The ‘stars’ and the muted ‘extras’: How is rice importation reported in the Philippines and Indonesia?

Abstract

The mass media helps shape public opinion. Rice importation is a shared national issue in the Philippines and Indonesia. Yet, there has not been a study that scrutinizes media reportage of rice importation in the two countries. Of interest in this study is to explain to what extent is the mass media able to guide public opinion on rice importation. To guide our analysis, we drew insights from media professionalism and commercialization as well as media frame theories. This research is a content analysis of the stories published in the Philippines and in Indonesia in 2022 on rice importation. We found that many professionalism and commercialization issues affect rice importation framing in the two countries. Officials of the government appear to be the preferred information sources with the farmers left out in the reportage. In terms of the quality of reportage, there is some evidence of a healthy discourse in the Philippines on rice importation while the same could not be said in Indonesia. Depth issues are noted in the reportage. We advance that there is a need for the mass media entities to carefully reflect on the way they perform their raison d’etre, i.e., to guide public opinion.