What's News?

  I had to do a presentation in class about a news organization so I decided to give ABS-CBN a try and they didn't fail my expectations: they reinforced my beliefs on one of the reasons why I have lost hope for the Philippines.

  ABS-CBN, a television network in the Philippines, is owned by ABS-CBN Corporation, the largest media and entertainment empire in the country to date. When I was young I never cared about what channel to watch or which network has higher ratings. All I cared about were the shows that this channel broadcast. Do they broadcast Sailor Moon? YuYu Hakusho? Akazukin Chacha? Kero keroppi and Hello Kitty? Bananas in Pajamas? Mask Rider, Shaider, and Bioman?  So yeah, I just cared about making sure that when I turn on the tv these shows are on—I don't care what time it is, if I know that they broadcast these shows, I'll watch them. Because that's how much I love them. Okay, maybe not really care that I would stay up late but you know what I mean. I assume too much, but that's me. Or maybe because I'm just too tired to think tonight. 

  Anyway, I did my presentation on Monday, November 14th, so I had to cover the news broadcast for November 14th as well, since Canada is 14 hours behind the Philippines (without DST). If I was doing a news organization in North America or Europe, I would've covered the 13th broadcast.

  I don't know if it was me, the network, or the day itself, but it was a pretty slow news day. Why? Well, the broadcast runs 75 minutes every night (as it says on its wikipedia; I'm too lazy to find it in their website) including ads so if you remove them (which are a lot, I tell you), maybe it'll be a 40-50-minute broadcast? Don't quote me on that one; it's just a wild guess. What I want to point out is that the whole broadcast was about the Pacquiao fight that they "missed" or "forgot" to report about the 113 representatives absent on Monday (PH time), the day after the fight. Shows you how credible Philippine politicians are eh? See, those are two of the number of reasons why I have given up the country: the news media and politicians. And oh look it says that based on a study, the Philippines has the most number of political dynasties in the House of Representatives compared to the Japanese, American, Mexican, and Argentinian legislatures. Hooray for the country! Unfortunately, the study didn't name who these families were. Fortunately for some Filipinos, they have a clear idea who these dynasties are. Like the current president, Benigno Aquino III, the son of Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., who was a senator and governor and mayor of Tarlac, and Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, the former (and first) female President of the Philippines. I haven't even mentioned his grandparents yet. But don't worry; he's not the only one. Even if the study doesn't mention names, I'm pretty sure the readers of the article can identify who these families are. What I'm most worried about is that these stories did not make it to the Monday broadcast of TV Patrol, the nightly news broadcast of ABS-CBN, where a million Filipinos tune in every night. Probably because these stories don't make the headlines anymore because they're not entertaining enough to appeal to the audience. News has now become infotainment, where news are becoming entertainment to please the audience of today's world.

  I hope something will change in the news organization, but for now, I doubt that with the way the news is being covered in ABS-CBN particularly TV Patrol, change might happen in a long, long time.  


For further reading on news as an entertainment value, read Knowlton Nash's Trivia Pursuit: How Showbiz Values are Corrupting the News.