Framing of 2016 television political advertisements

Abstract

Television political advertisement is the primary means of modern political campaign to communicate with their potential voters. Hence, modern political advertisements are driven with marketing strategies that made a major impact on the outcome of individual election. But scholars find it difficult to understand the effect and effectiveness of these communications and at the same time the persuasive tool being used. This study aims to answer what are the most prominent and the least framing categories used in presidential, vice presidential and senatorial candidates in 2016 television political campaign per position, and when taken as a whole, their attributed significance and implications in the Philippine Political System. It analyzed a total of 21 political campaign ads using the four categories: Emotion, Persuasion, Factual claims and Cinematic style. The study utilized the framing theory under the Agenda Setting by Maxwell McCombs and Donald. Moreover, the study found out that the most prominent category was Emotion. While the least framing category recorded was the category of Factual claims. To further analyze the result, the researchers delve into the Filipino psyche. After a thorough analysis it was found out that Filipinos prefer image over substance, on personality over issues and that media crafted the way it appeals to them