In the Philippine contemporary period, tabloid newspapers are usually associated with feeding readers sensational celebrity gossips, giving stories with no clear basis and providing unreliable pieces of information. Filipinos automatically snigger upon the mention of such a newspaper and instantly come up with Tiktik, Abante and Tonight as primary examples of such. Many of us do not realize that tabloid is a term originally used to refer to “a newspaper that contains many pictures and gives the news in short and concise articles” (Reyes, 1972, p. 242). Phenomena boiled down to minimum wordage, without having to give up significant details of these stories.
Tabloid journalism started in the Philippines in 1916 when Carlos Ronquillo initiated the shift of Taliba Newspaper from the regular spreadsheets to small, compressed lay-outs of the newspaper. 1916 marked one of the highlights in Philippine journalism when the said newspaper began publishing “vulgar headlines under huge, dramatic pictures, with the main articles jammed in eight columns” (Reyes, 1972, p. 25). A few years after, Ang Mithi followed the path Taliba fearlessly took in the height of Filipino journalism.
Clearly, tabloid was used only to refer to the shift of the sizes of these newspapers that publishers made earlier on. The use of more striking and eye-opener headlines did not completely alter the content of the articles since editors then carefully screened what events are to be published and what items are to be thrown in the bin. People were naturally attracted to tabloid newspapers mainly because they come in handier and are way cheaper than the regular newspapers they had back then. Moreover, commuters preferred to carry smaller information spreads that contained the items broadsheets had.
However, tabloids evolved from pint-sized newspapers (with heavy emphasis on the change of size and lay-out) to spread sheets featuring “unethical and unimportant” issues in society to the extent that journalists write without being too cautious since tabloid journalism has “very few set rules” (Bentley, 1953, p. 199).
Moreover, tabloids became a way to relive the traditional themes used in long-forgotten news writing —— celebrity and personalities, picture stories, sensationalized crimes about sex and violence. Before tabloids reached its peak and completely turned into cheap pieces of folded recycled paper, this kind of spreadsheet was noted for using “good story approaches” to “human interests” (Tunstall, 1996, p. 200). Eventually, it deliberately led popular news agenda as tabloid journalism started to play an important role in the entertainment industry. Curran and Seaton (2003) found out that generally, “less than twenty percent of the content of the national popular press is allocated to political, economic and social issues” (p. 347).
Evaluating what tabloid journalism has become today, many Filipinos can attest to the fact that it has become popular among readers. But from the perspective of the more critical consumers, tabloid journalism’s status as “real journalism is still questionable.” Media analysts even go to the extent of “marginalizing” and “disqualifying” tabloid as a formal product of the field of journalism (Langer, 1998, p. 8). Tabloid is simply a newspaper that caters to the peoples belonging to the lower economic classes, and a newspaper that answers the prayers of publishers in finding cheaper versions of the broadsheets.
In Britain, tabloid excess has caused outraged among the public back in 1993. Public trust in journalists and their stories dropped drastically and people no longer wanted to read anything that was published in tabloid newspapers (Curran and Seaton, 2003, para. 358).
On the other hand, ABS-CBN’s current news and affairs head, Maria Ressa, argued that tabloid is “not sensationalism." It just so happens that tabloid news has become the norm globally since it “appeals to the emotions of the viewers” while “digging deeper into the issues being covered” (de Jesus, 2006, para. 12). In fact, many of the television station’s news programs have adopted the styles of tabloid journalism —— straightforward headlines, fusing entertainment with news and banking on thought-provoking images for their stories.
Journalism has been continually developing all throughout time and many have changed since it first began. Tabloid newspapers, for one, were created to provide alternative reading materials for the public. But no matter how the intentions may seem noble, the tabloids existing today fail to live up to these purposes.
References
A. Books
1. Bentley, G. (1953). Editing the Company Publication. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers.
2. Curran, J. & Seaton, J. (2003). Power without Responsibility. London: Routledge.
3. Langer, J. (1998). Tabloid Television. Great Britain: T.J. International Ltd.
4. Reyes, L. (1972). Peryodismong Pilipino. Cebu: Habagatan Publications.
5. Tunstall, J. (1996). Newspaper Power. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
B. Online Newspaper Article
De Jesus, Ayn Veronica. (23 June 2006). ABS-CBN raises the flag of journalism excellence. Retrieved 17 September 2007 from http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/june/23/yehey/life/20060623lif1.html.
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