Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been perhaps one of the more controversial figures in international news. When he stepped onto the scene early this year, news outlets such as Washington Post and NBC News likened Duterte to the Donald Trump of Asia. What many outlets failed to report--and what many Filipinos criticize them for-- is why Duterte is so popular in the first place, and how a man who called the leader of the free world a son of a whore can be beloved in the Philippines. In this way, tracking coverage of Duterte can be used as a case study in how media fails to properly report on news in non-Western countries. Without completely discrediting the works of reporters who do attempt good journalism (and there are many), Western bias, pressures of modern journalism and limitations of non-Western media outlets are big contributors to incomplete reporting.
It is not a secret that the former mayor of Davao--a prominent city in the Southern Philippines--has a controversial mouth. During his term as mayor, he once expressed deep anger at escaped criminals who raped and killed a New Zealand missionary: “I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste.”
When confronted over these statements during his campaign earlier this year, Duterte replied, as quoted by Philippine news outlet Rappler, “No, it was not a joke, I said it in a narrative I was just talking plain sense narrative..”
This statement was deplorable to many people, especially to those outside of the Philippines. Duterte seemed, at least to Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, even worse than Trump.
“If you are feeling depressed about the current state of [America’s] election,” said Oliver in a segment that highlighted Duterte’s crude remarks and aggression, “let me give you some perspective from the Philippines.”
But writers from mainstream outlets agreed, too.
“While their politics may be different, this unpredictable new leader, and the timing of his rise, should worry the world much more than Trump ever could,” academic Tom Smith wrote for the Guardian.
And yet, this is where cultures clash. Because although people might scratch their heads as to why the Philippines would want to have a president who rules with a strict hand, much of mainstream coverage didn’t emphasize is the nuances of why Filipinos like Duterte so much (with one exception being Time).
“I don’t think he actually meant that,” my 35-year-old cousin told me when I asked her about Duterte’s rape comments when I visited her in the Philippines, “It is more important what he does as president, and that he makes the country safe.”
“He is standing up against countries who want to control the Philippines,” her sister added.
In a nutshell, the world is only barely comprehending the drug culture and crime in the Philippines when Filipinos have been living through it for years. Duterte, to them, represents a break from politicians who are part of the few elite political families that have controlled the politics of the Philippines for decades. Between his track record of reducing crime in Davao and his tough demeanor, Duterte was seen by Filipinos as a way to see the country improve. Even though more than 3,000 people have died as part of Duterte’s war on drugs, according to CBS News, the tough-talker from Mindanao currently enjoys a 76% approval rating. The reasons why Duterte enjoys this sort of popularity are merely hinted at or added as an afterthought on the bottom of articles, such as in the CBS piece.
But this tilt in media coverage is also part of the failings of modern journalism, one failing being the pressure for viral content. According to the Pew Research Center weekday circulation in newspapers fell 7% between 2010 and 2016. Advertising dropped 8% between 2014 and 2015, the greatest since 2009 according to Pew. While the report noted that there is growth in digital ads revenue, it has not made up for the decline in print.
“For the five [publicly traded] companies that broke out digital vs. non-digital ad revenue for 2014-2015, non-digital ad revenue declined 9.9%, while digital’s decline was less steep (-1.7%). (The remaining companies did not provide a digital/non-digital breakdown in their SEC filings.)”
In addition to the decline of viewership in newspaper outlets, it seems that advertising culture has also changed over the years. With new technology and increasing accessibility to the internet, brands and products are able to have their own websites and social media accounts. It would make more sense for brands such as Dove or Coca-Cola to create their own marketing campaigns via Twitter or Facebook accounts than place an ad in a newspaper; the Internet has made it easier for brands to reach potentially interested consumers rather than using news outlets.
This puts an increasing pressure for outlets to increase viewership and continue deals with their advertisers. While the business side and news side of news outlets puts pressure on editors and reporters to produce content that is quick to get online and is projected to go reach a lot of people. While well-reported content is still a priority and can go viral in their own right, it is easier and more cost-efficient to capitalize on a hot topic in a consumable format (Buzzfeed listicles, for instance) to get as many views and clicks as possible in a small time frame. This has been exemplified by billionaire Sam Zell, who owns Tronc, inc., which runs Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribute and Orlando Sentinel.
“My attitude on journalism is very simple. I want to make enough money so I can afford you,” Zell said to a reporter at Orlando Sentinel, “...You need to in effect help me by being a journalist that focuses on what our readers want.”
In the case of Duterte, he has much fodder for viral content. With his often-crude way of speaking, his strongly aggressive manner, disregard for mainstream press and his heavy-handed mayorship of Davao City, it was too easy for media to label Duterte as the “Donald Trump of the Philippines.” Having such headlines and framing stories on the Philippines elections with that angle is good for viewership. These stories took a subject people are familiar with and feel strongly about and implied that there is another person in the world with as much of an infamous public image as the Donald. Stories with those angles and ones focusing on Duterte’s sayings, mannerisms and aggressiveness invoke sentiments such as anger, shock and disgust. They also further appeal to those biased against Trump by emphasizing the similarities between the two men, especially as their labels of “outsider politicians.”
As anyone with a particularly opinioned friend can attest, events and news stories that invoke strong, negative emotions drive people to take to social media as a conduit for their thoughts, taking form as long Facebook statuses/posts, a long, angry series of tweets or a rant video on Youtube, just to name a few. In this way media outlets that liken Duterte to Trump for the sake of generating interest and engagement are perfect examples of what Youtube educator CPG Grey would call “spreading thought germs.” CPG Grey goes into details about this in the video below.
As Grey says, sometimes angry thoughts don’t last too long (in this case when surrounding people agree). But it seems that particularly angry thoughts do not always lead people to conduct their own personal research to find other content with an opposing view or framing. Though Grey mentions that angry thought germs can die, the original impression consumers had with the content will still be in the back of their heads. So, again, the nuances of Duterte as his own candidate who is popular among Filipino citizens is lost as most people who read western media have an image of Duterte on the same level of Trump. Spreading so-called thought germs is good for virality, which is good for the business side of media outlets. The catch in terms of producing a better-informed society, however, is spreading thought germs from informational stories that give a whole picture of a person, event or issue. With headlines and stories that fail to give such a holistic view, people are unable to accomplish that, which perpetuates opinions based on incomplete information, which might lead to a misunderstanding of a subject.
Yet in fairness to reporters, international stories can be better reported if allowed the time and the resources. News editors and publishers, as the gate keepers of news, determine which stories are worthy to pursue, and to bring back an earlier point, the business side of media outlets urge for viral content made in a cost-efficient (i.e. short) amount of time. In a Neiman Lab post, Ken Doctor discussed the consideration of pricing news stories, that a single investigative piece (California Watch’s “On Shaky Ground”) that took 20-months to produce cost half a million dollars. Doctor quoted Deseret Media CEO Clark Gilbert’s belief that it’s important to know the pricing of a story, whether it’s staff-written or freelanced.
“It doesn’t mean I’m not willing to pay for content,” Gilbert said in Doctor’s post,“I’m paying a boatload for stories that are a commitment to my audience.”
The implication of Gilbert’s words is clear: while news editors may see the value of going in-depth about certain issues, the focus is on content that would directly affect the outlet’s audience as opposed to issues that would make them more informed, but aren’t necessarily as popular. With this in mind, reporters these days are tasked with researching information on the subject, finding subjects/experts willing give a short commentary and writing a piece that is expected to have at least half a million reactions on Facebook alone. That isn’t to say long, in-depth reporting on certain issues doesn’t exist; many people like reading long content if the subject matter is interesting. But such stories are expensive and might not be viewed by many. For these reasons, many reporters might potentially have quotes that might present an incomplete view of a subject due to limited time to contact/find good sources for interviews. Some facts that would add to a person’s view might be missing because of time constraints in conducting good research.
The institution of mainstream media operates on a 24-hour news cycle where the pressure to create much-viewed content at a low cost. Yet there is one other problem in international reporting other than the limitations of mainstream outlets and the potential Westernized bias of both the reporter and the news consumer-- local media outlets in the countries where the subject at hand takes place in might experience its own limitations as well. Outlets in other countries, for instance, do report on timely news. There is often, however, some limitations in the reporting from local outlets. Despite occurring in the same place as where a subject is, a local news outlet would not have quite the same audience reach to the rest of the world as, say, CNN.
Language barriers and even more limited resources prevent outlets in some countries from offering in-house translations of articles or even having a good website to publish its stories on. In addition to that, the countries that are the subject of international news might have major restrictions on the media, whether through having only state-controlled outlets or controlling reporters through imprisonment or threats of physical violence. This affects the trustworthiness of local outlets in non-Western countries in which the truth is altered to show a country in a more favorable light. With these factors combined, local reporters in non-Western countries are limited in regards to reporting on the issues occurring in their own respective country, both in terms of free speech and in getting worldwide visibility.
In the case of the Philippines media covering Duterte’s election, the above points are somewhat applicable because major broadcast outlets in the Philippines have a small worldwide reach through various Filipino communities living abroad and the country is considered dangerous for local reporters by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Yet a big limitation of non-Western media that was exemplified by the Philippines was lack of staff. In a Subselfie post that looked critically on Philippine media coverage of the election, CNN Philippines producer JM Nualla noted that some major Philippine media outlets took pains to eliminate conflicts of interest in their coverage, making reporters disclose their relationship to the presidential candidates and identifying potential areas of conflict. Those who were actively involved in the campaigns took a leave of absence, according to Nualla. With downsized staff, however, there was even more pressure on reporters covering the election, some even making major errors such as a social media producer posting a personal opinion of Duterte on the official Facebook page of the news outlet rather than his/her personal account.
Nualla also added, “Journalists complained of being too exhausted from covering all of Duterte’s campaign events that they could not cover his midnight sorties because they had deadlines to meet for news stories of the day.”
If there’s anything to gather from looking at coverage of Duterte, particularly in his election, it’s that covering international news can be tricky; cultural nuances can be lost even with reporters’ best intentions. But according to this list compiled by data blogger Nate Silver, some of the most influential news outlets on Google News and Google Blogs are Western-based outlets, such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Considering that Google is so widely used, there is a huge potential for Western-centric bias even when people are looking up world news. This is problematic because having a Western-centric mindset might prevent both the audience and reporters from thinking of certain cultures complexly, such as why local Filipinos are willing to overlook Duterte’s more crude remarks for the hope that they can finally feel safe. Coverage of the Philippine elections by the country’s major news outlets has shown that many non-Western countries can be limited in their own resources and skills to report the news. With that in mind, Western media needs to be diligent in how it reports the news from non-Western countries. To do otherwise will perpetuate an incomplete picture of world issues.
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