GE 6222 / Philippine Popular Culture

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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

Module 2: Philippine Modernity & Popular

Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

Course Learning Outcomes:

1. Analyze the phenomenon of popular culture within the context of the
Philippines and to locate its origin.
2. Link mainstream culture to the use of traditional media such as television
and radio, and the advent of social media and digital media.
3. Locate interlocking concepts concerning popular culture and social media
in the political, economic and social aspects of everyday life in the
Philippines to provide some overview of the current state of media
studies in the Philippines.
Introduction

According to the 2013 Yahoo-Nielsen Survey, the top three media consumption outlets in the Philippines
come from television, radio and the increasingly growing usage of the internet. Through these media
outlets, the government's so-called fourth estate, one can deduce that watching favorite shows on
television, listening to radio programs, or even browsing the worldwide web can have political, social, and
economic implications.

This module, therefore, will discuss these implications — the three interconnected levels of Philippine life,
said above —- and relate it to the mainstream culture in the Philippines to give the public an overview of
this obvious yet overlooked scene in Philippine media studies. In particular, the aims of this module are:
(1) to analyze the phenomenon of popular culture within the context of the Philippines and to locate its
origin; (2) linking mainstream culture to the use of traditional media such as television and radio, and the
advent of social media and digital media; (3) to locate interlocking concepts concerning popular culture
and social media in the political, economic and social aspects of everyday life in the Philippines to provide
some overview of the current state of media studies in the Philippines. However, one of the study's latent
aims is to promote introspection among the public about their use or personal media use in their everyday
lives.

Popular Culture in the Philippines

"Creating a culture must begin with a base, and that base must necessarily be the culture of the Filipino people
if this can be differentiated by the encrustations that colonial rule has built on it."

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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

According to National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera in his book Revaluation: Essays on
Philippine Literature, Theatre, and Modern Culture (1984), popular culture is very distinct from Filipino
folk culture and nationalistic culture. In a nutshell, folk culture is the way to live in a specific time place and
depicts a few people's habits and how they can cope with nature. Nationalist culture is the culture produced
by colonial resistance, with a people's group at a given time and location. These two are distinct from
mainstream culture that can be traced also during the time of Philippine Hispanization.
According to Lumbera, the Spaniards developed and used popular culture in the Philippines to the native
Filipinos or Indios through plays and literature to get the natives 'hearts and win them over. It is possible
to trace the colonial origins of popular culture found in the Philippines by looking at notable trends in
Philippine literature. The first permanent settlement in Spain started to replace the native culture with a
Christian and European tradition. Under the tutelage of missionaries, the children of the native elite
became a central community of intelligentsia called 'ladinos' as they were instrumental in 'taking into the
vernacular, literary forms which were to be instruments for the' peace 'of the natives.' Forms of popular
theater and literature such as "the pasyon, sinakulo, and corido ensured Christianity's acceptance and
spread, and the comedy and awit did the same for the monarchy. Global culture as adopted by the Spanish
has been "ordinary" to the point that it was a "watering-down of Spanish-European culture in order to win
over the general public to the colonial regime's 'ideology.' At that time, colonial authorities created popular
culture, with the aid of local intelligentsia, to promote the interests of the Church and the State.

However, once they saw the influence of mass culture and learned how to work their way as propaganda,
the native intelligentsia soon used the Spanish tool against them. The native intelligentsia used the same
types of popular culture in the 19th century, through the Propaganda movement, to "undermine the
influence of the oppressive friars and mobilize the people to bring an end to colonial rule" One example of
that is Marcelo H's work. Del Pilar, as he used prayers like 'Aba, Ginoong Maria' and 'Ama Namin' in a kind
of satire to hit the violent Spanish Brothers.

The rise of American colonization introduced to the Philippines the properly so-called, mainstream culture.
The liberal approach towards the printing press quickly expanded the dissemination of types of popular
culture through radio, television and film. Then not only by these types but also in digital media such as
films. In the Philippine market, Hollywood films had a near-monopoly, particularly in the absence of
European films due to World War I.

Early on, the local intelligentsia had the same apprehensions about mass media as they called it
advertisement, or art vulgarisation. According to Lumbera, the local intelligentsia noted that "Popular
literature as a product intended for a mass market was seen as a challenge to serious artistic practice, since
the writers accommodated his art to the demands of the publishers and editors who were more interested
in sales than in aesthetics." Moreover, "... common culture is not produced by the masses ... it is rather a
culture generated either by the ruling elite or by representatives of the intelligentsia in the employment of
that elite, for the consumption of the people;" it is ".... 'packaged' entertainment or art intended for the
benefit of rulers, be they colonial administrators or native bureaucrats and businessmen."
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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

To see it through the lens of Lumbera, "Popular culture is power, and anyone who uses it to control minds
is likely to have their literary and technical machinery turned against him when the minds he has exploited
discover his power as a political tool."

The Netizen Principle and the Democratization of Media

The word netizen, although popularly used in present times, is in fact a word from Michael Hauben's theory
(1996) is a corrupted term from the expression "Net Person." According to Hauben as netizens, in actual
fact geographical separation is replaced by presence in the same virtual space called the internet.
Moreover, along with the power to use the internet is the reporter's power provided to the netizen for a
netizen may actually be a source of primary knowledge about certain topics or issues. Hauben deeply
warns that the internet can be a "source of opinion," though he says a netizen should train him / her to
distinguish real from fabricated knowledge.

This prophecy will soon be reflected in the book by Graeme Turner called the Demotic Turn (2010), but
even news stories are still distorted in certain drastic ways to fit the type of "infotainment" preferred by
the general public. There's a increase in opinionated reporting, according to Turner, as reporters prefer to
bend the reporting to stories they sometimes support. Tabloidization is a clear example of this, or
sensationalizing small news stories and making a big deal of it.

The Agenda-Setting Theory

McCombs and Shaw's Agenda-Setting theory can be summarized by suggesting he media induces people to
concentrate their attention on something within a certain agenda. It can make people believe that
something happens when something isn't happening, or offer special attention Or concentrate on other
subjects or issues, and hype them to give the illusion that something major is happening. To offer an
exapmle, the idea of the agenda-setting can be seen in a newspaper in which the headline is supposed to
be the biggest news there is, and the other things, decreasing in font size and the farther its position from
the front page, the less importance it has. Similarly, the more urgent problem it is in a television show
where the reporter or news anchor offers a certain news too much air time, or depending on the structure
of the news items. This theory can also be applied on the radio, or on digital media like the internet.

The political-economy of media

According to the Propaganda Model by Hermann and Chomsky, a model they used to test the various
political-economic consequences of mass media, there are many filters to be used in relation to the subject
for testing the propaganda machine of mass media.

These are the following filters:

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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

1. The size, concentrated ownership, proprietary capital, benefit focus of the numerous mass media
companies.
2. Content as the main source of revenue for the mass media.
3. The media depend on the information given by government, company and these "experts"
supported and approved by those sources and power agents.

Analysis

In particular, based on the history and roots of popular culture in the Philippines, the emergence of popular
culture is due to innovations such as television, radio and the Internet, and the popularization of these
innovations as a result of their use in everyday culture. Nevertheless, media apparently innocent use or
use beholds control at its interstices in various ways.

As stated, this module will explore three levels of how media spreads popular culture, affecting aspects of
Filipino life such as political, cultural, and social.

Political- Economic Aspect

The economic dimension is the simpler one to work out among the three. American culture with the advent
of technology such as television and radio, according to Lumbera, soon eroded the notion of art and made
it appear to be consumerable and a commodity. Similar to other artists of the period, he called it
vulgarisation of art, as he said. He meant that the use of technology made art forms common and were
tailor-fit to exactly suit the taste of the wider audience, losing their content in the process. This trend or
outrage can also be seen in Turner's claim about the emergence of infotainment, if one might call it.
Infotainment is the tendency to make a problem seemingly important enough to give the public enough or
little new information, but more so, entertainment.

Infotainment is one of the most searched websites and the most viewed sites in the Philippines, according
to the Yahoo-Nielsen 2013 Survey. This means a lot of meaningless news we see on television or internet
that can be ignored as a fad but have been given the limelight to entertain people and people tend to buy
it. That means a lot of trivial news that we see on television or internet that can be dismissed as a fad but
has been given the limelight to entertain people and people tend to buy it.

Cross-promotion is a term that refers to a very subtle way of promoting an advertisement inside another
product, or the like. Apart from recognizing that the reason for this so-called "vulgarization of art" and the
"rise of infotainment" to draw advertisers to advertise in commercial breaks during television or radio
shows, or popping up on blogs, cross-promotion has been a wide-ranging phenomenon and people can
actually sense it but don't see it straight in the eye. Imagine watching a film and seeing the main actor being
used in it promoting a product, say coffee, and in one of the scenes he or she prepares and drinks the coffee
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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

— that is cros-promotion. The tacit or unconscious form of endorsing goods. Even on the internet, several
papers are planted only to create an advertising, and these are also the papers of infotainment. Both video
games have cross-promoting events, or even radio jockeys do so in a very smooth and conversational way.
Cross-promotion has been widely done for many years but the problem doesn't stop there.

Cross-promoting practices in various media outlets can not always be discreet, for many are now
specifically engaged in these practices and in connection with the sacrifice of Lumbera's art grievance; It
can already be seen that media does not proliferate art or high-value material, but sacrifices all of them,
including the content, form and nature of popular culture, just to use it as an advertisement.as an expam, a
whole dialog os story plot can be bent, to bend, bow and scrape to the demands of the key benefactor —
product endorsements.

Socio- Political Aspect

It was a famous saying that someone who has possession of economic power is also controlling the political
force. In the study of pop culture and the media in the Philippines, one can already see that the economic
and political factors were extremely mutually beneficial conditions for each other. This argument is
rational because, according to Herman and Chomsky, media generally gets all the money from advertising
and whoever has the bigger support gets the media coverage, or initiatives will be bent as to how their
product endorsement will fit in with cross-promotion.

However, it is important to remember that the influence of the media resides not only in the economic but
also in the hegemony of information, as Herman and Chomsky also cited. There are limited channels from
which media can access information, and with it they regulate — government, corporation, and the like —
whatever goes in and out of the tube.

Moreover, the media relationship with its audience must also be tested. According to popular culture,
media is often used to impose a certain impact on its audiences and the resulting relationship is a political
one in which the media organization or agency is the one regulating here. According to McCombs and
Shaw's Agenda-Setting Theory, through conditioning our minds in a very latent manner, particularly
through salience, media can make us think about something. It means that if ever the media company wants
you to think about a political stand or purchase the specific perfume, they will do it in repetition and using
multiple promotional tactics by cross-promotion. It means that if ever the advertising corporation needs
you to think about a political stance or buy the specific perfume, they can do so by cross-promotion through
repetition and use several promotional strategies. This could be equivocal with the fact that the "naked"
news is being produced in many western news firms not because they need viewers to watch news, but
rather to make them consume and gain their share in the advertising arena. One may say that to be
sensationalized and newsworthy, certain news stories should be fictitious or bloated. Therefore, by its
powers, the media implicitly commands the people to act in a way that is in their favour.

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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

However, this concept is increasingly shifting by manipulation, as there's something called media
democratisation that's linked to the growth of social media.

The democratisation of media over the internet can be attributed to breaking the media conglomerates
'control over the information flow. Michael Hauben's idea of the Netizen, when he coined the concept in
the late 1990s, proposed that the physical borders of the universe dissolved through the faster
transmission of information and communication over the Internet, and the result was infinite and
transcendental — quite a high-tech benchmark of the 21st century. Hauben also imagined the democratic
influence of the media, as everyone can voice their opinions over the internet, but that can only be achieved
if everybody in society, including those on the periphery, will be given the opportunity to express their
opinions.

The penetration of internet use in the Philippines is more than thirty per cent as of 2012, and is gradually
growing (Yahoo-Nielsen, 2013). According to the same study, more Filipinos use tablets and cell phones to
access the internet, and with the country's increase in smart phones, we may expect that the expected
number may increase exponentially. Nevertheless, media democratization is still evident in society, even
though away from Hauben's ideal 100 percent penetration of society, and this is through social networking
sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. The most used site is among the three, Facebook
(Yahoo-Nielsen, 2013).

Public opinion rises from these pages, the proliferation of liberal ideas occurs particularly in the
Philippines because the government never censors the content, although attempts have been made in the
law on cybercrime. The agenda and capacity seemed to prove its political worth in the Philippines last
September 2013, when many Filipinos across the Philippines and the world joined a simultaneous protest
they called the "Million People March" (Garchitorena, 2013), as if an Arab or Persian Spring that was so-
Twitter or Facebook Revolution, through social media facilitation.

In everyday life one can see the leverage made by media conglomerates in the social media scene by making
an account for famous reporters and television or radio channels so that they can also make real-
broadcasting simultaneously with the real- updates of dissemination of social media information
(Garchitorena, 2013). That soon proves to be useful as media outlets make news from public opinion that
is often found in tweets or posts on social networking sites, as predicted earlier by the rise of talk radios
(Turner, 2010). There are also parts where pure viewers are made to report on a first-hand account of a
storm surge or something via mobile devices, and send the clip over the internet instead of sending a actual,
professional reporter to check the situation out. This trend would however prove beneficial if the idea of a
democratised society by Hauben will materialize through the internet where all people are given access,
plus the requisite training to voice their selves as Netizens.

Conclusion

To summarise, through Lumbera's research, modern culture was first introduced and provided flesh and
bone. It will be the pillar of the media we see today, and it has fleshed out reasons why media in the
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Philippine Modernity and Popular Culture: An Onto-Historical Inquiry

Philippines commands cultural, political, and social influence. Via many media theories, it has been shown
that the main objective of the media through the dissemination of pop culture produces a commercialized
environment because it generates money from advertisements, and whoever controls economic power
always controls the political. News outlets may also promote pop culture in order to make their viewers
act in the way they can favor them, often because they monopolize the stream of information. This can also
be offset by media democratization by promoting social networking sites, and by spreading thoughts on
the internet as a netizen. It can trigger leverage, but the full potential for complete democratisation may
not be completely realized until all people in society can have full access with the aforementioned
technology. It can also have down-effects for media outlets, as if "empowering" them, to use Netizens as
the primary sources of knowledge. This can also be overcome with awareness if the public learns how to
use social media to their benefit.

"Pop culture is power, and anyone who uses it to control minds would inevitably find his literary and
technical machinery turned against him when the minds he has exploited discover his power as a political
tool" (Lumbera, 1984).

The future of the political, cultural, and social facilities of social media as a resource, or a weapon, against
media conglomerates and advertising machinery, or the government, or any institutional agenda, can still
be achieved if the general public, particularly those on the margins who have always been exploited by the
false media images, are to discover and harness their full potential.

Reference and Supplementary Material

Online Supplementary Reading Material

1. Garchitorena, Aj. Pop Culture and the Rise of Social Media in the Philippines: An
Overview. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/ronda2014/Culture-
Philippines.pdf on March 30, 2020

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