Mass media portrayal of Mindanao has promoted a negative image of the Muslims as among the residue of the earth. Bandits, kidnappers, corrupt politicians, and all other undesirable characters in society are invariably associated with the Muslims of the southern Philippines. The majority of the Filipino population, basically Christians and steeped in generally negative reportage on a “troublesome” minority population like the Muslim, is expected to react adversely to any perceived favor or special treatment accorded the latter.

In her article entitled “The Other Face of Mindanao,” Gina Mission said that “Mindanao is portrayed as a war zone and that for the uninitiated; it is easier to visualize an island at war than go to the place and see for one’s self the validity of such a description.” Mass media practitioners seem to think of news from Mindanao only in terms of violence, conflict, and crime. Such mass media coverage gives the public impression that there is a full-blown “war” on going in Mindanao. As a result, mass media practitioner’s portrayal has prevented and investors and developers to step forward because they get scared by what they read in the papers.

Since the so-called “war in Mindanao” started, the island has caught the mass media’s attention. It has consistently been in the headlines. Banner stories range from robbery, shootouts, military ambushes, and kidnapping incidents to the more sober peace talks and “failed ceasefire.” Headline photos also show the fatalities of “war”, women and children taking up arms, and military and insurgents in full battle gears and in combat position.

Based from a data released by the Growth with Equity in Mindanao, a non governmental organization working towards accelerated economic growth in Mindanao and ensuring that the benefits of growth are widely distributed among its people, a lot of development activities are happening in Mindanao, yet it is only the insurgency problem that gets reported.

Instead of reporting events associated with Mindanao with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Muslims as a people, mass media practitioners of whatever faith or conviction incite those on the other side of the fence to defend or attack.

Various historical accounts explain the source of the distinctiveness of the Muslims in the Philippines as a people with their own cultural and political diversity. This is the Bangsamoro’s basis for asserting their right to self-determination. They have expressed this right in various ways, from armed struggles to participation in partisan politics to gain influence in national policy and decision-making.

On the reportage of the peace process, mass media practitioners leave much to be desired in terms of their crucial intermediary role as facilitator or as a vehicle of accurate information. Mass media practitioners must be aware of their influential role and must take them seriously.

Like other concerned sectors of society, mass media practitioners play a crucial role in forging peace in a world that seems to be preoccupied with violence. Mass media practitioners can either make or break Mindanao with what and how they report events and activities, especially in something complicated like a peace process.

According to Rufa Cagoco-Guiam, Mindanao State University Center for Peace and Development Studies director, in her article entitles “Telling the Truth of the “Other”: Images of Islam and Muslims in the Philippines”, the following are the do’s and don’ts for non-Muslim mass media practitioners covering events and processes with the Muslims in Mindanao:

(1) Mass media practitioners must observe proper dress and decorum when doing coverage or interviews because part of becoming a Muslim means being always modest in one’s dress;

(2) Mass media practitioners must investigate the historical background of the Mindanao conflict and the Philippine government’s policy and guidelines for peace negotiations;

(3) Mass media practitioners must be highly conscious of the distinctions between terms denoting religious identity and those used to refer to cultures or groups of persons;

(4) Mass media practitioners must examine not only one source, but all possible sources of information about the circumstances that engendered the Mindanao conflict;

(5) Mass media practitioners must read up on the various cultures of the 13 Muslin ethno linguistic groups; and

(6) Mass media practitioners must be extra careful when describing people who are suspects in crimes.

In her article “Positive Spin for Mindanao”, Rina Jimenez David, Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist, said that perhaps the effort to project a more realistic image of Mindanao must begin with a simple lesson in geography for reporters, editors, publishers, and news producers in Metro Manila:

There is a need, perhaps, to finally drum into the heads of news managers that Mindanao is a large island, with a diverse population facing a wide range of problems and issues unique to each region, socio-economic history and ethnic mix. And that, when kidnapping, a bloody encounter or fighting breaks out somewhere in Mindanao, it might be more helpful for readers if the headline says in what province or city the incident took place, rather than just saying it was in Mindanao. That would be about as informative as telling us, after a bank is held up in the town of Marilao in Bulacan province north of Manila, that “robbers hit bank in Luzon.”

Mass media practitioners must dateline their stories in the places where the events actually took place, because by inaccurate datelining, people think that it is the whole Mindanao that experiences.

Lastly, mass media practitioners must realized that for them to grasp the intricacies of the Mindanao problem would be like pouring the waters of the ocean into a hole in the sand. And, that to understand the Mindanao conflict and to come up with a just and lasting peace, it would take a collective effort from all the people involved and they must be spearheaded by mass media practitioners.

Television, Parents, and Children

In a study conducted by the Philippine Children’s Television Foundation (PCTF), Feny delos Angeles-Bautista, PCTF executive director, explained that 1 400 children from different cities and provinces were asked what their favorite television programs were and what television programs they watched regularly. Survey shows that the top 25 programs included adult programs, sitcoms and action series, and sports programs, basketball and wrestling.

In a similar study conducted by the National Statistics Office under the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines, the National Capital Region garnered the highest of television exposure, 91.3 percent, as compared to other forms of mass media.

Studies also show that next to parents and family, television is the most influential factor in shaping children’s views and values. Television is the most popular source of information and entertainment among Filipino children. Compared with American and European children, Filipino children are allowed to watch adult television programs unsupervised. As a result, they have a media diet heavy with violence and vulgarity.

This is consistent with one of the important conclusions of the UNESCO Global Study on Media. There is less to worry about in the case of children who live and grow in secure and stable homes, who can count on parents or guardians to regulate their mediated experiences, or who benefit from school and faculty support with some attention and emphasis on media literacy training. But, this is not the case of many Filipino children. One in six suffers from neglect while one in three drops out before grade six. Barely two-thirds of 12-21 years old live with both parents. 409 849 children of 5-7 years old live away from home.

“Parental guidance is very important. Children need to learn to explore the best possibilities that media can offer while protecting themselves from negative effects of watching television programs, simply by learning to be discriminating media consumers who can understand all forms of mass media,” Delos Angeles-Bautista said

Television, Practitioners, and Children

The death of Joy Guevarra is not only because of the negligence of her parents. Aside from the importance of parental guidance and the importance of media literacy training, mass media producers and practitioners are responsible in helping children became not only discriminating media consumers, but also ones who could maximize mass media products as they grow to their own advantage.

Adopted by the UN General Assembly except Somalia and the United States of America, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes four basic group rights: survival, protection, development, and participation. It is one of the springboards of the Republic Act No. 8370, also known as the Children’s Television Act of 1997. The said Act, in its Declaration of Policy, states that: The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation – building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being by enhancing their over-all development, taking into account sectoral needs and conditions in the development of educational, cultural, recreational policies, and programs addressed to them.

Likewise, the State recognizes the importance and impact of broadcast media, particularly television programs on the value formation and intellectual development of children and must take steps to support and protect children’s interests by providing television program that reflect their needs, concerns, and interests without exploiting them.

The State recognizes broadcasting as a form of mass communication guaranteed by the Constitution, the exercises of which is impressed with public interest, and which imposes upon the broadcast industry the social responsibility of ensuring that its activities serve the interest of the Filipino people.

Adults and children share the same mass media environment and they have diverse emotional needs and mental capabilities. Mass media producers and practitioners must consider that children are part of the public that they are committed to serve. Advocates of children’s television are committed to children as special audience and consumers of various mass media forms.

The power of visual comprehension in television overwhelms other sensory organs and higher levels of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective processes. Children are visual learners and they comprehend things differently with adults, not because they are less intelligent and not capable of critical thinking and understanding the real world, but because they have qualitatively different ways of thinking at specific stages of growth and development.

Today, the contents and the visuals of television programs that children watch and the amount of number of hours they spend in watching are important indicators in learning about our own people, our own culture, and our country. But, many television programs that children regularly watch include stereotype images and characterizations, especially of girls, of women, and of children.

Television, Advertisers, and Children

The book “The Ordeal of Mark Twain” written by the great literary critic and cultural historian Van Wych Brooks in 1920 used Twain, a renowned artist who became famous because of his imposing works but failed in the end, as an example of the effects of commercialism in mass media brought by gigantic advertisements. From the novel, we could ascertain that commercialism tells readers or viewers what they want to know rather than what they must know.

Television is what we could call a modern day Tower of Babel; its scope is unlimited, its ideologies are too unorthodox. Frankly speaking, it would be very difficult, if not downright impossible, to live nowadays without mass media. It would also be very difficult, if not downright impossible, to produce television programs without advertisers.

This is because mass media is a commercially driven industry. Fr. Ray John Marek, OMI, proved this when he said that “mass media are business with commercial interests where the majority of the programming that we watch has one purpose: to deliver an audience to an advertiser and that networks sell time to advertisers and thus increase the advertiser’s revenue.”

The death of Joy Guevarra “became one of the triggers that forced McCann Erickson Philippines to take a long, hard look at the content of noontime variety shows” because their “clients were concerned that their products might suffer after being identified with shows that offend the sensibilities of the viewers.”

McCann confirmed “that some of the language used on these shows was intended for a “mature” audience, containing “sexual references’, that hosts remarks tended to humiliate contestants in the game portion, some of which are hazardous, that programs were also rife with slapstick comedy, and that dance numbers were sexually graphic.”