Benedikt Jerome B.

Cubinar
ENG 5 T
Through the Private Eyes Lens
Teachers of elementary and high school often encourage students to read or watch the
news so that children would have increased social awareness and would not be politically
ignorant. Perhaps this may be true as news articles disseminate relevant information
regarding the most pressing issues to the public.
The public is the foremost audience of news articles, or at least, in journalisms most
ideal state. Ultimately there is only one purpose: to make the reader read the story (Cole,
2008). In a society where the mainstream media are owned by capitalists, such concept does
not apply. Therein lies the trouble.
News articles must be understood by the people, and as people come from different
academic backgrounds, the only way to make understanding probable is to make the
statements as simple as possible so much so that even fifth graders would be able to
comprehend what is written in the newspaper.
Use of simple words aids the readers to better understand the content of the news
article. In the text Abad to tell UP admin about rowdy students by GMA News (2014), the
element of simplicity is met. Perhaps hooliganism and heckler are the only two words the
layman would search for. Maybe people would not even search for the meaning of those
words since the context clues present in the text itself were enough to deduce its meaning.
Sentence patterns also have a simple and direct approach, following the subject-verbobject formula (Rogers, 2013). The active voice of the sentence is utilized by the article in the
paragraph above. Most journalistic texts keep the active voice throughout the article.
However, news articles may also use the passive voice of the sentence in some cases (e.g. the
subject is unknown, the subject is not important, etc.). The article by GMA News kept the
active voice of the sentence throughout the whole text (e.g. Abad said, Abad described,
the Cabinet official told, Abad added, the budget secretary said, students went, etc.).
Usage of the active voice makes the sentences shorter and the shorter the news, the better.
Because of the active voice, action words are also utilized which strengthens the impact of

the news (Tips on Writing a News Report, 2010). This further increases the understandability
of the text.
Another characteristic of most journalistic texts, specifically in news articles, is the
one-to-two-sentences per paragraph limit, which is also true in the article by GMA News as
can be observed. So a one-sentence paragraph will have a couple of very hot spots, where
the information can have dramatic impact (Kilian, 2006). This limited number of sentences
per paragraph help retain information for the purpose of journalistic texts is to inform the
public.
Journalistic texts follow the inverted pyramid format when it comes to information
dissemination. One reason is for the readers to get the information immediately since not all
people have the luxury of time to read the whole article. Another reason is to aid the editors
cut the news short if another story needs space. Due to this, the most important information
must be contained in the first sentence of the text. This part of the news is called the lead or
lede and it contains the focus of the whole news story. In the case of GMA News article,
the lead contains Butch Abad (who), to inform the UP admin (what), Thursday (when), UP
Diliman (where), and nearly mobbing incident (why), formally (how). It tells the five Ws
and one H of the story, thus making it the most important aspect of the news. The lead
basically tells the whole news, and the further parts of the article are simply supporting
statements.
News articles are also supposedly neutral. However, such characteristic of journalistic
texts does not exist. In the case of the article by GMA News, the bias of the writer leans
towards the side of Butch Abad. It leans towards portraying that the UP students in that
incident were barbaric. Proof of this is the statements quoted in the article. These statements
came from Butch Abad himself, Benigno Aquino III, and Herminio Coloma Jr. who are all on
the side of Abad being the victim. There were no quoted statements from the students, or
even at the very least, their defenders (slash supporters).
The word choice of the writer also proves this bias. In the title, the adjective rowdy
was used to describe the students and that word carries the negative connotation. This carries
the message that the students lack civility whereas Abad performed civilized actions as seen
in the phrase he would formally [underline not on the original phrase] inform the
administration of the University of the Philippines.

PNoy expects civility from UP is the subheading of the article which further
strengthens this papers argument that there is indeed bias with how the article was written.
Why was this even made a subheading? Surely, it is to give emphasis to the statements which
follow. It is to portray that the UP students who took part in this incident and their actions, to
quote the article itself, had no place in the society.
The whole article is structured on this bias down to the final two sentences, Aquino
also had a brush with protesters last June, when he was heckled by a student during a speech
in Naga City. The heckler was arrested but was later on released on bail. Instead of repeating
the word student in the last sentence, heckler was used instead which sets off a sense that
the act was to be condemned.
Why is there bias in the article? It is because GMA News is a private company and
that it is primarily a business. Any businessman would not release anything that would create
bad business. Therefore, GMA News would most likely have a bias to those who have the
money instead of giving real news in which both sides are actually presented. The business
has to protect its assets. This is the fault in a system with private eyes. The news is more
biased than it already is because of capitalism. The primary purpose of the media is not to
inform people, but to earn money. As long as this fact is present, there will be no chance for
the Philippine media to reach the asymptote of an ideal news story which has no bias.

References:
Cole, P. (2008, September 25). How Journalists Write. Retrieved May 11, 2015,
from The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/25/writing.journalism
Kilian, C. (2006, May 24). Single-Sentence Paragraphs. Retrieved May 11, 2015,
from Ask the English Teacher:
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/english/2006/05/singlesentence_.html
Rogers, T. (2013, September 25). Fifteen Newswriting Rules for Journalism
Students. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from About News:
http://journalism.about.com/od/writing/a/Fifteen-Newswriting-Rules-ForJournalism-Students.htm
Tips on Writing a News Report. (2010, September 14). Retrieved May 11, 2015,
from Your Dictionary: http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules-andtips/tips-on-writing-a-news-report.html