Networking and Tools for Advocacy

Luz Rimban from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

I'm here to talk about Viagra and breastfeeding. (I hope that woke you up!). What's the difference between Viagra and breastfeeding? One is very much in the news media, the other is nowhere.

Viagra is a very good example of the power of the media as a tool to mobilize public opinion. For many days our leading newspapers and television networks have devoted so much print space and airtime to Viagra, a drug designed to cure male impotence. One of the most popular newspapers had a Viagra story running for seven straight days on its front page. No newspapers columnists could ignore the story.

It shows us one thing: the media has awesome power in its hands to decide what is important. By playing up certain events, or in this case certain products like Viagra, the media is telling us what is important. They are sending the message that the issue of male sexual satisfaction is important, so important that a newspaper can devote a seven-part front-page series to the topic. The media has set the agenda and Viagra is in it.

Viagra has in fact already entered our vocabulary. A story in one of the newspapers today quotes an official saying the education department needs propping up, and that an "educational Viagra" is long overdue.

But the Viagra example also prompts another question. Why devote so much words, space and time to Viagra? Why on the front page and why not in the lifestyle section? Why haven't media devoted as much effort to issues like domestic violence? Child labor? And yes, breastfeeding? Shouldn't these be on the public agenda too?

The fact is that while media has that power to generate public debate and influence official policy, the power is often squandered because of the realities of stiff competition among newspapers and television networks, by deadline pressures, and by the simple fact that media is business, and newspapers and TV networks have to sell to survive.

Women's stories apparently are not considered saleable enough; they're not heart stopping, action-packed and exciting enough to draw in the readers or drive the TV ratings up. Sure, women are being written about in the newspapers and on television, but mostly as victims of crime and punishment or as show business personalities.

In 1995, the Philippines Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility conducted a study that found there were women's stories almost every day in the country's eleven newspapers. But the women here were portrayed either as victims of crime, especially heinous crimes like rape, or as figures of celebrity or notoriety. Tabloids are particularly known for this, as we can see from the daily dose of photos of sexy women on tabloid front pages.

But if you're looking for news reports or articles that shed light on the situation of women farmers, women laborers, about women's health and nutrition, then chances are you'll find these stories few and far between, mostly in the lifestyle or entertainment section of newspapers and TV shows. The net effect is that the more serious issues involving women are trivialized and relegated to the sidelines.

But this doesn't mean that all is lost and hopeless. There have been a number of instances in the Philippines when the media have lived up to the challenges of raising social awareness and mobilizing action. Media's coverage of the case of Flor Contemplacion, a domestic helper convicted and executed for murder in Singapore, is a classic example of how the media not only generated public sympathy for Contemplacion but also helped to make the public aware that labor migration is a social problem, especially for women.

And then there is Sarah Balabagan, the teenage domestic worker who nearly met the same fate in Saudi Arabia. There were rallies in support of Flor and Sarah, and government was forced to re-think its policies on the migration of women. But do women have to die or get raped to get public empathy and government action?

The answer is no. From our experience at the Women's Desk of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, we have been writing about women's issues, and we have found that the papers and TV networks can be receptive to these stories. Among the issues we've written about are women's health, women workers, women farmers, elderly women, women and education, tribal women and domestic violence. Of course we don't write about them every day, but the fact is that there are efforts to portray women in roles other than victim or vamp, and that these stories do get prominent play in the newspapers.

Many of our stories are done in close partnership with non-governmental organizations that provide us with leads as well as information and statistics which are often not available from government and official sources. Together, we try to veer away from the usual who-what-where-when-why-and-how formula, to look at the significance of news events or campaigns and how they impact people's lives.

But getting into the media is not that easy. There is much work to be done on both sides. Activists need to cultivate contacts in the media - not just among reporters but also with editors - and this requires patience and perseverance. Every day, reporters and editors are swamped with stories that vie for time and space in the papers or television. Women's stories are just a fraction of them.

But the media, too, need to be more open to women's stories and realize that they are there not just to report the news, not just from the official point of view, but also from the point of view of people - the voiceless whose voices need to be heard. Definitely, women count themselves among the voiceless.

It's a reality that women lose out to other urgent news of the day that usually comes from official sources - the President (especially at this time when we have a new one), Congress, and government agencies. Women's advocates and breastfeeding advocates need to devise new ways to ventilate the issues, and (if we could couch this in quite capitalist terms) to market and package the stories so that the media will give the attention these issues so much deserve.