The Curse That Comes With Being Beautiful The Dynamics Between News Reporters Physical Appearance and Credibility According to Selected Metro Manila Audience
ABSTRACT
The study aims to understand the connection between the physical appearance and credibility of news reporters according to selected Metro Manila audience.
Focus interviews were employed. Fifty research informants aged 20 to 65 who lived in Metro Manila participated in the study.
The research informants said that being beautiful more often than not means being average or below average in intellect. For this reason, when it comes to news reporters, the informants want them to be simply maitsura (average-looking) under the belief that it is the average-looking who tend to be intelligent.
The researcher found out that physical appearance is a basis for the audience in judging the intelligence of news reporters. Successively, intelligence is a basis used by the audience in judging the credibility of news reporters.
The dynamics between news reporters’ physical appearance and credibility involve the concept of intelligence. Intelligence serves as the bridge linking physical appearance and credibility.
With the emergence of intelligence as a previously unrecognized component, the value of physical appearance as a component in shaping the image of news reporters suddenly becomes intensified.