Date of Publication

7-4-2022

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Communication Major in Applied Media Studies

Subject Categories

Film and Media Studies

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Communication

Thesis Advisor

Jason Vincent A. Cabañes

Defense Panel Chair

Bruno Lovric

Defense Panel Member

Jayeel Cornelio
Christianne France Collantes

Abstract/Summary

Mediation of news offers a performative function which can bring people’s attention towards human suffering, but it can also evoke representations that shape public behavior and ethical norms. By using Lilie Chouliaraki’s analytics of mediation as a springboard, this research proposes two distinct regimes of pity or emerging characteristics of reports that were evident in two primetime news programs in the Philippines showcasing proximal suffering during a pandemic. The first regime is Patronage News, which is a concept patterned from the ancient Roman society’s patronus-cliens relationship called clientela or its legal term patrocinium in which patrons give support to their plebeian clients who, in turn, provide services and loyalty to them. This type of news narrativizes suffering to entrench the media’s role as a benefactor providing public service that fosters clientelistic ties between broadcast institutions and viewers. Meanwhile, the other type is Reflective News, which is derived from the Latin word reflectere which connotes ‘to bend something back.’ Similar to a mirror when the light waves bounce back to show a person’s reflection, Reflective News facilitates emotional engagement by dramatizing the condition of the sufferers on television so that the audience can relate with them or have an inward contemplation without the urgency to act on the suffering. Through these regimes, the Philippine media evokes representations that reproduce existing power divides between the viewers and the sufferers. I provide empirical context to this argument through the mediation of suffering shown by TV Patrol and 24 Oras about citizens who were not included in the Philippine government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP) during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Abstract Format

html

Note

Some text in Filipino

Language

English

Format

Electronic

Physical Description

167 leaves

Keywords

Pandemics--Philippines; Television broadcasting of news--Philippines

Upload Full Text

wf_yes

Embargo Period

7-4-2022

Download

Share

COinS