The Power Of Showbiz News

Why Boy, lolit and cristy ARE here to stay
The Power Of Showbiz News
By Junette B. Galagala

IN FEBRUARY, the public lapped up the Kris Aquino-James Yap drama which the media had been playing up for at least two weeks. Three months later, it was the Ruffa Gutierrez-Yilmaz Bektas break-up that held the public in rapt attention. And just when the stories about the former beauty queen and her wealthy Turkish husband were about to fade, a mobile phone camera caught Gretchen Barretto, who was very much into a relationship with businessman Tonyboy Cojuangco, locked in a more-than-friendly smooch with actor John Estrada.
For a longer time than most political stories did in recent memory, the three showbiz stories became part of the average Filipino’s daily news diet. On the front pages of newspapers and on prime time television news, the latest morsel on these showbiz stories were eagerly awaited, an indication of the influence and power entertainment news now holds in the mass media.
For sometime now, showbiz news has been occupying a significant number of pages in broadsheets and tabloids.  In November 2006, the PJR Reports said that 35.32 percent of articles that appeared in 15 Manila-based tabloids within a given period were entertainment stories (“The Tale of the Tabloids,” PJR Reports November 2006).
As early as 2002, in an article for the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, veteran entertainment writer Billy Balbastro said columns, feature stories, articles, and film reviews of entertainment writers found their way in “more than a dozen broadsheet dailies, 20 tabloids, and 30 entertainment magazines in the country.”
The growing clout of entertainment is not confined to newspapers. Television newscasts have also dedicated substantial airtime to showbiz segments during prime time: 24 Oras’s “Chika Minute” for GMA-7, TV Patrol World’s “Star Patrol” for ABS-CBN 2, and Primetime Teledyaryo’s “Balitang Taartits” for NBN-4.
In newspapers and on television, it is not unusual for showbiz stories to spill over to the day’s news. The stories from Tinseltown follow a predictable pattern: the current romantic interest of a certain star or the latest personal controversy to hit an actor. Viewers and readers might ask: Do we really need to know the goings-on in the lives of celebrities? Are these to be considered legitimate stories at all, similar to those that have been traditionally regarded as hard news, like politics?

Yes, they are
“Anything that covers (an) aspect of human endeavor is a legitimate area for news coverage,” says veteran journalist Pete Lacaba, executive editor of YES! Magazine. He admits the press is forced to give more coverage to showbiz news because this is “what the audience is looking for.”
“It’s a beat,” says Lito Zulueta, assistant lifestyle editor for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He adds, “There’s a basic acceptance in the fact that entertainment has permeated just about every fabric of society.  We cannot help but report about entertainment.”
According to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), the P40-billion entertain-ment business has become an attractive target for advertising.    Entertainment strongly determines consumer spending and counts among the products and services being offered by mobile phone companies as well as the more traditional media like radio and television (“The Power 25: The Top Guns of Philippine Show Business,” July-October 2002, i magazine).
While saying that entertainment as an industry should be covered by the media, Zulueta emphasizes that what is wrong is the overemphasis on and overload of entertainment news. He cites as an example 24 Oras’s “Chika Minute” which really takes more than a minute of prime time news.
The personal crises of showbiz personalities are magnified and sometimes elevated to the level of national issues. When top showbiz personality Kris Aquino revealed on nationwide television in 2003 the physical and verbal abuse she had suffered in the hands of live-in partner, actor-politician Joey Marquez, some newspapers made it their banner story. TV Patrol extended its newscast for a live interview with Aquino while rival Saksi gave airtime to Marquez.
Aquino’s private woes generated other stories anchored on the theme of violence against women. Militant women’s group Gabriela declared its support for Aquino and a patina of national significance was added as former President Cory Aquino was shown on camera embracing her tearful daughter.
Entertainment writers say stories about the latest showbiz controversies abound because there is a demand for them.
“The kind of exploitative journalism that entertainment writers dish out satisfies the demands of their own kind of readers. The tabloids rely on the celebrity as their basic commodity and, of course, we have a lot of celebrities in the entertainment scene—more than celebrities in politics, sports, and business put together. Basically, we are not interested in our celebrities but in what happens to them—sickness, new hairdo, pregnancy, courtship, etc.,” noted Balbastro.

Drama in the news
The preoccupation with entertainment has made the delivery of the news a performance or a drama by itself, according to Zulueta. Pointing to news anchors who read the news like stage performers, he says these newscasters actually trivialize the news and blur the distinction between entertainment and news.
John Manalastas, news pro-duction manager for GMA-7, says that programs will try to meet television’s audio and visual demands but adds that his network’s newcasts are not entertainment shows.
“TV has always been about information and entertainment. A newscast is a vehicle to send and receive information…but it will always have intrinsic entertain-ment value,” he says, adding that each newscast has its own style which is “a reflection of its experience, ethics, and personnel.” He declares, “Usually it’s a matter of what works for them.”
Luchi Cruz Valdes, head of ABS-CBN current affairs, offers a different view. She says showbiz news is just part of, but is not, the entire newscast. “We don’t entertain in the way that showbiz shows entertain.  We’re so not The Buzz,” she says.
But what makes the power of showbiz journalism so contro-versial is the manner by which its practitioners wield it.
According to Balbastro, among the estimated 300 members of the entertainment press, less than 20 percent are college graduates and less than five percent came from journalism schools.
The lack of training has resulted in a problem more widespread and blatant than that in other types of journalism: showbiz reporters doubling as public relations officers or talent managers, and gossip being passed off as legitimate news or opinion pieces.
Lacaba agrees with the observation: “One common saying in showbiz journalism, ‘pinabili lang ng suka, naging reporter na (showbiz  reporters are accidental reporters).’  Or fan ng isang artista, naging reporter (Or a celebrity’s fan can become a reporter).” But the ill-preparedness of reporters is not limited to the showbiz beat, Lacaba hastens to add.

Alalays  as ‘writers’
Fans are not the only ones who become instant showbiz writers. According to Balbastro, even “alalays (gofers of movie stars)…after realizing their proximity to news sources, suddenly got the urge to write.”
The relative ease with which entertainment stories can be written, compared to politics or economics, has made the influx of ill-prepared entertainment writers inevitable, says Zulueta.
Without the proper training, showbiz writers rely heavily on gossip, see no need for corrobora-tion, and resort to sensationalism.
“Few writers take the adversarial position in their writings as far as the local movie industry is concerned. Rather than being watchdogs of society, most indulge in ‘sunshiny’ journalism, believing perhaps that their role is to be a ‘partner in progress’ to the producer and movie stars,” said Balbastro.
Zulueta traces this weakness to the fact that most showbiz writers are adjuncts of the entertainment industry’s marketing departments. “Entertainment journalists have put up these awards for television, for movies, and then give the awards to the network companies or to movie companies where they have retainers,” he says.
According to Balbastro, “Most respected names in the field are also practicing publicists and public relations officers of big stars and big companies. Some writers also manage talents, making their credibility and fairness as jour-nalists suspect… So one realizes that in the new organization of talent managers, a good number of them are active entertainment writers, too.”

Political stock
The successful partnership has even reached the political arena. Talent manager and television co-host Lolit Solis told PCIJ, “Ever since the landslide victory of Joseph Ejercito Estrada as president in 1998, politicians have realized that the showbiz press has the ability to raise a politician’s stock. (“The Showbiz Press Gets into Politics,” May 3-4, 2004, www.pcij.org/stories/2004/media.html).”
In the last senatorial elections, candidate Michael Defensor had talk show host Boy Abunda in his campaign team.
Solis said it is the entertain-ment stories and columns that the audience of the tabloids read first, which makes showbiz press the politician’s best weapon in creating mass awareness.
Like politicians, showbiz personalities have a pragmatic view of journalism.
“Celebrities tend to think that journalism is just to provide positive publicity, or even if negative…it is still publicity,” said Lacaba.
Just like in other beats, corruption runs rampant among showbiz writers. Money is often distributed among and quickly pocketed by entertainment scribes. Lacaba says the nature of the coverage and the kind of publication the writer works for determine the “transaction.”
Still, Lacaba remains optimistic that like good journalism, good entertainment reporting is possible, especially with better-trained and more ethical journalists.
“As Terence, the Roman playwright said, ‘I am human and nothing that is human is alien to me.’ Politics is part of humanity, so is entertainment.… I would approach either politics or entertainment with the same degree of seriousness and observance of journalistic tenets,” Lacaba says.

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