Philippine E-Journals

Media Representation of the Farmers-Victims of the Kidapawan Massacre and the Underlying Social Development Discourse

Julius Cesar R. Pascual

 

Abstract:

Media and development discourses toward Filipino farmers must be thoroughly investigated because of the continuing maltreatment of local farmers by the elite-dominated government, such as in the Kidapawan Massacre. Using opinion columns representing mainstream and alternative media and the theories of Korten (1984) and van Dijk (1998), this textual analysis qualitatively explored the media representation of farmers-victims, as well as the development themes in the aforesaid context. Further, this study articulated the "shadows" as perceived by the columnists and not the links among the seemingly related controversial issues in the past (e.g., Mendiola massacre and Hacienda Luisita massacre). Juxtaposed with this exploration was a Focus Interview (FI) with a leader-social worker to cover the farmers' self-representation. Results have shown that all the columns have the flavor of being pro-humanity and pro-people- centered; however, local alternatives for social development are relatively scant. The study proposes that media should suggest ways in which both people- and production- centered development would be complementary structures in their reports of the said April 1, 2016 tragedy in the grassroots.