87
B. Conclusion The coverage of the print media of the events and issues regarding Philippine national teams’ performances in the Southeast and Asian Games has been a crucial element in monitoring the state of sports in the country. This study showed the dynamics of agenda-setting of the media through news portrayal and frames given to the athletes and other stakeholders. Despite sufficient coverage on the recent SEA and Asian Games, the country still failed to show a decent overall performance. The power of media of bridging information and of influencing how people think should be utilized in the benefit of development of sports in the country. In the SEA and Asian Games coverage, the media only scratched the surface of the problem. Despite featuring more articles on the winning moments of the athletes, there were few stories and columns were published discussing organizational and other factors affecting athletes’ performances (i.e. support system, grassroots program). Since there were lack of support on sports in the part of the government, the media failed to rally behind national athletes in support to sports development by mostly reporting objective and straight news type of stories. The media had also given country’s mainstream sports (i.e. basketball, volleyball) and multi-medal sports (i.e. athletics, wushu) more space and frequent exposure in the newspaper. Less popular yet equally successful sports have not been prioritized despite their need for exposure and promotion to the public. The sports media’s agenda in the coverage of international events were more inclined on producing positive, episodic frames related to sports success. It missed essential stories that must be told for the public to see the general picture of the performance debacle. Despite the opportunity of extensively focusing on long term solutions in line with international