Elections 2016 Archives | Page 3 of 3

On the Campaign Trail

ATTACHED TO, or embedded in a candidate’s political campaign, reporters are forced to follow a set schedule, a task that can be repetitive and sometimes useless in terms of helping the public evaluate the candidate’s worth. Media organizations usually assign a reporter and a photographer, and for TV stations, a...

Election Surveys: Beyond the Numbers and the “Horse Race”

SURVEY RESULTS on voter preferences are a staple of election reports, gaining wider public interest as the election nears. CMFR’s election monitors over the years have found that these occupy prominent space on the front pages in newspapers and consume much airtime in television newscasts. Pulse Asia released its...

Gaming the Party-List System

CHEERS TO Rappler.com for running a story that examined the party-list groups and their nominees for congressional positions. In “2016 party-list nominees: Taking a ‘shortcut’ to Congress?” posted on March 13, Rappler’s Michael Bueza writes that “reelectionists, political dynasts, former congressmen and government officials, and legitimate members of...

First Presidential Debate: Controversy Over Media ‘Discrimination’

THE FIRST presidential debate held last month in Cagayan de Oro City provoked a controversy, with one news organization alleging that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) restricted freedom of expression by assigning exclusive broadcasting and livestreaming rights to only two media companies. Manila-based online news organization Rappler filed...

Sidebar | Candidates for Senate and Party-list: Hardly Noticed

AMONG THE newspapers CMFR reviewed from Feb. 9 to 20, The Standard was found to feature Romualdez quite frequently. Romualdez, Leyte’s 1st District representative, is on his third term. He is one of the 50 candidates vying for a senate seat in the upcoming elections, running under Lakas-Christian-Muslim-Democratic Party (LAKAS-CMD)....

Candidates for Senate and Party-list: Hardly Noticed

TWO WEEKS into the campaign period for national positions, both print and broadcast media have mostly focused on the presidential and vice presidential race to the near exclusion of the Senate and party- list elections. The emphasis given to the two top elective posts is understandable, given the number...

First Election Debate Goes Pfft: Coverage Filled with Sound bytes and Pull Quotes

GIVEN THE media hype and hoopla surrounding the holding of the first debate, the program went pfft, with little excitement to engage. What substance could have been drawn out from the political exchange was weighed down by mechanics of the format and the burden of too many commercials....