Cebu's English-language Dailies' Coverage of the 2010 Elections (Fifth Monitoring Period)

(April 11-24, 2010)

CEBU’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DAILIES

As elections neared, the number of election-related reports significantly increased from 353 in the fourth monitoring period (March 28-April 10) to 588 in the fifth monitoring period (April 11-24). Proportionally, the percentage of election-related reports vis-à-vis the news hole also increased from 30% in the fourth monitoring period to 40% in the fifth monitoring period.

Sun.Star Cebu remains to have most number of election-related reports at 222, followed by The Freeman (196) and Cebu Daily News (170). The local race (269) and the elections in general (168) were the most dominant reports during the same period.

Placement

Six percent of election-related reports were on the front pages of the  three newspapers. Notable was the increase in the number of election-related reports featured as banner reports– from 17 in the fourth monitoring period to 28 during this period. Eight were in Sun.Star Cebu, 11 in The Freeman, and nine in the Cebu Daily News. Moreover, 65% of the election-related reports in the inside pages were  in the main news section while 35% were in the nation, business or community sections. This indicated the increasing importance of election-related reports per the news values of editors as the elections drew near.

Focus/Election-Related Area

Reports about the Local elections still dominated the election coverage of the newspapers with 269 reports. This was followed by Elections in general (168) and Presidential elections (153). Coverage of the Vice-presidential (24), Senatorial (44), Party-list (37), and Local elections (45) remained unremarkable, although these too increased from the previous monitoring period.

Themes

As the elections drew near, Personality/Character/Record overtook the Campaign as the most dominant subject in the fifth monitoring period with 198 and 145 reports, respectively. This occurred as candidates worked double time to promote themselves and attack their closest opponent’s flaws in personality, character and political or public service records. There was also an increase in the number of reports on the Cockfight/He said-She said aspects (143). Other Comelec-related issues (134) and Development/Policy Issues (102) were also significantly covered.

Turncoatism, which divided former allies and made odd political pairings between former opponents, dominated the articles that focused on  the campaign, the contest/horse race and cockfights/”he said-she said” angles. The coverage exposed the horsetrading that went on behind the political alliances forged,  which were meant to access  war chests, rather than based on  shared platforms or principles.

Subjects

While the often-cited subjects of  election-related reports  (the leading Presidential candidates) remained on top of the news, the  three newspapers also featured often ignored electoral contenders and their “alternative” political agenda. Presidential candidates Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. and Senator Manuel Villar stirred up political waters, with political groups organizing manifesto signings to pin down commitments and address rumors of defections. The shifts in local alliances were traced to local parties’ access, or lack of it, to the war chests of their previous allies.

Some of the Sun.Star Cebu articles featured civil society groups organizing fora where candidates addressed the concerns of urban poor sectors and other marginalized groups.

Sources

There was no significant change in the ranking of topmost news sources from the previous monitoring period, except for a notable increase in political sniping among local candidates like Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, his opponent for  South congressional district representative, Jonathan “Atan” Guardo, and Vice Mayor Michael Rama and his opponent for the Cebu City mayoralty race, Alvin Garcia.

The most photographed news subjects or sources were Gwen Garcia (13), Noynoy Aquino (12), Manny Villar (11), Lapu-lapu City mayoralty bet Efrain Pelaez, Jr., Gibo Teodoro, Mandaue City mayor Jonas Cortes (7) and his opponent for the mayoralty race, Representative Nerissa Soon Ruiz (7) who was also in the news because of the turncoatism issue.

Slant/Focus

The three newspaper remained consistently neutral at the rate of 91%. Background was 97% , and context provided in news articles helped readers understand election trends and controversies, such as the impact of election surveys on voting preferences and the backlash from candidates that were, coincidentally or not, survey tail-enders.

Overall neutrality increased to 91% from 86% in the fourth monitoring period. The Freeman scored a neutrality rate of 87%, Cebu Daily News 91%, and Sun.Star Cebu 95%.

Neutral Reports

Neutral vs. Slanted

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