MANILA, Philippines - If entertainment reports hit every sweet spot in local news programs, it can only be because networks have pursued these in favor of hard news.

Dr. Fernando D. Paragas, assistant professor at the Communication Research Department of the UP College of Mass Communication, calls this ?subtle feeding prophecy.?

Paragas told the Inquirer in an interview: ?When you highlight entertainment news so often, viewers will look for it. That?s your hook; you?re telling them, that?s what is important. But outside this hook-and-hold, viewers are really after the more substantive news.?

Paragas was expounding on the results of the 9th Extension Research Project of the UP Communication Research Department, ?Mulat or Manunuri ng Ulat: Viewers Reception and Evaluation of Television News Programs.? The study sought information on what viewers give the most attention to. News and weather reports topped the survey, with entertainment and sports news hitting the tail end.

Tailored content

The UP study, a collaborative effort of the Communication Research classes in the university, covered all television news programs, but ABS-CBN?s ?TV Patrol? and GMA-7?s ?24 Oras,? turned out to have the highest viewership. Picking their choices, respondents identified themselves as either a Kapuso or a Kapamilya.

Paragas noted that this boiled down to the ratings game. ?We should go beyond how many people watch a certain show and focus on what they get out of it,? he insisted. ?Network policy makers look at the ratings and then tailor the program content accordingly. If you look at how people evaluate the news, you will see that this strategy doesn?t really work.?

According to the research, the professor noted, viewers don?t find most news programs? content relevant to them as individuals because unnecessary focus has long been given to entertainment and crime.

Hard news buried

From the report: ?The hook-and-hold approach of news programs unduly buries hard news items of national significance as it uses easy-to-sensationalize spot news items and entertainment-related soft news pieces to attract and maintain audiences.?

The respondents rated content according to their preferences: They put the banner news on top of the list, followed by the weather report, then national news, local/community news, public service, police reports, human interest/trivia, then entertainment and sports.

Paragas said the 1,100 respondents amply represented the Metro Manila population, as they were from 14 of the 17 cities and municipalities in the National Capital Region.

The viewers tapped were mostly women (62 percent), half of them between the ages of 25 and 49. Majority of these women were married, and said they spent over a fourth of the day watching TV. They prefer TV as source of news, with free TV as their primary medium.

?There?s a lot of gray area right now,? Paragas said when asked how the respondent-viewers received news program content. ?They are satisfied but they still have a lot to say about what needs to be improved.?

Identified as the viewer-respondents? areas of concern were: too much negative news reports; too much shallow, people-focused stories; one-sided/biased reporting; and weak graphics and mobile images.

The viewers also expressed concern over how ?elite sources? were seemingly ?ascribed greater credibility than non-elite informants.? They questioned the implications of male anchors being made to read the hard and spot news items, relegating the soft news to female anchors.

Surprisingly, however, Paragas said the respondents did not find most news stories sensationalistic, most likely because they were used to it. ?People have come to accept these programs the way they are presented.?

Equally interesting was the acceptance of the big commercial load between news segments, as well as the soft-sell advertising within public service portions. One respondent came to the networks? defense, explaining the commercial nature of the television business.

Not critically aware

The professor concluded that the informants were ?mulat? (aware) but ?not critically aware,? as most of them turned out to be ?peripheral? rather than ?central? viewers.

This, he said, pointed to the need to conduct a study on media literacy, to determine how literate TV viewers really are in assessing the content of news reports.

At the study?s recent presentation to students and TV networks at the Media Center of the UP College of Mass Communication, members of the audience raised the question of how the research could actually generate results.

Paragas clarified, however, that the study was done purely for academic reasons and not for lobby purposes.

No agenda

?Directly influencing policy makers? We don?t have that agenda,? he said. ?Some people may think the study precludes application of findings. But the more important aspect is laying the groundwork for these young people. The students will be the future of the communication and media industry. So if they have this consciousness now, then they can carry it with them when they become policy makers.?

Email clucas@inquirer.com.ph