A comparative analysis of civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers / 6
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Ritchie A. Horario.
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- xviii, 111 pages 28 cm.
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Thesis (M.A.) -- Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2010.;A thesis presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Education, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts in Communication Management.
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ABSTRACT: This descriptive research was undertaken to compare the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in the country. Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: The main purpose of this study is to compare civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in the country. Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: 1. What are the civic journalism practices of small community newspapers in terms of: a. Prominence b. Importance c. Treatment d. Frequency e. Content 2. What are the civic journalism practices of established community newspapers in terms of: a. Prominence b. Importance c. Treatment d. Frequency e. Content 3. Is there a significant difference in civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in terms of: a. Prominence b. Importance c. Treatment d. Frequency e. Content The findings of the study are as follows: 1. With regard to the civic journalism practices of small community newspapers, the researcher found out the following based on analyzing the content of their newspaper issues for that period. a. As for the prominence, no one from the three small community newspapers, gave prominent locations to civic journalism stories because there was no recorded civic journalism articles published within the period. b. As for the importance, the researcher found out that the three selected small community newspapers did not give importance to civic journalism as there were no spaces or pages allotted to civic journalism as proven by the absence of such article for the period. c. As for the treatment, the structure of the civic journalism articles in the three selected small community newspapers was not identified because of the absence of such stories during the period. d. As for the frequency, the three selected small community newspapers did not publish a single civic journalism article within the period. e. As for the content, since there was no recorded civic journalism article published in that period, the content cannot be identified. Despite the several training programs on the practice of civic journalism conducted by the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) to its member publications, of which the three selected small community newspapers are active participants, it seems that they are uncertain to the practice because of some reasons. According to Eva Tan, the Editor-in-Chief of the Mindanao Cross, one of the reasons why small community newspapers rarely practice civic journalism because it entails a lot of expense which small community newspaper cannot afford. Aside from additional costing, the newspaper will also need extra manpower to do civic journalism. In the case of small community newspapers, they do not have enough resources and manpower to practice civic journalism. 4. With regard to the civic journalism practices of selected established community newspapers namely, Baguio Midland Courier, The Bohol Chronicle, and Sun. Star Weekend, the researcher found out the following: a. As for the prominence, only Sun. Star Weekend gave prominence to civic journalism as it published civic journalism article in the Front page of the newspaper and even making it as a Banner Story for that issue. While the two other established community newspapers did not publish civic journalism articles within the period. b. As for the importance, still, Sun. Star Weekend gave importance to civic journalism as it allotted two full pages to the civic journalism article published within the period. c. As for the treatment, since Baguio Midland Courier and The Bohol Chronicle did not publish civic journalism article within the period, the treatment was not identified. While Sun. Star Weekend wrote civic journalism article in news feature form, staying away from the traditional and formal structure of writing the story which is the straight news. d. As for the frequency, for the three months of monitoring the three established community newspapers, only one civic journalism article was monitored which was published by Sun. Star Weekend. e. As for the Content, Since Sun. Star Weekend is based in Mindanao, the prevailing problems of the region which is peace and order was discussed in its civic journalism article. 5. With regard to the significant difference in civic journalism practices between the small and established community newspapers in the country, the researcher found out the following: a. The computed t-value is 0.21 which is lesser than the tabulated value of 3.49 at .05 level of significance. This signifies the acceptance of null hypothesis which means that there is no significant difference in the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in terms of prominence. b. The computed t-value which is 0.37 is lesser than the tabulated value of 3.49 at .05 level of significance. This signifies the acceptance of the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in terms of the importance given to civic journalism articles. c. The computed t-value is 0.21 which is lesser than the tabulated value of 3.49 at .05 level of significance. This signifies the acceptance of the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in terms of the treatment given to civic journalism stories. d. The computed t-value is 0.37 which is lesser than the tabulated value of 3.49 at .05 level of significance. This signifies the acceptance of the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in terms of the frequency or the number of articles published. e. The computed t0value is 0.37 which is lesser than the tabulated value of 3.49 at .05 level of significance. This signifies the acceptance of the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers in terms of the content. The findings of the study led to the following conclusions: 1. The small community newspapers: a. Did not give prominence to civic journalism articles as no such stories were placed in the front page and prominent locations of the newspapers within the period. b. Did not give importance to civic journalism articles as no such stories were allotted enough space in the newspapers within the period. c. Did not give any treatment to civic journalism articles as no such stories were either written in straight news or in news feature structure within the period. d. Did not publish civic journalism articles regularly or even during celebrations of special occasions and events within the period. e. Did not consider any content of civic journalism articles as they are more concentrated in political and election-related stories. 2. In the case of the established community newspapers: a. Among the three selected established community newspapers, only Sun. Star Weekend gave prominence to civic journalism articles as it placed the article in the front page of the newspaper, making it a banner story for that issue. b. Among the three selected community newspapers, only Sun. Star Weekend gave importance to civic articles as it allotted two pages or about 11 percent of the total newspaper pages for that issue to such story. c. Among the three selected community newspapers, only Sun. Star Weekend made a good treatment of civic journalism articles as such article was presented in news feature form, a deviation from the traditional structure, which is the straight news. d. Among the three selected community newspapers, only Sun.Star Weekend published civic journalism article once within the first quarter of 2010. 3. With regard to the significant difference in the civic journalism practices between small and established community newspapers, it was concluded that: There is no significant difference in the practice of civic journalism between small and established community newspapers in terms of prominence, importance, treatment, frequency and the content of civic journalism articles. The occurrence of no significant difference in the result is signified by the non publication of civic journalism articles by most, if not all, of the selected small and established community newspapers because of the reasons given by some of the editors of small and established community newspapers. In the case of small community newspapers, Eva Tan, the Editor-In-Chief of the Mindanao Cross stressed that in practicing civic journalism, it will need additional expenses and manpower. This could be the reason why small community newspapers are hesitant in practicing civic journalism. While in the case of the established community newspaper, Cherry Ann T. Lim, the managing editor for special pages of Sun. Star Network, one of the established community publications in the country, said that some of the constraints in doing civic journalism is time and the availability of statistics or documents coming from government agencies. Based on the findings and conclusions the following recommendations were formulated: 1. That the small community newspapers should exert efforts to publish civic journalism articles at least once a year because this will make their paper a true catalyst for community action and development. In practicing civic journalism through frequent publication of civic journalism articles and by giving such story prominence and importance, the newspaper is drumbeating the discipline which primarily advocates community development. Reporting problems and issues in the community will help the bring the paper closer to the community, thus will generate more