the alleged Winfrey quote, the Bulletin reported Sept. 15 that Winfrey’s website had denied making the statement. (“Oprah website denies she backed Shamcey”) But there were some papers, like the Baguio Midland Courier, that still erroneously reported the said quote. (“Dalagang bukid,” Sept. 18)
Other broadsheets such as the BusinessMirror, BusinessWorld, and The Daily Tribune did not have either a front-page photo or story about the pageant last Sept. 14.
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