SAS 2001: the media reports

The related article SAS 2001 - the first monograph would provide the background to this piece. Very briefly, the government released some findings from a survey on Social Attitudes of Singaporeans.

The finding that most interested me, and I believe, most of my readers, was the one coming from Question 14: "I find homosexual behaviour unacceptable." Below, I will provide examples as to how TV and the press handled this survey result. 

But first, let me discuss some conclusions one can draw from the the pattern we're going to see from these media reports, and how these reflect on the state of Singapore's media.

 
Press conference and how news is managed

In releasing the survey results, the Ministry of Community Development and Sports organised a press conference. A press kit would have been handed out including a copy of the monograph, and then some officer would do a short presentation. Following that, the junior minister would take questions.

The government can control the agenda by selecting what they wish to highlight in their presentation. Singapore reporters are seldom bold enough to pose adversarial questions that challenge the official slant, or to take the Q&A into areas that the government didn't talk about in their presentation. 

Back in the newsroom, there tends to be some rush to get the story out, so the reporters would not have time to digest the source document (the monograph) either. Typically, they rely on the bullet points from the presentation and the few answers provided to the few questions asked.

You can reconstruct this underlying process from the result: the almost stupefying uniformity of the media reports published that evening and the next day.

 
The "shock" finding

All the stories in the English media (except for Zaobao, I don't have enough detail from the Chinese media) led with one particular finding, that unmarried women in their thirties were less interested in marriage than single men of the same age group. The table below gives the results from the monograph:

Singles responding to "It is better to get married than to remain single."
(figures represent % agreeing with this statement)

Working backwards from the uniformity of the press reports, it was obvious that this was the main issue brought up by the government. The press knew they were supposed to highlight it, and they did.

When it came to reporting the other findings about increasing acceptance of divorce, cohabitation and homosexuality, almost all reports were careful to carry the official gloss: that the survey results simply meant that younger Singaporeans are more accepting of such lifestyle choices, but didn't mean they themselves would practice them. When one thinks hard about it, it is true on the surface, but cannot be true deeper down. Why would a population be increasingly accepting of a practice unless they are seeing more and more of it?

Despite the questionable validity of this statement, almost all reports took the trouble to include it. There is some invisible hand at work here.

The resulting picture of media independence is not an inspiring one. 

Below are the media reports that I knew about, placed in the chronological order by which they came out.

 
Thursday 26 Sep 2002

Lianhe Wanbao
Evening Chinese-language tabloid

My friend Woon Chou saw a header saying "85% of Singaporeans reject homosexuality" on someone's copy of Wanbao while he was on a bus. A catchy word-bite suitable for a tabloid, with no effort at explaining the subtleties of the survey findings. 

Channel U
Chinese-language TV channel

Woon Chou later messaged me on my mobile phone to say that "Channel U News reported that those who are single are more liberal and accepting of gay relationships, divorce and cohabitation."

Channel News Asia (CNA)
Television channel

Their 10 pm program "Singapore tonight" led with the report on SAS 2001, although it was a short report, lasting only a minute or so. It began by talking about the attitudes to marriage by 30-something singles, but soon after, showed this table (which I have reconstructed from memory):

The voice-over noted that one third of Singaporeans under 30 found homosexuality acceptable.

It should be noted that the monograph did not present the figures like this. The published report, as you can see from the article SAS 2001 - the first monograph, gave the percentages of those who found homosexuality NOT acceptable. CNA turned the figures around. While one may say they took some liberties [1], it's also justifiable in that the significance of the data became clearer this way: the acceptance level showed a significant jump from one generation to the next.

A friend who was watching TV that evening told me that prior to the 10 pm broadcast, CNA showed a few blurbs, saying something to the effect of "Survey results just out.... what do Singaporeans think of homosexuality? Watch the upcoming program 'Singapore tonight'."

It's notable that CNA used the homosexuality angle to promote their story, quite unlike the other news media which played it down so much, it virtually disappeared. 

 
Friday, 27 Sep 2002

Today
Morning newspaper

Their report was entitled "30? It's not too late". Consisting of 250 - 300 words, it was carried on page 2.

Six out of its eight paragraphs dealt with the attitudes of single women in their 30s towards marriage.

Like the other newspapers and TV, it dutifully quoted junior minister Chan Soo Sen putting his spin on things: 

Our ladies [3] are all better educated and they want to build their careers. Therefore to get married and settle down at the age of 30 or later is still not too late.

The 7th paragraph finally said,

The survey also found that younger Singaporeans under 30 are more accepting of divorce, cohabitation and having children out of wedlock.

No mention of homosexuality? Was it because the acceptance rate was still low, at 29%?  Yet, having children out of wedlock had a similar rate of acceptance, at 30%, and a smaller increase from the older generation's attitudes (18%), while homosexuality was acceptable to only 12% of the older generation (thus a bigger increase). It seems to me the omission of homosexuality from that paragraph was not based on objective considerations.

The 8th and last paragraph:

The ministry said it was neither surprised nor alarmed that such views were on the rise. What it meant was that younger Singaporeans were more accepting of such lifestyle choices. But it did not mean that they might choose to adopt such lifestyles.

Most of the other findings from the survey were not included in Today's report, perhaps constrained by space. But this statement -- the official spin -- had to be included, even though it had dubious substance.

 
Lianhe Zaobao
Morning Chinese-language broadsheet

The story about SAS 2001 was on their front page, sharing prominence with one or two other leading stories.

Like all the other media, the main focus was on unmarried 30-year-old women's attitudes to marriage.

It was almost to the end before the article mentioned that:

According to the survey, more single men and women were able to accept divorce, homosexuality and cohabitation. 80% of married people were not able to accept cohabitation, but only 57% of singles.

 
The Straits Times
Morning broadsheet

The lead story on its Home section. Headline: "Single woman? And in your 30s? Oh dear!" The article, associated quotes and a table, took up half a page, above the fold.

The subtitle was, "Committee on family matters concerned that this group views marriage and motherhood as worse than staying single."

16 out of 18 paragraphs dealt with this issue, probably because, as paragraph 9 said, 

This issue dominated the press conference, called yesterday to announce the results.

Near the end, paragraph 17 then got around to saying that the survey,

.... also found that single men and women tended to be more accepting than their married friends on homosexuality, co-habitation and divorce.

As I pointed out in my article SAS 2001 - the first monograph, this is a no-brainer of a finding. It's a truism that singles as a group tend to include more people who are themselves homosexuals, who co-habit, or who are divorced. So naturally, they'd be more accepting!

But this newspaper, which likes to claim it is intelligent, objective and serious, with depth of understanding of the issues, failed to mention how attitudes correlated with education and age group. These, I thought, were more telling of trends in society than correlation with singlehood.

And straight after that brief mention of insidious liberalism eating away at Singapore, the concluding paragraph repeated the government's official spin,

But the committee is not alarmed. "The fact that they are open-minded does not mean they will go for it," said Mr Chan. "It probably means they will accept friends who practice it."

And where do those friends come from? Mars?

 
The New Paper 
Afternoon tabloid

A short report of 200 - 250 words on page 6, entitled "Single, female, in their 30s and ... Not keen on marriage". The entire article was about the attitude of unmarried 30-year-old women to marriage, with a bit of background about the study.

Interestingly, it reported that,

the government would like to change that perception.

Mr Chan Soo Sen ... said he hopes to change the attitudes and, ultimately, the behaviour of these women by telling them it is okay to get married later.

Sounds like more social engineering to come.

There was no mention about the findings on attitudes to divorce, cohabitation and homosexuality.

© Yawning Bread 

Footnotes

1. The survey findings were that 71% of Singaporeans under 30 years old agreed that homosexual behaviour was unacceptable. This does not automatically mean that 29% thought it was acceptable. It depends on how "don't knows", if any, were treated. Unfortunately, the monograph did not throw light on this.
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2. It's interesting that when it came to single 30-something women's attitudes to marriage, "attitudes are not mere attitudes, they appear to have behavioural implications." But when it came to a increasing acceptance of divorce, homosexuality, etc, these are just attitudes, it doesn't mean people are practising them -- according to the government.
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3. Notice Chan Soo Sen's choice of words: "ladies". Doesn't it sound terribly dated and condescending? Another clue to the patriarchal mindset of the government that was shocked that women were spurning men.
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Addenda

1. See also the article Four-legged critters first, about an article in the morning tabloid Streats touching on this survey.