COAL AND RENEWABLE ENERGY REPORTING IN THE PHILIPPINES By Angelica Y. Yang with Jason Paolo Telles Climate Tracker Fellows Executive Summary Southeast Asia is a fast-developing region, and its energy decisions are critical to the next decade’s global effort to reduce carbon-emitting fossil fuels. Yet little is known about the specific media narratives that shape the national debates on an energy transition in each country. For stakeholders wishing to influence such narratives and increase the quality of energy reporting, lessons from the past are crucial for future success. This knowledge gap is what Climate Tracker and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security wished to fill with an analysis of energy-related media coverage in five countries across Southeast Asia. Tonnes of coal are unloaded inside a warehouse in Tondo city, metro Manila, Philippines. Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters Cover: Solar panels on the roof deck of a mall in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines. Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters This report on the Philippines is the first in a series commissioned – We were surprised that in the 20 months studied, there were by the Stanley Center and produced by Climate Tracker that will three times as many renewable energy stories as there were be copublished as part of “Fueling the Tiger Cubs: How Southeast coal stories reported. Asia’s Media Is Covering Coal’s Last Frontier,” a multicountry media analysis led by young journalists from the Philippines, Indonesia, – Although geothermal has the biggest market share of all Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. renewable technologies in the Philippines, solar power attracts the most media attention because it is a new tech- Each of the Southeast Asian countries in our study has a unique nology with the highest forecasted growth rate. media landscape with different challenges and opportunities for energy reporting. For the Philippines—a small archipelago with – Manila-based commercial news outlets often frame solar as coal contributing more than half of the total energy output—nar- a lucrative investment for businesses and consumers. ratives on coal and renewables are deeply influenced by a small – In Mindanao, where private solar investment is not as robust, number of commercial media giants. Thus, it was no surprise MindaNews journalists take on critical locals-versus-govern- when we found that the vast majority of energy stories were told ment frames while discussing how government solar projects from a business frame. have not benefited the community as advertised. Interestingly, However, important differences exist between the narrative pri- the environmental frame, when utilized, only receives second- orities of Metro Manila-based heavyweights like INQUIRER.net ary attention in most renewable energy articles. and the Philippines Star and smaller outlets from the more remote – Compared to solar, geothermal is heavily underreported by Visayas islands and Mindanao. With the advent of digital media, commercial news outlets and most often receives attention independent news sites have begun to play a more active role, from the state-owned PNA. PNA differs from other news exemplified by the social news network Rappler, which began as outlets in its explicit emphasis of “development journalism,” a Facebook page and has grown into the second-largest online which one correspondent describes as “articles that would media platform in the country. State-owned players such as the help promote the programs of the government.” Geothermal Philippine News Agency (PNA) also contribute to the narrative, development has been one such program since the late 1970s. although they no longer hold such a monopoly as they once did under dictator Ferdinand Marcos. – From interviewing the authors of various energy articles, we found that journalists’ personal viewpoints could influ- Two Filipino researchers, Angelica Yang and Jason Paolo Telles, ence the choice of energy frame. Some journalists, including examined more than 1,350 articles across eight news outlets from editors, view it as their duty to advocate for a clean energy all the above categories. Here are their key takeaways: transition in the Philippines through exposing the negative – Electricity prices and power availability are major concerns impacts of coal. of more than half of the energy stories. – Beyond that personal aspect, regional differences determine – Although the Philippines is heavily reliant on coal, the narra- where journalists go for tips and quotes, with Manila-based tive surrounding this fossil fuel tends to highlight its negative outlets relying more on press releases and business leaders, social impacts over economic benefits. while Visayas and Mindanao outlets get alerts from com- munity members. – Regional Mindanao and Visayas-based news outlets led the way in broadcasting communities’ daily suffering around – The only news outlets that feature an environment section major coal plants, while mainstream sources GMA News are the independent digital platform Rappler, the govern- Online (GNO) and Philstar.com quoted from national envi- ment-owned PNA, and the regional MindaNews. All the ronmental advocates and policymakers. mainstream commercial outlets examined do not have either an energy or an environment section—potentially indicating – Only the Manila-based INQUIRER stood out for going against ownership interest influencing editorial decisions. Some also this trend, running a considerable number of articles with a do not specifically assign journalists to these topics. Thus, “coal remains indispensable” framing that cited sources such these journalists seldom dive deeper into the long-term, as the World Coal Association. This cannot be attributed to science-based environmental and climate implications of one single reason. However, an interview with one INQUIRER various energy forms, stopping at highlighting the obvious editor suggested that the paper rarely focuses on environ- damages caused by coal to surrounding communities. mental impacts when reporting on energy. – After the 2019 power outages, which saw coal plants unable to handle peak demand, we saw a narrative shift toward renew- able energy within a national energy security framing. This narrative grew off increasing concern for electricity prices. 3 4 Methodology In his supplementary research, Paolo Telles examined 42 articles about geothermal energy from: Climate Tracker’s media research included four key phases: – INQUIRER.net. – Sampling. – GNO. – Content analysis. – ABS-CBN News Online, the digital news division of ABS-CBN and a top news website. – Framing analysis. – Rappler, the Philippines’ flagship independent online news site. – Interviews with journalists. – Philippine News Agency (PNA), the official news agency of The research was conducted by Angelica Yang, who examined coal the Philippines government. and general renewable coverage with a focus on solar power, and Jason Paolo Telles, who studied the specific case of geothermal 2. Content Analysis reporting. The time frame of interest for the research was January For the content analysis, all Climate Tracker media researchers uti- 2019 to August 2020. lized a standardized coding method developed with the researchers’ input. Using this coding method, they analyzed articles according 1. Sampling to 22 parameters in five categories: Article Type, Thematic Focus, Yang sampled 1,329 online articles from commercial news outlets Broader Framing, Energy Literacy, and Sources Used. that shone a light on various coal, renewable energy, and electric- ity topics. Those outlets were: 3. Framing Analysis A representative sample of 120 articles was then selected for a – INQUIRER.net, the digital news version of the Philippine Daily framing analysis. The researchers each selected a representative Inquirer, the country’s top national newspaper. sample of all articles collected—80 of 1,329 articles for Yang and 20 of 42 articles for Paolo Telles—to conduct more in-depth fram- – Philstar.com, the digital news version of the Philippines Star, also a top national newspaper. ing analysis, which involved asking questions about the articles’ choice of sources, source placement, and discursive strategies. – GMA News Online (GNO), the digital news division of the Their framing analysis template can be found here. GMA broadcasting network. 4. Interviews with Journalists – SunStar Philippines, specifically the Visayas networks. In total, 19 journalists were interviewed throughout this research. – MindaNews. Yang interviewed 14 journalists, including editors, from the five media outlets she analyzed while Paolo Telles interviewed five. The interviewees were chosen based on the frequency of their bylines. News outlets INQUIRER.net, Philstar.com, and GNO are all based Sources were asked about their experiences in writing energy in Metro Manila and were chosen as representative of the broader stories and newsroom practices in their respective media outlets. national media coverage, while SunStar represented the Visayas region and MindaNews the Mindanao region. The stories were manually reviewed through online archives of the five media outlets and all news, features, and special reports about current events related to the topics of interest were encoded. Wire service stories, as well as public-relations stories or explicitly branded content, were excluded from the analysis. Angelica Yang | @angelicayang Angelica Y. Yang is a multimedia reporter at BusinessWorld. In addition to being Climate Tracker’s Media Research Fellow,