Stories Sit in Places: News Media Representations and Social Development Communication of the Protesting Farmers in Central Mindanao, Philippines of the Kidapawan Massacre

Abstract

This study explored the media representations of farmer-victims in Kidapawan City, the Philippines. Specifically, this examined how Metropolis-based news media represented the farmers who were reportedly involved in socio-political issues with the government that paved the way to the Kidapawan Massacre dated 1 April 2016. Juxtaposed with the exploration was the examination of how the oppressed and marginalised group was presented in media reports within the context of social development. This researcher employed van Dijk’s (1998, A critical discourse analysis) Critical Discourse Analysis of selected 27 tabloid news stories. This critical research led to the way of thinking that because of the government’s inaction and the media’s neoliberal-capitalistic ideology, farmers’ plight was overlooked and silenced. In this elite-dominated Philippine society as well as in the Asia-Pacific, discourses of people-centred development were relatively scant and torpid. Hence, the conceptualisation of an alternative model, that is Communication and Social Development ( Pascual, 2018 : Media representations of the Kidapawan farmers and social development communication in the Kidapawan Massacre).