Content Analysis of Malaya (Philippine Broadsheet)
Shalimar Hillary P.
Taongan Professor Gary Mariano Introduction to Print Media – A52 7 July 2011 Narrative Report for Content Analysis of Malaya This comprehensive worksheet contains substantive data which will provide a methodical approach towards the proper content analysis for the Philippine newspaper, Malaya, specifically within its 10 weekday issues from June 13 to June 24. It gives an overview of the amount of attention and space this specific newspaper was able to render in communicating various issues in line with their institutional goal of delivering news to their audience.On the average, the Front Page is comprised of 8 news items, usually within the range of 7 to 9. In terms of geographical focus, it is evident that most items within the newspaper chose to delve with issues concerning the national level, having acquired 63 news items (80 %) under its classification from the total of 79. It can be noted that the issue of the dispute for the Spratlys islands particularly between China and the Philippines was mostly present in each of the consecutive issues from June 13 to June 17 and resuming its post as a headline on the June 23 issue.Official statements and opinions of key officials, especially of President Noynoy Aquino, on what seemed to be a very critical issue served as threshold for its becoming of a significant national concern.
Ranking next to the geographical focus of national level, with relatively small differences in terms of items under their classifications were, Asia with 5 items under it (6 %), NCR, Luzon, Mindanao with 4 items each (4 %), and Visayas and Africa/Middle East with 1 item each (1 %).Read also The Philippine Peso Us Dollar Exchange RateIt can also be observed that Malaya was mostly reliant on its staff writers as sources of the articles and images used in the newspaper with 47 (59 %) of those items obtained exclusively from them. They were also able to utilize other stories (30 %) from news services in being able to impart timely and substantial news to their adherents. The most apparent themes existent in Malaya during its circulation on the 10 specified weekdays of newspaper issues included, Politics and Government (44 %), Science, Health, and Environment (16 %), Sports (13 %), and Police/Military (10 %).The emergence of articles under the theme of Science, Health, and Environment coincided with the growing apprehension among citizens regarding the entry of typhoon Falcon in the country.
67 % of all the items were treated as general news, subsequent to its rank was unclassified news comprising 20 items (25 %), and with only 6 items (8 %) considered as feature articles. These items were essentially stories in their pure form (76 %) with 13 of them (16 %) considered as stories with graphics, and 6 (8 %) considered as standalone photos.These key variables are crucial determinants in being able to relate the equivalence of the news that is presented to what is currently happening in the greater society and how the audience responds and acknowledges the consideration of its importance. Malaya, as a newspaper exclusively distributed in the Philippines, is supposedly expected to administer the communication of existing issues according to its conceivable influence to its direct audience. A logical example would be the issue of dispute on Spratlys islands which was earlier mentioned.From June 13 to June 17 (the last issue of that week), the headlines were either directly or indirectly related to the issue.
Almost all of the stories related to the issue were placed in the above fold of the newspaper. The Spratlys issue has been familiar even before but with the repetitive discussion of the issue, as presented by Malaya, people would become acquainted that it is becoming a relevant national concern and that the Philippine government wouldn’t be putting on too much effort if the Spratlys islands served us with no important benefit for the country.This places idea on the reader of “what could Spratlys be for the Philippines”. Another scenario exhibiting the same idea would be the reports on the intermittent rains and the flood brought by Typhoon Falcon when it outwardly entered the country. At this point, the audience is able to realize the necessity of being informed of such matter since it brought a great impact to the people and to the environment.
Even though, they did not actually see the effects of the coming of the typhoon, the newspaper is able to provide a glimpse of the gravity of the situation.In the second week intended for the content analysis of Malaya, there would be a noticeable amount of space endowed for the exposure of the effects and problematic conditions attributed to the typhoon, fulfilled by the presence of images. Other issues that emanated were mostly concerned with politics and government, and a distinct characteristic of the content of these articles is the innate presence of antagonism between two or more parties/officials within the articles (President Noynoy Aquino vs ARMM traditionalists, Church vs Military as suspects for Abducting UP Studes, US vs China, etc. . This shows that the idea of controversy and conflict is something that some newspapers believe is of value in terms of awaking the interests of readers. In terms of my own personal agenda, the significant issues should be concerned with those that have tangible and valuable or either detrimental effects to us as citizens and as a country.
This somehow agrees with the primary function performed by Malaya, in this case.Even though it is not widely distributed, it does not necessarily allow other newspapers to undermine the credibility and significance brought by the news it delivers since it is not left behind in identifying the perspectives the major stakeholders in the society. Agenda setting elucidates on the very strong and powerful influence of the media – the ability to tell its audience what issues are important. In 1922, the newspaper columnist Walter Lippman wanted to validate the belief that the media had the power to present images to the public.This power then allows them to seek correspondence in their lives.
Although we can argue that the power of media stops there, there is already a sense of direction initially brought about by media. This sense of direction brings us to the fulfillment of our needs. Our exposure to media serves as groundwork for the things that we will have to consider important. McCombs and Shaw were able to study and carefully evaluate the campaigns for the presidential race in years, 1968, 1972 and 1976.During this time of scholarly research, two essential elements became evident: awareness and information. Assessing and carefully studying the agenda-setting function of the mass media, they decided to find the correspondence between the identified significant issues of the citizens and the actual content of media messages during the campaign.
McCombs and Shaw were then able to conclude that the mass media exerted a significant influence on what voters considered to be the major issues of the campaign.From this conclusion, we then realize the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media through Agenda-setting. Two basis assumptions become an key aspect in the research for agenda-setting: first is that media does not necessarily reflect reality, they alter it, and second the media attention to particular topics in the society pave the way for the public to perceive some issues as less and more important.This coincides with the simple framework that media does not tell its audience what to think but it tells its audience what to think about.
