Filipino in Periodismo: Analyzing the Common Practices of Tabloid Writers in News Writing Using Filipino Language

Abstract

This study is about the Filipino language in the field of journalism. The issue of spelling and guidelines in writing poses a great challenge to the National Language, which is why this study focuses on spelling in Filipino in writing news articles in tabloids. Using the Structuralism and Formalism concepts, 60 news articles from six (6) tabloids were analyzed based on the guidelines set in the Manwal sa Masinop na Pagsulat (MMP) (Manual on Proper Writing) by the Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF)) to determine the spelling and writing techniques used in tabloid news articles. In order to achieve the main objective of this paper, the researcher considered these steps: first, the news articles were analyzed through coding analysis based on the existing guidelines in the MMP; second, organized the coded data according to the MMP rules; lastly, six journalists were interviewed to determine the foundations of their practices in using Filipino language when writing news articles. In the researcher's analysis, it was found that almost all of the corpora used in tabloids conform to the guidelines recommended by the KWF's MMP. Although there are some words that do not fully conform to the guidelines, particularly those related to consonant clusters, substitution of E with I, O with U, and the use of hyphens. In the interviews conducted, it was revealed that the bases of the six journalists in using Filipino in writing news articles in tabloids is based on the readers' knowledge and familiarity in selecting and spelling words. Even tabloid editors still have the final decision on whether or not to accept the selected spellings of words. After getting the result, it is recommended to have a set of guidelines that all writers should follow to promote uniformity and standardization in writing in Filipino. This way, readers, especially students, will have a better understanding of proper spelling and writing in Filipino.