The New News Target: OFWs

Media companies find a bigger, richer market
The New News Target: OFWs
By Don Gil K. Carreon

CONSIDER THESE numbers:
•$12.8 billion: the amount, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,  remitted by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) last year, excluding those coursed through informal channels;
•8.2 million: the number of Filipinos estimated by the Philip-pine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) to be working in 193 countries as of last year; and
•3,065: the number of Filipinos who leave the country every day to work abroad, as reflected in the number of contracts processed by the POEA.

Remember Flor?
The importance of covering OFWs was highlighted in 1995, when news of a sentenced Filipino domestic helper in Singapore shook the Ramos administration. Flor Contemplacion was accused and convicted of killing another Filipino maid and a Singaporean boy who was being cared for by the latter.
Although media coverage came late—Contemplacion had already been sentenced to death two years earlier—the story gathered even more steam as the date of her execution neared. As her story took up more space in media, a raw and painful nerve seemed to have been touched among the millions of Filipino families who have members working or seeking employment abroad.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets. Candles were lit in a show of collective hope for Contemplacion’s release. Sym-bols of Singaporean presence in the country became the targets of public anger; even a famous Singaporean restaurant had to close down temporarily. The demand for Contemplacion’s freedom became louder. Even Singapore had to admit that its relations with the Philippines were going through “a rough patch.”
Contemplacion’s case was the first OFW story to be given headline treatment in the Philippine press. But it would not be the last. Stories concerning overseas Filipinos became more numerous, many of them sad and troubling.
In 2002, a study by the Institute on Church and Social Issues on the reportage of newspapers on migrant workers’ issues found that crimes involving Filipinos in other countries were the third most reported topic in OFW-related stories. The top topic was government’s migration policies, violations of immigration rules, deportations, evacuation, and repatriation of Filipino workers.

OFW in focus
Jeremaiah Opiniano, executive director of the OFW Journalism Consortium, a group that is calling for more in-depth stories on migrant workers issues, said the execution of Contemplation was the event that pushed the press to pay more attention to overseas workers.
Today, the press is looking for a greater variety of stories involving OFWs. The attention being given to this new sector is easily explained by the fact that overseas workers have become a big—and rich—market for the media.
Ellene Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy, said that the media’s recognition of OFWs as a large and lucrative market has resulted in wider coverage of overseas Pinoys.
“When the multilateral organization said remittances are a big deal, businesses, including the media, realized the potential of this market,” Opiniano said.
The online medium, in particular, has been one of the beneficiaries of the OFWs’ homesickness. For example, according to Inquirer.net, it attracted an average of over 1.6 million unique visitors and 23 million page views from January to May this year. Of these numbers, 65.46 percent of the Internet traffic came from abroad.
In response to the needs of OFWs, news websites have created microsites that offer news on developments here and abroad that may affect migrant workers. Inquirer.net has put up “Global Nation” while GMANews.TV has “Pinoy Abroad.”
The traditional media are not lagging behind in the fight for a share of the OFW pie. Several publications have appeared, such as OFW Ngayon, that contain information especially for OFWs.
Among the TV networks, ABS-CBN 2 was the first to aggressively target the OFW market. In 1994, ABS-CBN 2 launched The Filipino Channel (TFC) in the United States, a cable channel that allowed US-based Pinoys to view the network’s entertainment and news programs. TFC has since branched out to Australia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Europe, and Northern Africa, offering news specific to the area being targeted. Rival station GMA-7 followed suit 11 years later, launching GMA Pinoy TV in Japan and the US.
Radio, on the other hand, is the most pro-active among the media as it offers services ranging from free phone calls abroad to free legal assistance to migrant workers and their families, aside from delivering news and analyses. Among these radio programs, the oldest is Rey Langit’s Kasangga ang Langit. The program, which airs over dwIZ, pioneered the concept of giving free calls abroad when it was still known as “To Saudi with Love.”

Changing coverage
The media’s attempt to corner the OFW market also led to the improvement in coverage, according to Opiniano.
It used to be that the media did not bother to explain the issues surrounding the migration phenomenon, he said.
“But when remittances became the mantra for develop-ment, stakeholders began to ask more questions and these became the entry point to report about other migration issues that could not get media attention,” Opiniano said.
Sana agreed that the quality of news on OFWs has improved, but that much more could be done.
“There should be an education component in the stories,” Sana said. “There are still some things that are not properly explained, such as the feminization of migration and some of the government’s labor migration policies.”
Another development in OFW reportage is the increasing emphasis on good news. For example, features on the success achieved by Filipinos overseas have become a staple in many OFW websites. The shift to success stories was a response to criticisms that reports have mostly delved on the negative aspect of migration and to the complaints of OFWs that they already have enough problems of their own to even bother reading about these in the news.
Opiniano said there are benefits to be gained from emphasizing the good news. For one thing, it can help restore hope in the country, he said. But he remains wary of the shift.
“With the emphasis on the positive news and their contributions to the economy, people might see OFWs as (mere) cash machines.” he said.

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