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

To know how the media affects decisions of its citizens is interesting but one will not be successful without looking at how the media frames the stories and sets the agenda on the topics concerning the community. This study aims to figure out how Mindanao Times, a local daily newspaper, sets the agenda and frames the extra-judicial killing articles through the examination of the treatment, tone, language, actors, page prominence, images, number of words and page location. Extra-judicial killing is a form of killing, believed to be the means to attain justice outside the premises of the court and with absence of the rule of law. Several organizations, both national and international condemn the form of killing in Davao, with more victims annually. A total of 15 articles composed of news articles, opinion and special column articles were studied taken in a period of six months, from January to June 2008. The articles were then content analyzed using framing, it is the central organizing idea for news content and supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration. When a person is experiencing something, the person ? make sense of or organize the events perceived? which then, creates the reality for that person. Results of the study showed that the most used treatment of articles among news stories is the neutral treatment, with 7 articles using it. The most common among opinion is the negative treatment. Interpretative tone is the most commonly used tone among the 15 articles. The two opinion articles under study are both negative in treatment, condemning the killings in the city, both are also satirical and interpretative. It uses sarcasm in ridiculing the abuses of DDS or the culture of impunity and providing in depth background to each topic. The researcher further concludes that Mindanao Times is fair and balanced in terms of its EJK reportage because it has provided positive nor negative comments on each article, most of its news articles has also provided background and in depth analysis about the topic.