Thesis, Undergraduate (BA Communication Arts) -- U. P. in Mindanao

The tabloid, even though not considered as the mainstream as a source of news and information, is still part of media in print. The guiding theoretical framework in this study is the Agenda-setting Function of Mass Communication by Shaw, McCombs and colleagues, who were convinced of media's capabilities to establish the salient issues in the society. The community tabloid Periodico Dabaw was chosen for this study because it is published daily, locally produced, distributed all over Mindanao, readily available, has branches all over Mindanao, and published in different local vernaculars that cater to different people with different vernacular. The very aim of this study was to identify the agenda of the community tabloid on its frequently covered topics. To be enable to analyze the Agenda, the following questions and features were taken into account. To analyze the content, other important questions were raised. First is how frequently do mostly covered topics appear in the identified community tabloids? For this question, the frequency of the topics are quantified after tallying the number of appearance of the frequently covered topics in the article based on the kind of news that was in the coding sheet. (see Appendix B). The second question was how are the topics handled and treated by the community tabloid? (see Appendix C). Other features of the tabloid's frequently covered topics were also analyzed. These features were devided into two aspects. These are the features under the question What, and the feature under How. For the question What, there were six features that were identified. First was the focus or issue of the news that the community tabloid frequently cover (see Appendix B: Table 1.1) Second was to name the topic (see Appendix B: table 2.1) Third was to identify the location (front page, the main section, business and entertainment of the article in the tabloid) (See Appendix B: table 3.1) Fourth was to determine and measure the size of the article (including title and picture, in terms of column inch and sq. inch.). See Appendix B: table 4.1) Fifth was to recognize the type of article (straight news, regular column, special column, letter to the editor, and editorial. (see Appendix B: table 5.1) Sixth was to identify the sources. This will include number of sources, the way the sources present (simple and elaborate) the frequently covered topic and to identify if it is originally a press release. (see Appendix B: table 6.1) The last feature was to identify the actor/s in the article of frequently covered topics. (see Appendix B:7.1) On the other hand, there are two features in the question How that need to be identified. First was the tone (straightforward, interpretative, emotional, satirical, and light) of the article (see Appendix C: table 1.1) and the other was how the topic and the actor/s were portrayed in the article. (see Appendic C: 2.1; Table for Treatment). Issues of the tabloid were collected daily on a 30-day period. The researcher of this study assumed that in a month, a collection of thirty community tabloids was produced by the publisher. More issues of the tabloid collected gave the researcher more information about the study. Upon studying, the researcher looked into the macro level of the tabloids agenda on the topic that is frequently covered. Here, the topics in the front page, the main section, business and entertainment was tallied and analyzed based on the coding sheet used based on Pernia's Sample Content Analysis Coding Sheet for Print Materials. However, the coding sheet was revised to fit the scope of the study. The coding sheet includes the following questions: What kind of news does the community tabloid cover frequently? (see Appendix B: table 1.1), What are the names of the article (Topic)? (see Appendix B: table 2.1), where is the article placed (Location)? (see Appendix B: table 3.1), How large/small is the article (in column inch)? (See Appendix B: table 4.1), What is the article type? (see Appendix B: table 5.1), Who are the sources of the topic? (see Appendix B: table 6.1), Who is/are featured in the article? (see Appendix B: table 7.1), How is the article written (the tone of the article)? See Appendix C: table 1.1), How are the actor/s and topic portrayed in the article? (see Appendix C: table 2.1 ; Table for Treatment), Is it production-based or substance-based?, after recognizing these features, the community tabloid's agenda on frequently covered topics were determined. As a result, the tabloid Periodico Dabaw's frequently covered topics are sports and showbiz issues. But if uncategorized, the articles which have the most number would be the articles pertaining to the community happenings in Mindanao which also involves the locals of it. The community tabloid presents and emphasizes the context of prominence by placing the frequently covered topics in the back pages of the issue, emphasizing that they do not consider these topics important as those less covered topics in terms of tallied categories. This means that frequently covered topics on a print media immediately tells what is all about because it will also depend on where these articles are placed. The location of articles on it specially tells it readers which stories or news is prioritized by the publisher of that print media. As for the community tabloid Periodico Dabaw, they placed the articles which pertain to local happenings on the first pages of their issues, rather than those of the most frequently covered topics. By doing this, the community tabloid only makes sure that their readers would read first the recent events in Mindanao than those of the entertainment news., also establishing the articles that they think is more important to their readers. This will also show that they value their readers' mood by making sure that after reading the heavy local issues, they would be entertained in the last part of the paper through the frequently covered topics, thus creating balance. Prominence is also established on the result which shows that the publisher of the community tabloid gives more importance to local news which involves the locale of Mindanao rather than entertainment news which involve national showbiz and sports celebrities. With these result, we can say that Periodico Dabaw is more of a community paper since it values community events involving the locale of Mindanao than that of a community tabloid which values entertainment news.