Ped Xing13 Keynote Presentation: What will be the role of the media in the upcoming 2022 elections?

“What will be the role of the media in the upcoming 2022 elections?” was the topic assigned to me as the keynote speaker at Ped Xing: Politics 101 Camp of the University of the Philippines Political Society on January 22, 2022. You can view it on Facebook (it starts at 2:11:27!). Here is the PPT I used:

Used three useful charts:  Joe Saxton on how media has changed over the past 20 years; Amanda Hicken on how the news cycle has evolved and become interactive, nd and John Cook‘s chart on how Denialism works.

In brief–

1. The pillars of what makes for a relevant media have been shattered.
2. Something happened to Context, Consumers, and Capacity to change what is news, how we consume news, and the capacity of media to deliver the news.
3. Essentially news and public affairs was put in the Cable ghetto, removing it from the broader public sphere; we have gotten distracted, and less able to focus, on issues of the day; general trends and the pandemic have gutted media’s ability to do its job according to traditional expectations.
4. There have been parallel long-term trends with their own effects, but they have come together so that over the last two elections, and with the coming, election, we have gone from elections where media played a pivotal role, to an increasingly peripheral one.
5. At the end of the day all these changes means we are increasingly, individually isolated even as we digitially interact with our own limited echo chambers; this means that in our isolation, we are more than ever, individual targets susceptible to influencing through the use of algorithms. One way forward is to recombine our fragmented audiences, to rebuild a broader public politic where the roles of institutions and groups to act as a stimulus and challenge, to each other, can happen again.

Useful presentations:

2021

Pulse Asia September 2021 Nationwide Survey on News Sources and Use of the Internet, Social Media, and Instant Messaging Applications

1. Television remains the leading source of information about the country’s government and politics of Filipino adults (91%) while nearly half of them obtain their news about politics from radio (49%) and/or the internet (48%)
2. Most Filipino adults (63%) use the internet, with more than half of them (59%) logging on more than once a day
3. Checking their social media accounts (99%) and reading, watching, and/or listening to things of interest to them (53%) are the activities that most internet users do online; Facebook and YouTube are the most popular social media accounts among internet users in the country (99% and 57%, respectively)
4. Nearly all Filipino adults who access the internet use an instant messaging application (99%), with Messenger being the most often used instant messaging application (98%)
5. Almost all users of instant messaging applications talk to their family members (94%) and close friends (92%) via these applications while only about a quarter communicate with their co-workers (27%) and around a third engage with groups with similar wants or special interests and hobbies (36%)
6. Politics is not discussed by most Filipino adults when they communicate with different groups via instant messaging applications (78% to 83%); among those who discuss political matters with various entities, pluralities do so either once a week (38% to 40%) or less often than once a week (29% to 39%)

Hootsuite Digital 2021 The Philippines

1. The number of internet users in the Philippines increased by 4.2 million (+6.1%) between 2020 and 2021.
2. Internet penetration in the Philippines stood at 67.0% in January 2021.
3. The number of social media users in the Philippines increased by 16 million (+22%) between 2020 and 2021.
4. The number of social media users in the Philippines was equivalent to 80.7% of the total population in January 2021.
5. The number of mobile connections in the Philippines decreased by 15 million (-8.9%) between January 2020 and January 2021.

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 10th Edition

1. Proportion that trusts most news most of the time: 32% (p. 19)
2. 29% say they have seen misinformation about celebrities (more in South Korea, Philippines) (p. 22)
3. Proportion that finds each platform most concerning for Covid-19 misinformation: 28% Facebook (more in Philippines, Slovakia) (p. 22)
4. “Facebook is also the main concern in the Philippines and Thailand where it is the key platform for news.” (p. 23)Figure is 50% (p.  23)
5. “In Malaysia and the Philippines Facebook has become much more of a destination for news than Twitter…” (p. 26)
6. “The Philippines somewhat defies the trend in many countries that has seen TV viewing surge as lockdowns grounded people at home. By February this year, at the time the Digital News Report survey was conducted, TV usage had slid to 61% (–5pp) with an even bigger decline in print consumption to 16% (–6pp). The decline in TV viewing may have been partly influenced by the closure of ABS-CBN’s free-to-air stations after the House of Representatives refused to renew its franchise to operate. The once profitable media giant continues online and via a number of pay television channels but laid off nearly 5,000 of its 11,000 employees, including a third from its news staff, and chalked up losses of $150m as of the third quarter of 2020…” (p. 142)
7. “The newspaper industry has been hit particularly hard as COVID-19 curtailed distribution. The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), one of the biggest dailies, offered early retirement to employees, let go of several columnists, shut down its Metro section, and shrank the number of its pages. Earlier, it closed its free paper Inquirer Libre and tabloid Bandera, keeping the latter only online….” (p. 142)
8. “Going digital makes sense in a country that spends the greatest amount of time online in the world (nearly 11 hours per day), particularly on social media (more than four hours).122 Social media as a source of news have risen to 72% (+4) in our survey, with TikTok even becoming a destination for news among Filipinos (6%) alongside Facebook (73%), YouTube (53%), Facebook Messenger (36%), and Twitter (19%).” (p. 142)
9. See stats on p. 143: 47% share news on social media/messaging/email; Top apps for news/all others: 1.FB  73%/86% 2. YouTube 53%/85%  3. FB Messenger 36%/76% 4. Twitter 19%/33% 5. Instagram 12%/41% 6. Tiktok 6%/22%; sources of news: Online (incl. SocMed) 87% (+2) SocMed 72% (+4) TV 61% (-5) Print 16% (-6); top device: Smartphones 78% (+3)

Eon Group The Outlook on the New Filipino Voter

1. Data from Tangere App, with 6.000 respondents
2. Sources of election-related information: SocMed 80%, TV 68%, Family 36%, Radio 35%, Friends 28%, Newspapers 27%, Work network 16%, School network 13%, Church community 11%; Most trusted sources: 1. TV, 2. Newspapers, 3. SocMed, 4. Family, 5. Radio, 6. School network, 7. Friends, 8. Work network, 9. Church community

Nielsen Philippines H1 2021 Media Trends

1. Internet, TV, and Radio exposure pickup
2. TV viewing stabilizes nationally
3. Radio continues to be at high levels, with FM as the driver
4. Digital video on demand continues to rise
5. Online/Video Calls now more widely used versus messaging
6. Tiktok overtakes Instagram; Netflix among top 10 websites/apps

Philippine Social Justice Initiative Face of Digital Divide – The Urban Poor Situation in the Philippines during the Covid-19 pandemic

Open Access Library Journal Digital Divide in Times of Pandemic among Teacher Education Students

2020

Nielsen Philippines Covid 19: Current Impact on Philippines CPG and Retail

NGHP Integrated Marketing Communications The Top 4 Media Changes During the Pandemic 

Global Web Index Philippines Key digital behaviors and trends over time and across demographics

(NGHP/GWI 2020):

1. 25% increase in Social Media consumption
2. affluent classes/work from home: increased online TV/TV viewership +1 hour (preference for Covid-19 news/”feel-good themes”); no shift in media consumption for manual laborers and workers

2019

Kantar 2019 Media Trends

1. Slide 4 Access to Media: Own TV Set, 88% w/ DTT/Cable/Satellite TV 47%, (DTT 23%, Cable (9% (n.b. down since 2016), Satellite 18%), w/ Digital TV conn. 43%, Own video player 35%, Own game console 2%, Own radio/stereo 52%, Can access internet at home 56%

Kantar Disrupting the Future

1. Slide 7: “resulting to expansion of upper income sector” SEC distribution data 2009/2019: ABC  11.1%/12.1%, D 61.3%/64.1% , E 28.6%/23.8% (note to self: growth in upper/middle classes, shrinking of the poorest class, explains the 2016-2019 political phenomenon)
2. Slide 8: “What does it mean? More money in Filipino pockets” (All Households: Up Php 37K)

Dentsu/Aegis Evolution of the Media Mix

1. Slide 4 “What were once content available only on regular TV are now being consumed through a variety of touchpoints”
2. Slide 5 “Even TV viewing habits have shifted from full focus into multi-screening”
3. Slide 6 “Radio has also made its way online— with mainstream stations available on the internet and radio personalities becoming celebrities in the digital space”
4. Slide 8 “Print titles have online versions with massive users”; (Hardcopy Circulation/Online Users) INQ 260K/11M, Star 305K/22.5M

Others

Philippine Statistical Authority Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) (1994, 2003, 2008, 2013, 2019)

1. 2019: School Attendance Among the estimated 57.7 million Filipinos 3 to 30 years old: Attending: 57%, Not Current Attending: 43%
2. 2019: Own: cellular phones (86.8%), televisions (79.9%), Radio (40.1 %); Have: (41.4%) Ownership and usage of ICT devices; (24.9%) personal computer; (16.5%) broadband internet/Fiber internet/DSL

Statista Media in the Philippines – statistics & facts

1. Share of Online Advertising on the Overall Advrtising Spending in the Philippines: 54.5%

Philippines Population 1950-2022

VeraFiles/Reporters Without Borders Media Ownership Monitor Philippines

VeraFiles/Reporters Without Borders Online News Market (infographic)

A very interesting collection of PANA presentations can be found online

Nielsen Philippines How to win in 2019