From Trolls, to Yellowtards and Biased Media; An analysis of Message Design Logic (MDL) of Davao VM Paolo Duterte’s sexist comments to Journalist Karen Davila




INTRODUCTION

In a nutshell, Message Design Logic is a communication theory which argues that people have their own way of creating messages. To simply put it, MDL categorizes people depending on how they communicate in order to achieve their goals. The message that we create are intended to accomplish specific objectives. For example, if a baby is hungry he tends to cry. The crying (message) baby aims to inform other people, specifically his parents that he is hungry (intention).

By learning the MDL of O' Keefe we will be able to analyse the comment section of the NEWS 5 Facebook post about the comment of Vice Mayor Duterte to Journalist Karen Davila.



MDL says that there are three types of message design logics.

(1) Expressive, in which self-expression is the chief function, and affective and idiosyncratic principles connect messages to the context (O’Keefe and Lambert, 1989).
We communicate in order to express our feeling, thoughts, and ideas. Our thoughts being expressed is the goal of the communication itself.
In analysing the comment section of the said Facebook post, we found out that majority of the commentator fell under the expressive type of message design logic. It seems that people will just say what they felt at the moment without even thinking about the positive and negative effects of their comments to the other people who were reading the comment section.










May it be pro VM Duterte or against the VM, all comments seems to be just mere expressions of feelings.

(2) Conventional, in which the point of messages is to secure specific responses and in which messages are connected to their context by institutionalised appropriateness norms (O’Keefe and Lambert, 1989).
There is already a pre-existing context into which both parties are bound and cooperate. They tend to argue about issues at hand.
Even though many comments seems to be expressive, we also found some comments that we think were conventional in nature. Well, they did express their sentiments but at least that they have a point. They did not just express their feelings and attack the people involved in the case. They provided "reasoning" that we think may fall under the conventional type of message design logic.

(3) Rhetorical, in which messages are meant to create consensus between sender and receiver, and in which messages are connected to context by character, motivation, and social coordination models.(O’Keefe and Lambert, 1989). This MDL is the most sophisticated among the three. 
It is very saddening that we found only one rhetorical comment.

We tried to write a comment in the said post.

We tried to write a comment in the said post.


"Una sa lahat hindi ko po gustong magsimula ng away pero napapansin ko po kasi na kadalasan ng nagbibigay komento tungkol sa isyung ito ay tila ba nagpapahayag lamang ng kanilang saloobin ng hindi man lamang tinitigan ang iba't ibang angulo ng kwento o balita. Agad-agarang naghahayag ng opinyon na walang kritikal na pag-aanalisa sa sitwasyon o isyu. Noong Agosto sa programa sa radyo (Pasado Sais Trenta) ay naghayag ng isang komentaryo ang mamahayag na si Karen Davila. Kinuwestyun niya ang hindi pagdalo ni Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte sa pagdinig ng senado sa naipuslit na ilegal na droga na nagkakahalaga ng humigit kumulang 6 na bilyong piso. Sabi ni Davila, "You are a public official ... It's your responsibility to clear your name ... What spares you away and not everybody else?" Sa pagdinig sa senado ay naging usap-usapan din ang pahayag ni Sen. Trillanes na miyembro umano ng isang chinese drug syndicate o triad si VM Paolo Duterte. Hinamon ni Sen. Trillanes si VM Paolo Duterte na ipakita ang sinasabing tattoo na pruweba umano ng kaniyang pagiging miyembro ng triad. Kaugnay naman dito ay nagbigay hamon din si VM Paolo Duterte sa isang conference pagkatapos ng isang State of the City Address (SOCA) ng kanyang kapatid na si Sara Duterte Carpio. Sabi ni Paolo Duterte, "I urge Ms. Karen Davila na ipakita ko yung aking tattoo pero kami lang dalawa sa kwarto sa hotel.”
Kailangan nating maintindihan na hindi lahat ng lumalabas sa media ay bias o may kinikilingan. Bilang isang journalist ay sa tingin ko tungkulin at karapat dapat lamang ang ginawang pag kwestyun ni Karen Davila kay VM Paolo Duterte. Tayo ay nasa isang demokratikong bansa, meron tayong kontitusyon at mga batas a nagpapanatili ng kaayusan. Ika nga “no one is above the law.” Trabaho ng isang mamahayag ang (1) Maghayag/Maghatid ng mga balita, (2) Bigyang kaalaman ang mga tao sa nagaganap sa iba’t ibang parte ng pilipinas at (3) Imulat tayo sa mga nagaganap sa ating paligid na di abot ng ating kaalaman. Nabanggit din ni Davila sa kanyang komentaryo na bilang isang opisyal ng gobyero ay may pananagutan si VM Paolo na linisin ang kanyang pangalan. Natatandaan ko pa na nasabi sa akin noon ng aking Propesor sa Political Science na ang mga taong nailuklok sa posisyon sa gobyerno ay may pananagutan sa kanilang nasasakupan. Sa aking pagkakaunawa, ang ninanais lamang ni Ms. Karen Davila ay magkaroon ng pantay-pantay na pagtingin ang senado sa lahatng uri ng tao sa lahat ng pagkakataon. Tungo naman sa naging pahayag ni VM Paolo Duterte, sa aking opinion ay hindi magandang gawi at ehemplo ang pinaparating ng kanyang pahayag. Naging masyadong sexist ang opinion na binitawan ni VM."

We presented the facts and tried to enlighten the people about the topic but unfortunately...



We did not have any reactions from the other commentators. In fact, we became the last commentator in the Facebook post. 
We do not know if people were lazy to read our comment or they were just really close minded and is not ready to accept comments from other people.

Conclusion
By this we realised that as soon as expressive people already expressed their thoughts and feelings, they do not care anymore about the thoughts and feelings of other people. In fact, it seems that they do not care at all. We realised that in cases where a person wanted to enlighten the other people about a certain topic, people tend to close their ears and focus on their own worlds. In this way, communication becomes linear and later on become terminated.
Aside from categorising people, we also found out that the themes that were in comment sections were about biased media, trolls, yellowtard/attack on personality (Duterte-"bastos" rude, Trillanes-"Dilawan" pro-Aquino, Davila-"Malandi and Dilawan" flirtatious and biased,Paolo-"Sexist and rude", and PNOY- "Abnoy").
References:

Effects of Message Design Logic on the Communication of Intention.
O'Keefe, Barbara J.; Lambert, Bruce L.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED320174

Original Articles

The logic of message design: Individual differences in reasoning about communication

Barbara J. O'Keefe

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637758809376159

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