Rice stories in the mainstream media: the case of Philrice

Issue Date

4-2018

Abstract

Drawing on from a media monitoring study conducted with the support of the Philippine Rice Research Institute's (PhilRice) Development Communication Division from August to December 2015, using the Agenda Setting Theory as its theoretical lens this paper argues in the need to explore more creative ways of presenting scientific information to the public. As it stands, good science is inadequate to merit attention by the mainstream media. PhilRice is the Philippines's lead agency for rice research and development. Specifically, the aim of this research was to scrutinize how the Philippine media reports about rice and rice agriculture. The monitoring covered 149 print publications., 70 websites, and 25 radio and TV stations. Content analysis was conducted paying careful attention to the types of stories media published, sections where the story landed, and public relations (PR) value of each story. The research also identified media champions with respect to the extent and PR value attached to their coverage of rice stories. Phone interviews and online conversations with media practitioners, i.e news producers, researchers, and writers were conducted. Results reinforce earlier studies saying that agriculture stories, in this case rice, hardly occupy front pages or are given sufficient attention by the Philippine media. Controversy is a key element for agriculture stories to be published. Recommendations on enhancing public understanding of rice stories are presented.

Source or Periodical Title

Philippine Journal of Crop Science

ISSN

0115-463x

Volume

43

Issue

1

Page

46-55

Document Type

Article

Frequency

tri-quarterly

Physical Description

diagrams, graphs, table

Language

English

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