The document discusses a Bloomberg Initiative on road safety in the Philippines from 2015-2019. It seeks to improve road safety legislation around speeding, helmets, seatbelts, drinking and driving, and child restraints. It also aims to build long-term capacity through legal and journalism training programs. The document then reviews a media assessment of road safety coverage, finding that crashes are often framed as "accidents" instead of systemic issues. It recommends that media focus more on solutions, statistics, and the experiences of vulnerable road users. To address these findings, a journalism fellowship program is proposed to train reporters to produce in-depth stories around road safety issues and solutions.

3. Bloomberg Initiative on Global Road safety
in Philippines (2015-2019)
• Seeks to put in place a solid legal basis (as one element
of a comprehensive road safety strategy).
• Focus is on road safety legislation, especially on the five
risk factors: speed, helmet, seatbelt, drink-driving, and
child restraint
• Building capacity in the long term through the Legal
Development Programme and Journalism Fellowship.
• Advocating for change through media engagement

4. Objectives of the Media Assessment
1. Review the road safety coverage of Philippine
media and study how crashes and other related
issues are presented to the public;
2. Generate inputs towards development of a
media fellowship program for road safety; and
3. Provide recommendations for improved
media reporting on road safety.

5. Scope of the Study
Websites:
1. ABS-CBNNews.com
2. GMANetwork.com/news (GMA News Online)
3. Inquirer.Net
Text and Video Formats
Contents from 1 January to 31 December 2014

6. Research Methodology
• Identification of Keywords
• Data Scraping and Relevance Ranking
• Qualitative Review
 Qualitative Sample: 953 reports, including 774
text and 179 video reports

11. Information on Specific Road Crashes
Number of fatalities
Number of injured
Road user groups, ages, and genders of fatalities
Road user groups, ages, and genders of injured
Vehicle types involved in the incident
Number of vehicles involved in the incident
Time of event18
Location of incident, including:
 Region
 Province
 City
 Specific street

26. Possible Factors for More Frequent
Media Coverage
1. Number of Fatalities
2. Proximity to Metro Manila
3. Availability of images
4. Celebrity factor
5. Drama element
6. Public interest

27. How Media Frame Road Crash Stories
• Road crashes as “accidents”
– 26% used “accidents”
• Relating incidents to a broader pattern
– 6% related incidents to a pattern. Of these, only
3% provided statistics

28. Sources of Data

29. Solutions
• Only 14% mentioned road safety solutions

30. Recommendations
• Media has a crucial role to play in promoting
road safety
– Put issue on road crashes in its proper perspective
– Educate audience and increase public awareness
– Influence government authorities, policy-makers
and other stakeholders to take the steps
necessary to fix the problem

31. Recommendations
• Use credible statistics
• Report on the systemic causes of road crashes
• Report on status of legislations or policies
• Provide useful and practical information on safety on the
road
• Report on the needs and concerns of vulnerable road
users
• Look outside Metro Manila
• Report on socio-economic impact of road crashes
• Report on solutions

32. • Road safety is a much bigger story than the
fatal crash incidents…
• Journalists must dig beneath the numbers to
understand the complex interplay of the many
factors that ultimately lead to a road traffic
fatality

34. http://verafiles.co/specials/road-safety

35. FELLOWSHIP’s OBJECTIVE
To create road safety champions among
reporters capable of writing in-depth and
analytical stories focusing on either the
magnitude and impact of the problem and the
urgency of action needed or solutions.

36. Resources and support
• Editors buy-in
• Modest stipend to support research activities
• Access to materials
• Access to national and international experts
• Access to technical events
• Support from media colleagues

37. Mechanics
• The Fellowship will run for nine months, including a
five-month story production and publication period.
• The Program will be open to journalists both print
and broadcast.
• Up to 15 journalists will be chosen for the Program
on the basis of story proposals they will be
submitting.

38. Four Main Phases
• Call for Proposals (August –September 2016)
• Orientation Seminar and Training of Fellows
• Story Production : Stories to be published in
the fellows’ own media outlets
• De-briefing and Program Evaluation

39. Thank you.