Sports on local TV news

Thanks to PJR Reports assistant editor Bryant Macale, I was able to read this piece from poynter.

Poynteronline
Posted, Oct. 8, 2007
Updated, Oct. 8, 2007

Don't Drop Sports from Local TV News
Instead, do it better -- or someone else certainly will.

By Kevin Benz (more by author)




Shane Moreland, of WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va., is a friend of mine and one heck of a news director. He’s also not the first friend of mine to drop sports from its daily slot in a television newscast; another friend, Mike George, did the same thing about seven years ago at KVBC in Las Vegas.

Shane and Mike reflect the frustrations of many news directors and general managers whose market research indicates that sports segments of local television newscasts rank near the bottom of reasons to watch. Considering the money it costs to produce local sports coverage, some stations simply don't think the investment makes sense anymore.

I have a ton of respect for Shane and Mike, who are excellent journalists. I just wonder whether they would have come to a different decision had they approached the issue from another direction. Rather than dumping the sports department, we should change our sports philosophy.

If viewers are not interested in your sportscast, it may be because your sportscast doesn't seem interested in your local viewers. If there is one thing a majority of the local news audience is interested and involved in (besides the weather) it is the athletic endeavor. I’m not talking about whether Phil Garner was the right guy to lead the Astros, or whether Federer versus Nadal is the greatest rivalry in sports. Yes, large parts of our audience are interested in these things, but ESPN and other networks do an outstanding job covering them.

No, I’m talking about the percentage of our viewers who run, walk, bike and swim for exercise. Those in our audience who spend vast amounts of their leisure time taking kids back and forth to soccer, little league, dance, gymnastics, softball or volleyball practice and games. Those who needed knee replacements because of their high school football careers 30 years ago. Those spending -- I’m not kidding -- over $10,000 each year on local club or select sports or who moonlight as umpires, coaches, assistant coaches, or referees. Those who spend at least part of their week going to the local minor league, college, high school or little league games just because they enjoy them, not because they have kids playing.

Sports Stats: the Record Book

In 2002, the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment reported that 86% of Americans participated in some sort of outdoor recreational physical activity (at least walking or more in that 12-month period). Child Trends, Inc. reports that over two-thirds of 8th graders through 10th graders participate in organized sports. And according to the Centers for Disease Control, 34% of Americans participate in regular, vigorous physical activity while only 23% report no physical activity at all. (I think that means 77% of people do something other than constantly sit on the couch and watch TV newscasts.) The bad news is the number of people participating in regular, vigorous physical activity is declining rapidly, contributing to an epidemic of obesity and other health problems.

My point: Sports is news.

Further, sports is the single most unifying aspect in most if not all of our communities. Unfortunately we are not generally good at covering it.

ESPN has the market nearly cornered on professional sports, and covers it very well. That’s not where local sports journalists should compete any more than we should try to outcover CNN on the war in Iraq. If our viewers want to see coverage of local athletes, local teams and local sports, they certainly won’t go looking at ESPN, they will come to our TV stations.

So if we agree local sports is important why do we allow our local sportscasters to focus on whether the Diamondbacks beat the Angels. That’s a great story in Phoenix, not so much in Oklahoma City or Augusta or Omaha. Our problem, dear news professionals, is not in our viewers, it is in ourselves. With all due respect, I think killing a sportscast is a pretty over-the-top way to address a viewership problem. Kind of like ditching a car that could serve you for years to come, because you don’t feel like making repairs.

We need to change our sports philosophy in order to make it successful. My friend Shane in Norfolk wouldn't quarrel with that. If being hyper-local is the key to victory in a local newscast, why do we not insist on it in our sportscast? We would never allow our Austin, Texas, weather segment to include a five-day forecast for Seattle, so why would we allow our sportscast to include a piece on whether the Bears can win the Central division? (Personally I think the benching of Rex Grossman will help a lot.)

What's the Game Plan?

Here at News 8 Austin we have a philosophy: Make sports relevant to a soccer mom. She probably could not care less about whether Brett Favre should be playing another year -- as a Packer fan, I pray for him every day -- but she sure as heck cares about that new state law mandating urine tests for kids competing in high school baseball, and she likely wants to know why college athlete graduation rates are so low, and she would love to see some coverage of the big city-wide soccer tournament that 800 kids are involved in this weekend.

We believe that a day without professional sports in our sportscast is a good day for us. It means we have so much local sports we didn’t have time for the Rockets-'76ers score. If our viewers want a pro score, they’ll need to go to ESPN or online to get it (as if they haven’t already done that hours before the 10 p.m. sports came on). By the way, did you know that in-line skating is the third-most-popular participant sport in America (behind basketball and running)? You wouldn’t know it by watching local TV sportscasts.

This is a relatively simple concept to understand: You cover sports like you cover news.

You get out of the studio and into the community.
You do stories on local athletes and teams with great story-telling, characters and themes.
You cover hard sports journalism like steroids in high school and graduation rates among local college athletes.
You avoid leading a sportscast with professional sports unless you happen to live in or near a professional sports city.
You cover in-line skating and local soccer tournaments. (You’d be surprised how many adult soccer leagues and half-pipes there are in your town.)

In short, you make sports relevant to your local audience every day, just like you make the news and weather relevant to your viewers every day. Yes, this is harder, especially on a sports department used to pulling highlights off the feed and throwing them on the air. It means you start talking about journalism and sports in the same sentence. It means you manage sports the way you manage news.

None of this is meant to suggest we ban national sports coverage. Of course not. The Michael Vick story is compelling and important. The recent spate of college football player arrests has community relevance. Just as we cover late-breaking information from the war or flooding in the Midwest we should cover important national sports news. We must simply put the same mandate on our sports producers as we put on our news producers: Make it relevant to a local audience.

Need proof this is important? According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, young people 18-25 who participate in sports are more than 50 percent more likely to watch the news than those who don't, and more than twice as likely watch sports news.

There are viewers out there for sports in local TV newscasts. I'm afraid we just seem to be running them off.

No More Mourinho

My Gosh. My blog is dominated by Portuguese. Yesterday, it was Cristian Ronaldo and now, its Jose Mourinho, the ex-Chelsea manager. Mourinho who calls himself the "Special One" severed ties with Chelsea yesterday, a day after the Blues were held to a 1-all draw by Norwegian side Rosenborg in their opening Champions League match.



The issues surrounding his exit remain a mystery to me but Chelsea has come out to quell talks that Mourinho was sacked. The club said it was a mutual decision. Mourinho has been at odds with the Chelsea Board and owner Roman Abramovich the past few months, especially with decisions related to the transfer of players.


Mourinho with Abramovich

Anyway, Mourinho will surely be missed by English Premiere League followers like me. I like him because he is my favorite villain. He has piqued me one time too many for his attacks on Manchester United and its manager Sir Alex Ferguson as well as on another favorite team, Barcelona, and its manager Frank Rijkard. Mourinho is a sore loser and is not afraid of speaking his mind out. Mourinho was probably the most quoted manager in the Premiere League. Good luck Jose! Im sure you're already a "millionaire" and get "hired by a new club in the next two months"

By the way, here are some of Jose's famous verbal volleys lifted from espnsoccernet.com:

• 'Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one' - Mourinho introduces himself to the English press after arriving from Porto in summer 2004.


• 'In the second half it was whistle and whistle, fault and fault, cheat and cheat. The referee controlled the game in one way during the first half but in the second they had dozens of free-kicks. I know the referee did not walk to the dressing rooms alone at half-time' - Mourinho claims Sir Alex Ferguson had unduly influenced referee Neale Barry at half-time during a Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester United in January 2005. He was fined £5,000 by the Football Association for improper conduct.

• 'I don't regret it. The only thing I have to understand is I'm in England, so maybe even when I think I am not wrong, I have to adapt to your country and I have to respect that. I have a lot of respect for Liverpool fans and what I did, the sign of silence - 'shut your mouth' - was not for them, it was for the English press' - Mourinho defends putting a finger to his lips during the 2005 Carling Cup final against Liverpool, an action which resulted in him being sent to the stands.

• 'When I saw Rijkaard entering the referee's dressing room I couldn't believe it. When Drogba was sent off I didn't get surprised. There is something that tells me that in London the referee will be Collina, the best in the world. A perfect referee with personality and quality' - Mourinho claims in Portuguese newspaper Dez Record that Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard visited referee Anders Frisk's dressing room at half-time in the first leg of the teams' Champions League last-16 clash in February 2005. Mourinho was banned from the dug-out for two matches and fined £9,000 by UEFA for bringing the game into disrepute over his claims.

• 'I felt the power of Anfield, it was magnificent. I felt it didn't interfere with my players but maybe it interfered with other people and maybe it interfered with the result. You should ask the linesman why he gave a goal. Because, to give a goal, the ball must be 100% in and he must be 100% sure that the ball is in' - Mourinho questions the validity of Liverpool forward Luis Garcia' s goal which puts Chelsea out of the Champions League semi-finals on May 3, 2004.

• 'It is not a red card, of course not, and for the second time we have to play 55, 60 minutes without a man and the game is completely different. I shouldn't speak about the game, because the game is not a game' - Mourinho blames a first-leg defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League last 16 in February 2006 on the sending-off of Asier del Horno.

• 'We have played against them four matches in two seasons. (When it was) 11 against 11 they never beat us. That is the reality' - After 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp in 2006 which sent Barca through to the quarter-finals 3-2 on aggregate.

• 'The goalkeeper has the ball in his hands, slides and the number 10 cannot get the ball. He goes with the knee into his face' - Mourinho accuses Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt of deliberately injuring Petr Cech after the pair collide in the first minute of last October's match at the Madejski Stadium.

• 'It is not possible (for) penalties (to be awarded) against Manchester United, and it is not possible (to get) penalties in favour of Chelsea. If somebody punishes me because I tell the truth, it is the end of democracy, we go back to the old times' - The Chelsea boss fumed last weekend after seeing his side's penalty appeals against Newcastle turned down, a day after United were given the benefit of the doubt over a strong injury-time penalty claim by Middlesbrough in their clash at Old Trafford.

• 'A player who wants to be the best one of the world, and he already may be, should have the uprightness and the sufficient maturity to verify that against facts there are not arguments. If he says that it is a lie that Manchester United have conceded some penalties this season which have not been awarded against them, he is lying. And if he lies he will never reach the level that he wants to reach' - Mourinho hit back at Ronaldo after the United winger claimed his penalty rant proved his countryman 'doesn't know how to admit his own failures'.

• 'It is omelettes and eggs. No eggs - no omelettes! It depends on the quality of the eggs. In the supermarket you have class one, two or class three eggs and some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot go there, you have a problem' - Shorn of the likes of injury victims Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack, Ricardo Carvalho and Didier Drogba, Mourinho cooked up a surreal analogy ahead of Tuesday's fateful draw with Rosenborg.

Respectful Ronaldo

For England's rabid football fans, superstar winger Cristiano Ronaldo's moment of infamy was "the wink" he made to the Portugal bench after he convinced the referee to send off Manchester United teammate and England striker Wayne Rooney in the second half of their quarterfinal clash during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, a match Portugal eventually won on penalties. The incident though left an indelible mark on Ronaldo's tendency to be quite an irritant. That is --- if you're a fan of the Three Lions.





After the incident, Ronaldo feared of being castigated upon his return to Old Trafford, home of Manchester United. While he was booed during away matches, Ronaldo was adored at Old Trafford. He repayed this with more than 20 goals in all competitions last season. With his mazy runs and brilliant goal-scoring instincts, he played an important role in the Red Devils' recapture of the Premiership crown in the 2006-2007 season and its remarkable run in the Champions League and the FA Cup. His exploits earned him the EPL Player of the Year award.

Ronaldo got off to a bad start this season. He saw red in only the second match of the season against Portsmouth. The match ended at 1-all. Provoked, he allegedly head-butted Richard Hughes, prompting referee to flash a straight red card. The infraction came with an automatic 3-match ban.

But if Ronaldo had his moments of infamy, he also had a moment of unrivaled class. It happened last night when Man United defeated Ronaldo's former club, Sporting Lisbon, 1-0, in its opening Champions League match.



Ronaldo scored on a diving header from a Wes Brown cross in the 62nd minute.

His teammates, of course, savored the moment. But Ronaldo was subdued. He ditched his trademark emotion-packed celebration and made an apologetic gesture as he streaked through the goal-line infront of Sporting fans, the same people who embraced him when he was still an obscure teenager (Ronaldo transferred to Man Utd in 2003 for $12M).



When he was substituted four minutes from time, Sporting fans showed their appreciation for the 21-year-old Ronaldo, giving him a laud applause as he left the pitch.

The scenes were replayed several times. And it made me admire Ronaldo even more, because for all his football wizardry, Ronaldo's gesture illustrated the maturity and class worth emulating as a person. His humility epitomized the respect he had for a club that helped nurture and develop his talent.

The Joy of Kicks!

On a pock-marked pitch surrounded by school buildings that have seen better days, the ball darts to the direction of a crouching reed-thin boy, who protects the goal as if his life depended on it. He dives to his left in vain. As soon as he picks himself up, he shakes his head. Then, another ball finds the back of the tattered net, prompting him to stop and ponder --- as if he had learned a lesson.

He moves on to take on the next kicker. Five straight balls fly past him. But he is hardly daunted. And when he was able to palm a ball away, moments later, his eyes flutter while the rest of the muscles on his mud-tainted face are flexed to form a priceless smile. All these he does on one boot and minus goalkeeping gloves.


"The other boot is with him," he says, pointing to another kid still wearing his school uniform, who was lining up waiting for his turn for a shot on goal. For some reason, the kid doesn't use his boot-covered foot in kicking. "I'm not used to wearing two boots," the frail-looking boy says, before blasting the ball that sails just a few inches high above the goal.


On the other side of pitch, a group of boys listen intently to their instructor, ignoring the boisterous crowd of schoolchildren playing games under the eucalyptus tree. On this sun-kissed afternoon, the serious looks morph into smiles as skills improvement drills that breed individual panache get going.


A man in shorts and slippers saunters by, checking the progress of the training, wading through the knee-high blades of grass on the field that serves as a playground for school-children at midday. And when he's done, he moves to the area where the surface is level and the grass don't totally impede on the ball's roll, where another group of boys work on their speed and skill negotiating the aligned cones one meter apart.

The sun was setting when the boys wrap up another day of training. Water is unintentionally sprinkled on the ground when "ice water" is shared and thrown around.

The snapshots are taken from the Andres Bonifacio Elementary School pitch, the home of ABES FC, one of the emerging football clubs under the Negros Occidental Football Association.

"Football is our passion," says 12-year-old midfielder Mico Posadas when asked to introduce the team. Mico's statement may appear PR-polished. Behind his declaration though are countless stories of triumph and struggle since 2003 when the club was formed.

BITTER PILL

There was a time when playing football at the school was restricted. The directive came from a school official, who thought the sport posed great injury risk to the students' frail bodies.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for ABES FC coach Ulysses Rillos, a music and physical education teacher, who recalls begging on his knees and crying as the school official explained the decision.

"I had no choice but to follow the decision," Rillos recalls. He was concerned apparently because the club was just starting out, taking its baby steps.

That did not dampen the enthusiasm, though. When the official retired at the end of the school-year, Rillos, who played competitive football while he was studying at Domingo Lacson National High School, organized a summer football grassroots clinic at ABES with the help of NOFA that drew around 50 kids.

"We started to get the community involved," he says. Aside from students in the school, Rillos says he invited kids whom he felt were treading the path of lawlessness. He also saw it as a way to promote harmony among students of ABES I and ABES II at a time when clashes between young boys from the two schools were a regular sight.

"I saw it as a way for them to return to school, instill discipline and stop the fights," he says. But the task proved to be easier said than done as Rillos found difficulty convincing parents, who were hesitant because off the additional expenses in training.

When he was able to persuade parents, Rillos and the club faced another challenge: Pool resources for the team to compete in tournaments.

The club, though, did more than just raise funds. It also helped promote the sport in communities. "We cleaned communities in barangays 1, 2 and 3 so we could buy equipment and uniforms. We wanted to show that we are committed with our football," he says.

COMMITMENT

The commitment is typified by the four trainers in the team. Although they don't receive a single centavo for their services, Bongbong Gonzales, John Rey Alemani, Brian Tumbocon and Epi Carlo Tumbocon religiously train the players.

"We're doing it for the love of the game," says Gonzales, a former student of the school, who now works the night shift of the school's security office. In fact, Gonzales even helps ease the financial burden on the club's expenses Rillos.

Rillos says he feels overwhelmed each time he is asked why he is steering the club. "Because I am teacher I see this opportunity to mold children," he says.

Aside from NOFA which provided balls, organizational and training support and donated two goals to the club, a number of sponsors have also contributed to ABES FC's cause, particularly mail and package delivery service provider Air21, which gave uniforms to the team.

As in any other club, Rillos sees the emblazoned on their jerseys as a source of pride. The main elements of the logo are an eagle, a fireball and the three stars representing barangays 1, 2 and 3. "The eagle symbolizes freedom and strength, while the fireball depicts our never-say-die attitude," Rillos adds.

One of the youngest clubs in the NOFA roster, ABES FC has made a good account of itself with its grassroots program, prompting the provincial football body to name the club one of the two football centers for excellence in Bacolod, the other being the University of St. La Salle FC.

The move has paid off with ABES FC providing the Philippine boys' Under-13 team a goalkeeper in Bellmark Ortega, who saw action in the Asian Football Festival in Sabah, Malaysia in May. Ortega is now an athletic scholar at West Negros College, where he is a high school freshman.

"That's what we are trying to do here. Produce good players who can make use of their football skills so they can study for free," Rillos says.

YOUTUBE BOYS

One player who has shown immense potential is 12-year-old striker Joel Villacoguer, who, despite playing on old, borrowed spikes, led the team to the title in an Under-13 tournament at the University of St. La Salle recently.

Villacoguer together with his teammates have been looking for avenues to improve their skills on and off the pitch. One player, Adrian Jason, shares how YouTube, the popular video sharing, has helped in heightening their for the game

"We watch football skill drills and the latest videos of David Beckham there," Jason shares. "We try to copy the techniques".

If that wasn't proof of their devotion for the sport that has captivated the world, one can take a quick peek at the ABES FC headquarters during a random lunch break.

Players focused on fixing their boots, trainers busy printing the numbers on the players' kits and Rillos passionately recounting the evolution of the club's jerseys since 2004.

"We started with orange bibs and now we have these," Rillos says, referring to their newest kit, a replica of the 2007-2008 Barcelona FC jersey.

The evolution from bibs to jerseys characterizes the growth of the club, which now has close to 100 members from less than 50 during its first few years.

And Rillos says the core of the current team is actually a product of the grassroots program of the club.

With the influx of players comes more responsibilities for trainers but they seem to be more than happy to do their part.

"We're just happy to see how the club has grown," Gonzales adds.

He says trainers were forced to schedule practice based on the players' birth years because of the huge number of players.

"We cannot handle them all in just one session. At least, if they are divided into groups we can pay attention to each player," says Gonzales, who attended the NOFA coaches' clinic conducted by a Spanish mentor last May.

Rillos manages to add pun on the irony of having more players, despite the absence of resources including a well-maintained playing field.

"One practice, I told the boys to bring out their scissors so we could cut the grass together. I made it as part of the warm-up exercise. It turned out to be better than using a lawnmower, which would have cost us a considerable amount," he says with a laugh.

He adds that his wards play better when they are on a different field, like Panaad or USLS, where the field is level and the grass is manicured.

"Practicing in our field is an advantage for the players when they compete in tournaments outside the school. There's the motivation to play well because for them, playing in a good pitch is already a privilege," he adds.

While Rillos remains in a jovial mood as he entertains the visitor, Villacoguer puts adhesive on his borrowed boot, gluing together the sole and the upper layer that detached after yesterday's practice. He says he hopes to finally get a new boot someday.

The team logo posted on the door, photos of the squad in action and a 12x8 inch poster of Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho on top of the bulletin board provide a fitting backdrop to the scene, a testament of a club that has lacked in resources but was kept alive and kicking by its unrelenting passion.

"Winning is secondary to us. What is important is how we learn from the struggle and hardships as a club," Rillos says. *

Too much showbiz in mainstream media

Three hours ago, I sneaked out a copy of the latest PJR Reports and boy was I so happy to know that they made showbiz in the news as their cover story. Last month, PJR reports also provided a closer look at another field of journalism very close to my heart: Sports Journalism.

Certainly, it was about time for them to look into the entertainment media. I treat showbiz news as plain entertainment but when I see too much of it, Ihe feel nothing but disdain towards the news program or a newspaper.

In fact, I switch off the television in the newsroom once in a while, when I am sick and tired of watching either TV Patrol or 24 Oras giving too much time on entertainment news. I hear gasps when I shut off the television at the height of showbiz news especially during the Ruffa-Ylmaz issue, but hey I do it as a sign of protest against networks that have created the lives of shoqbiz personalities as a frame of reference to many of their televiewers. Most of the time the entertainment news is stretched, like Actress A denying that she is jealous over the success of Actress B.

The PJR issue struck a chord because I, myself, tried to answer lingering question why entertainment news and 'celebrity culture' has become so much a part of daily life. I made a paper out of it last summer when I took media studies as one of my cognate courses for my MA in Journalism. Maitel Ladrido was our lecturer.

One thing is for sure, entertainment stories do not deserve front page treatment. That is why I felt kind of guilty promoting 'celebrity culture' when I wrote about the James Yap-Kris Aquino-Hope Centeno love triangle, which also found the front page of our newspaper

It was understable that the story is in our paper. James Yap is a local boy from Escalante City and of course, we all know Kris. Hope meanwhile flirted with fame but faded in the swarm of showbiz wannabees. So the story passed the criteria of proximity and prominence James being a standout basketball player.

This post is meant to share and not gloat about the paper I did. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve it from my gmail. I felt bad about my grade in the class that I did not bother check on the feedback on my paper. But when I had the courage to face the reality of having a lower grade than I expected, I checked out my paper and filed it.

Here it is


-----

This paper explores the relationships between celebrity culture, the blurring of news and entertainment and the commercial capitalist system that perpetuates the entire situation in news organizations. The paper, however, is not limited to the relationship of the three concepts. It will also intend to defy the present predicament based on texts from Robert McChesney’s “Rich Media, Poor Democracy” and the Public Service Model, where audiences are addressed as political beings and not as consumers in a democratic society.

Journalists have struggled to make news interesting and entertaining in an effort to engage their readers. Certainly, no one writing the news ever set out deliberately to make his report unentertaining and dull. Take the case of Henry Luce, who launched Time Magazine in 1923. Luce’s objective was to lure readers by entertaining them, by appealing, as he said, “to the gentleman from Indiana”. Through the years, Time has established a reputation as a serious publication that covers politics and relevant issues like conflict, culture and business, among others.

But not all publications have treaded the path taken by Time Magazine. Other news organizations, especially the ones from the television industry have gone on to be part of a process of ‘tabloidization’: the (news) media as turning to sensationalism, entertainment and the realm of private affairs. This is what happens when media becomes so captivated with celebrity culture and manufactures them to the delight of the audience. This has drawn criticism from many scholars and audience with majority of them pointing out that the focus on the lives of famous people is part of a move away from issues deemed of public interest, thus constituting a weakening of democratic processes.

British media critic Bob Franklin amplifies this argument: “The intimate relations of celebrities from soap operas, the world of sport or the royal family are judged more newsworthy than the reporting of significant issues and events of international consequence”. While the statement is not completely true in the case of serious publications, there is definitely a cause for concern on the rise of celebrity and tabloidization and its growth in the mainstream media.

Altschull writes that the precipitate rush toward more and more entertainment has led to a boom in the field of advertising as well as to massive shifts in popular culture and to giant amusement industry that provides the fodder served up by cable, antenna, and satellite systems. “News, as we have seen, has not been immune to these developments,” he said.

The demand for profit arises not because the owners are greedier than their predecessors were but because the financial challenges they face are tougher, writes Marc Gunther in his article “The Transformation of Network News: How Profitability Has Moved Networks Out of Hard News” that came out in the Neiman Reports in the Summer of 1999. Gunther notes that the American TV entertainment business, in particular, has deteriorated because programming costs are rising while, due to more competition, ratings are falling and hit shows are harder to find and struggling to find its way.

“The networks’ entertainment and sports operations are so troubled that news, particularly in prime time, is becoming one of the networks’ most profitable businesses. To some extent, news programs are now looked to as ways to subsidize entertainment and sports offerings --- just the reverse of the way things used to be”.

Gunther suggests that this may be the reason why more and more entertainment and celebrity stories are finding their way in the newscasts. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, authors of the widely-acclaimed book Elements of Journalism, call this the info-tainment approach. The overused phrase for this approach is the blurring of the lines between entertainment and news.

Atschull says the overriding moral imperative of today’s editors seems to be to publish and air the news --- with little attention paid to the consequences of publication or airing. Even in these cases, editors felt great pressure to publish to get out the news for the edification and interests of readers. The primordial concern is that the reading and the viewing public must be reached; they must me entertained. Given the choice between publishing and not publishing, the inclination was to publish, and it “grew increasingly clear that the kind of news that most attracts readers and viewers is the news that is entertaining, appealing more to the emotions than to the mind”.

The case is not isolated in the United States. This situation is also prevalent in the Philippines, where celebrity, scandal and entertainment news get prime spots in newspapers and television newscasts. A number of factors have compelled news organizations to fall into this trap. One of them is the race for profits, which, I believe, have pushed towards the trivialization of newspapers and television shows. Newspapers and televisions have become closer to what Joseph Pulitzer had feared: Business people getting close to the editorial office.

While it could not be denied that entertainment or celebrity news help newspapers and news programs sell, it is not the only reason that these kinds of news have made their way to the mainstream news. The media is merely feeding the audience’s hunger for celebrity news that is rooted on the celebrity culture that the media itself is guilty of creating.

Richard Dyer, a British professor, who studied the rise of Marilyn Monroe and wrote his findings in the 1979 book “Stars”, came up with a number of reasons why audiences have become captivated by celebrity news and one of them is the ‘ordinary/extraordinary’ paradox, a notion that stars are constructed as being ‘ordinary’ (like ‘us’), yet simultaneously distinctive and ‘special’. Rather than simply some ‘special’, ‘magic’ quality of the individual, a star’s ‘charisma’ is a product of the ways in which their image engages social issues and dilemmas, Dyer said.

Dyer termed bearing ‘witness to the continuousness of [the self’]’ and, returning us to the ideology of the self, the appearance of sincerity and authenticity are two qualities which have historically been ‘greatly prized’ in celebrities. Dyer also points to the ways in which stars work through its anxieties, articulating both the promise and the difficulties of its status.

Perhaps, this sheds light as to why Filipinos are glued to their television sets and are reading gossip columns when celebrity Kris Aquino reveals details of her personal life or actress Ruffa Guttierez talks openly about her marriage in one of the many entertainment platforms in Philippine television networks.

Does this suggest that the media promote values that are socially unacceptable? Not necessarily. But as earlier pointed out, when media gives more time and space to entertainment and celebrity culture, they weaken a democracy and show that there is little space for public debate and discussion on relevant issues.

Hodding Carter, president of Mainstreet Television productions and a veteran media critic, said he fears television was allocation its resources not for the kind of news a democratic public needed but for scandal. “TV itself is a scandal”. If you believe that your mandate is to make a buck, that’s scandal,” he adds.

Another sharp criticism on television comes from Neil Postman, who has labeled the television era “the age of show business”. Television, he writes, “has made entertainment the natural format for the representation of all experience”.
“Newscasters tell viewers to tune in tomorrow for more fragments of tragedy and barbarism, thereby letting us know the news is not to be taken seriously,” he said.

Postman may be exaggerating but he has made a case: “News has been packaged as vaudeville, political discourse has been rendered empty and American viewers no longer talk to another”. At the same time, Postman also acknowledges that television is at its best in “presenting entertainment” and “serves us most ill when it co-opts serious modes of discourse and lumps them into entertainment packages”.

Another critic, W. Lance Bennet, has dubbed the age of television “an information based on mind-numbing stereotypes”, while Edwin Diamond says that “disco news” and “news hype” on television began even before 1980 when the United States had “approached a model of journalism that was practically all entertainment and zero information”.

History, however, suggests that going for tabloidism or sensationalism or the “info-tainment” approach is not financially feasible in the long run. According to Kovach and Rosenstiel, organizations that tip toward the information spectrum prevail over those that tip toward the entertainment end. The two authors cited the great newspaper war in the 1960s when tabloids and serious newspapers battled for survival. The survivors? No, they were not the tabloids but the serious papers like Washington Post, New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe.

McChesney has offered media reforms to counter the phenomenon that has spawned news organizations almost all over the world. He said the starting point should be the establishment of a non-profit and non-commercial media. This actually exists in the United States but I think this concept will not completely work in the Philippines, where a free capitalist market dictates the trend. Plus, the costs of creating a more democratic media system are simply “too high”. The government, however, can do its share by lowering costs on mailing and tax deductions if it is given out to non-profit media, McChesney says. In the Philippines, however, this could turn out to be tricky because of the current political situation. The government has its own interests and the possibility of the government trying to meddle with the editorial content is not remote. It could only work if the government understands the media's role that it is there to be an independent monitor of power. That, of course, is easier said than done.

McChesney also recommends the increase regulation of commercial broadcasting in the public interest. Experience in the US and abroad, however, indicates that “if commercial broadcasters are not held to high public service standards, they will generate the easiest profits by resorting to the crassest commercialism and overwhelm the balance of media culture”. He adds that this approach will not completely work if commercial broadcasters are permitted to buy their way out of public service obligations.

McChesney’s fourth tactic is easier said than done. He said that a creating a more democratic media system means breaking up the largest firms and establish more competitive markets, thus shifting some control from corporate suppliers to citizens. The system, McChesney said, would put emphasis on valuing the importance of ideological diversity and non commercial editorial content.
With reduced barriers to entry in specific markets, new firms can join in and could lead to the radical reconfiguration.

Finally, McChesney said the only way to wrestle some control over media and communication from the giant firms that presently dominate the field will be to mobilize some semblance of a popular movement. As Saul Alinsky noted, the only way to beat organized money is with organized people. Media reform is a necessary component --- even a cornerstone --- for any democratic movement. I believe that media literacy will complement McChesney’s options.

It is important that audiences will be able to negotiate the meaning of media texts. The audience should have the ability to distinguish needs from wants; ability to appreciate the various processes involved in message production, and how these messages comprise cultural texts, and maintain a critical and objective distance to cultural texts while retaining the ability to enjoy them

With knowledge on the negotiation of media texts, audiences can offer some sort of resistance and demand more from its media. A paradigm shift may well be on its way when this happens. And the shift is more likely to veer away from the entertainment and celebrity news that the media continues to feed the audience.

Q and A with Talibong1

Here's the Q and A of Starlife editor Allen Del Carmen with Talibong1, creator of the now famous Benjo and Tonton series on Youtube. This article is actually coming out on StarLife Sunday's Sept. 2 issue but I'm posting it ahead with his permission. Talibong1's videos can be accessed by clicking this link

Talibong1 Talks


A 19-year-old Ilonggo has gained wide following for his Tonton and Benjo adventure series via the Internet’s YouTube, a site that has made —since 2005— video sharing and blogging, and, lately, posting of comments, possible. The adventure series of the young Ilonggo, who assumes the name Talibong1, is apparently the most widely viewed locally-produced YouTube entries this side of the world.
Three of his most widely-viewed works are actually spoofs of the period films, Troy and 300. StarLife columnist Carlo Leonardia described Talibong’s videos, in his Come to Think of It item on Aug. 12, as ones “which have spread faster than cellphone sex scandals and have gained him a cult-like following among wired Ilonggos”.

A YouTube check showed that the final of the trilogy, Tonton ang Paghaharap, has registered 578,747 views as of Friday morning and the number continues to rise. Benjo kag Ang Batalyon Pitbull has 457,105 hits and Benjo Mangayo Ko Kwarta was viewed 353,053 times. While the hits should be waning by now, StarLife noted that the figures rose by about 14,000 for Mangayo Kwarta, about 23,000 for Batalyon Pitbull and 28,000 for Paghaharap in the past four days alone.
StarLife managed two weeks ago to know the whereabouts of Talibong1, who has requested his real name not mentioned – from a former high school classmate at Central Philippine University, where the YouTube sensation is presently a Nursing senior.

StarLife—in its attempt to find out the reasons of the series’ phenomenon – compiled three reasons based on viewers comments: the Tonton and Benjo series are short, thus does not demand so much of the viewers’ time, they use familiar language in the script– the Ilonggo dialect and expressions that are common (bords, pilo-pilo, clean cut, IR-or incident report —, a term used in Nursing classes when things go off the norm) yet given dimensions of humor and hilarity. Viewers also find appeal to the delivery of the script which is far from being studied or rehearsed.

The following is our email interview with Talibong1, who also sent us the photos (other than the YuTube screen reproductions) used in this article. He expressed appreciation for the Bacolod media’s interest in his story (he has been featured, too, in the current St. La Salle’s SPECTRUM magazine issue and acknowledged that grabe ang kagat sa Bacolod and acknowledging that the first interview requests came from the Bacolod media)

Why did you choose the name Talibong1?
Talibong is a place in Zarraga town where we had our Community Health Nursing duty. I thought it’s unique monicker -- one of a kind.

When did you start your Benjo and Tonton production?
Sometime in April or May.

How did the idea of producing Benjo and Tonton and other videos come about? Why those names?
My friends and I just thought of it when they slept over at my place one night. Benjo and Tonton – these guys are by band mates (laughs). I chose their names because they’re my friends. More names will be coming soon, (laughs).
Do these guys join you in your production?
I usually do it by myself. But sometimes Benjo, Tonton and a few others, like Myro – about five of us — are there for some ideas and effects, laughter especially laughs), XD (term for “smiley” or laughing face”).

Prior to your Benjo and Tonton series and other YouTube clips, what preoccupied your time?
My studies… computers and (laughs) sleep. I’ve been a computer fanatic since birth I think (laughs).

Since when did you get into YouTube?
Since it became operational.

What made you decide to put your videos on YouTube?
Trip trip lang na.

YouTube shows a lot of feedback from viewers. When did you start gaining wide following?
What wide following??? (laughs). Oh, the feedback comes from anywhere in the Philippines and from any free country in the world.

Like what countries?
Dubai, others in the Middle East, U.S.A. especially, all over, Africa included.
How many video shows have you made? Which is the most popular?
Ten. I really don’t know which is popular but the one with the most number of views is Tonton: Ang Paghaharap. Each viewer has his own favorite.

How often do you produce?
Everything comes on the spot actually.
Whose voices are those of the characters?
They’re mine. All mine, including the cat’s. (laughs).

Where did you get your video production skills?
I didn’t study anything on that. Everything is self-exploration (laughs). Piho ba.

Did it ever occur to you that you might have violated copyright laws? Did you seek any legal advise?
There is a violation I believe but in YouTube many are doing it. Tani wala lang eh (legal problem) kay pasadya man lang ni. No, I haven’t asked for any legal advise.

How are you doing in school?
I’m surviving. Kabit-kabit (laughs).

Has the production affected your studies?
Not really.

How would you describe yourself as a student?
Clean cut (this expression has become one of the most popular punchlines in his clip, apparently referring to soldiers who do not sport long beards).

Do people in the university know you as the mind behind Benjo and Tonton series?
I think some, other than my friends, know.

In one of your scripts, you mentioned your university as the school to go to. Any
feedback from school officials about your works? What do they say?
I was told some officials met and talked about it. I don’t know if it’s really true...pero wala naman to kuno…but, thanks, my teachers love my work!

Tell us about your family.
Tagu-on ko lng ni ah…haha (StarLife later learned his father works abroad).

How do you manage to protect your privacy? Will you ever show or introduce yourself as the maker of Tonton and Benjo?
Well, a few people know me by now. But I don’t mind it. Pabay-i da sila ah… Some know me. Now and then some get to know me.., but not always. The others know me long before I made the series.

Do you have a ‘fans’ club’ now?
I learned there’s a Benjo and Tonton Fans’ club in Friendster (an Internet friendship link). Whahahaha, Salamat sa nag-ubra (While he did not admit it, StarLife learned of plans for the holding last weekend of a Tonton and Benjo activity during the University Week celebration at CPU).

How long do you intend to keep the Benjo and Tonton series going?
As long as it kicks!

In your scripts, there appears recurring lines about education and going to school. Is this intentional to put across some values? Do you do a lot of brainstorming with your friends?
Because the production is on the spot, generally, the lines flow freely especially that they are not formally scripted. Wala na ko may mahambal nga daan..ti gaguluha lang na iya (laughs). Ga purutikul na lang ko nay a mag start na ko dub (laughs).

Online comments show plenty of positive feedback from your viewers. You get negative feedback too…?
Negative feedback? May ara gid na ya…damo (laughs).

What is the most touching feedback you ever got?
Honestly, the ones sent by viewers abroad telling me….nga dula ila mingaw kag enjoy gid sila.

Why do you think your series has become so popular?
It’s funny… I really don’t know why.
AVDelCarmen

New RP football website

Unlike in other parts of the world, football or soccer is not the No. 1 sport in the Philippines.

Basketball, fuelled by a novel and effective marketing arm called the PBA, is king in this country, where finding a potential seven-foot talent is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Children pick up basketballs early, harboring dreams of making it big in the pro league someday. With the lure of big bucks in the PBA, the status quo as far as my memory could summon is basketball at No. 1 with boxing and billiards and now badminton not far behind, while all the other sports battle for the crumbs.

The set-up is perpetuated by local media with newspapers, magazines and television alloting major space for basketball, college basketball, the NBA and everything basketball. There's this basketball channel on cable also, which except for airing home shopping segments for an hour is devoted to basketball.

The PBA is already part of Filipinos' way of life. One does not need to be a die-hard basketball fan to help the league. All the teams are named and owned by consumer brands, thus its consumer cash that keeps the league running.

The fact remains though that basketball is not the sport for Filipinos. We remain the best team in Southeast Asia but judging from our ninth place finish in the Fiba-Asia championships, we are falling behind our Asian neighbors. And our Olympic dream remains as it is: a dream.

We reached the Olympics in 1972 when there were no Yao Mings, Yi Janlians, Michael Jordans Kobe Bryants or Lebron James.

So okay, enough of my basketball rant and back to the original purpose of this post: to introduce the new philippine football website. The website is a far cry from the previous one philfootball.info, which I do not want to link because clicking it will only lead you to a picture of a woman looking at her laptop.

The best feature of the previous website is its forum. There, football fans converge and discuss anything about football. In the absence of tv coverage, it was the forum which provided the gamecast of some games of the men's national team in Bacolod during the SEA Games and the Asean Football Championships.

I also relied on the forum to pick up leads on stories. I marveled at comments of some forum members, some of whom really have a point and worth listening to. Some lamented the sad state of the sport in the country and offered solutions or alternatives. Some bashed Johnny Romualdez, the Philippine Football Federation president, for his poor leadership. While everyone was united in hailing the Askals' victories. There I met people who show genuine concern for football.

If only Mr. Romualdez was reading the comments.

Apart from the old PFF website, there's pinoysoccer.com which became the unofficial news portal of the sport. Alain Escalante runs the site.

I understand the new site is taking its first few steps. But it isn't an excuse to mislead people online. Their is no international football match for the Philippines in the coming weeks whatsoever but the website shows some sort of a calendar of national team fixtures. Another thing is the lead story in the site: RP beats Cambodia, 4-2, in SEAG group play. This story is close to two years old. What was more appaling was the fact that my story about West Negros College winning a tournament in Barotac was the content of that old RP-Cambodia headline story.

I already texted Vince, the philfootball administrator, to inquire about this. He has yet to reply.

Reinventing the website is a good move. But doing it half-baked again raises some doubts on the sincerity of the PFF.