VIDAD

MASS MEDIA
Popular culture is a movement that was started in order to give voice to the common
masses through different forms of media, such as television shows, technology, magazines,
folklore, sports, movies, contemporary books, paintings, sports, fashion, pop music, and so
on. It was initiated against the pre-existing culture of the upper class of the society.
For as long as mass media has existed in the Philippines, it’s helped to create and fuel
mass crazes, skyrocketing celebrities, and pop culture manias of all kinds. Even in our era of
seemingly limitless entertainment options, mass hits like “Tawag ng Tanghalan” still have the
ability to dominate the public’s attention. Mass media must make it easy 'for the people to
identify themselves with the whole, especially in a situation of change when they are bound
to feel alienated. Mass media must make available to the people the total picture of
development for them to locate themselves in the middle of it.
As a whole, Philippine mass media at the time of the "traditional" society lacked the
sense of undertaking positive motivation, community building and educating the public. What
happened was that it was, in the greater part, in the hands of very exclusive private interests
and was mainly found in Manila. For this fact, mass media was self-serving, selective in
community building and exclusive of its own political public. The coming 'of the new era' has
reformed mass media to a great extent. Skeptics ask: how long will it stay "reformed?" I
personally feel that if we can accept the presumption that now mass media is in the hands of
intelligent men, it cannot, In the last analysis, disregard what it has learned of its potentials
for relevance within its society. ' At least, there are manifestations today of acceptance of
media responsibility that no amount Of regulation in the past could ever make significant.
Mass media now possesses a clearer understanding of why under our changing society it is
duty-bound to contribute its bit into the job of transforming Juan de la Cruz into a highly
motivated Filipino, the neighborly Juan, inspired to maintain his peace, but moved to act for
growth from within as well as committed to the achievement of a better life for all from
without.
Media fulfills several basic roles in our society. One obvious role is entertainment.
Media can act as a springboard for our imaginations, a source of fantasy, and an outlet for
escapism. In the 19th century, Victorian readers disillusioned by the grimness of the Industrial
Revolution found themselves drawn into fantastic worlds of fairies and other fictitious beings.
In the first decade of the 21st century, American television viewers could peek in on a
conflicted Texas high school football team in Friday Night Lights; the violence-plagued drug
trade in Baltimore in The Wire; a 1960s-Manhattan ad agency in Mad Men; or the last surviving
band of humans in a distant, miserable future in Battlestar Galactica. Through bringing us
stories of all kinds, media has the power to take us away from ourselves.

According to the Yahoo-Nielsen Survey of 2013, the top three sources of media
consumption in the Philippines come from the television, the radio, and the continually rising
internet usage. With these media vehicles, the so-called the fourth estate of the government,
one can actually deduce that watching favourite shows on the televison, listening to radio
programs, or even surfing the world-wide web can have political, social, and economic
implications.
According to Lumbera, popular culture in the Philippines was created and used by the
Spaniards to the native Filipinos or Indios via plays and literature to get the heart of the
natives and win it. The colonial origins of popular culture found in the Philippines can be
traced by looking at salient developments in Philippine literature. The first permanent
Spanish settlement began replacing the native culture with a Christian and European
tradition. The children of the native elite under the tutelage of missionaries became a core
group of intelligentsia called 'ladinos', as they became instrumental "in bringing into the
vernacular, literary forms that were to be vehicles for the "pacification" of the natives".
Forms of popular theatre and literature such as "the pasyon, sinakulo, and korido ensured the
acceptance and spread of Christianity, and the komedya and awit did the same for the
monarchy." Popular culture as introduced by the Spanish was "popular" to the extent that it
was a "watering-down of Spanish-European culture for the purpose of winning the general
populace over to the 'ideology' of the colonial regime." Popular culture at the time was
created by colonial authorities, with the aid of the local intelligentsia, to promote the
interests of the Church and the State.

SOCIAL MEDIA
In the Philippines, the internet usage penetration is more than thirty per cent as of
2012, and is continuously rising (Yahoo-Nielsen, 2013). According to the same survey, more
Filipinos use tablets and mobile phones to access the internet, and with the rise of smart
phones in the country, we can assume that the projected number can be rising exponentially.
However, the democratisation of media, even if away from Hauben's ideal 100% penetration
in the society, is still evident in the society, and this is via social networking sites such as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like. Among the three, Facebook, is the widely-used
platform (Yahoo-Nielsen, 2013). Public opinion rises from these sites, proliferation of liberal
ideas happen especially in the Philippines for the government never censors the content
though there was attempt in the Cybercrime law. The agenda and capability seemed to prove
its political worth in the Philippines last September 2013 when, as though an Arab or Persian
Spring that were so-called Twitter or Facebook Revolution, through the facilitation of social
media, many Filipinos all around the Philippines and the world joined a simultaneous protest
they called the "Million People March" (Garchitorena, 2013).
Fast forward to the present, and we have Facebook being used by more than 25
percent of the population – ranking 8th in the world, while other social media networks (such
as Twitter) are rapidly growing in popularity. In September 2011, the Philippine Trust Index,
commissioned by EON The Stakeholder Firm, was released. The study revealed that 68
percent of the respondents view online news sites as the most trusted sources of news and
information while 49 percent trust social networking sites.
While it is not furtive that the internet service in the country is far from excellent,
Filipinos are still fond of taking things so social media. There’s no denying it, we Filipinos are
social. Social interactions are a basic part of our daily lives and it is not at all surprising that
it is extended into our social media handles.
Roselyn Grace P. Santos on her study ‘The Effects of Social Media on Filipino Culture
and Behavior’ wrote that social media has corresponding positive and negative effects on
Filipino culture and behavior.
 For one on the positive side, it makes communication with friends and relatives easier.
It also made initiating events and activities hassle-free. The negative effects, on the other
hand, are as follows: (1) It has made it easier to spread bad and potentially damaging
information; (2) It has become a new medium for violence and crime like scams and identity.
Social Media are also making connectivity more easy-peasy to Filipinos, becoming
accessible means of communication. On top of that, Filipinos are also using it to promote
something, introducing other sides of the Philippines to the rest of the world.
While the negative effect is inevitable, Filipinos only need to master the art of sorting-
out information and using the sites and apps responsibly to steer-clear from misinformation
and online backlash.
Nonetheless, we still have a long way to go to keep up with the uncontrollable dawn of
Social Media. It’s a new era. And sometimes, the beginning of a new era is the death of
another.

FILM
Filipino academics and critics often speak of the need to project Filipino values and
culture in their popular media. They argue that it is the most popular of these media,
television and the cinema, which have been most dominated by western produced programs
and films and by locally produced imitations of these. However, in this post colonial climate
most Filipinos' sense of a "truly" Filipino self remains dubious at best and many have found the
task of self-discovery elusive . The problem may indeed be that after four hundred years of
domination the cultural conceptions and values of their former colonizers have become
inextricably enmeshed in the national psyche. In a sense Philippine recorded history and
nationhood began with its colonizers . This is not to say that a Filipino self does not exist or
will not emerge as a mature, independent entity in the future, but only that its
representations in the film medium must be viewed in light of its colonial past.
The local film industry in the Philippines is sometimes referred to as "Tagalog movies ."
Tagalog is the language of those Filipinos who live in central Luzon, particularly in and around
Manila, and since Manila is the seat of Philippine power and finance it is only natural that
Tagalog would be decreed the national language . Manila is also the filmmaking and television
production capital of the Philippines . If films are not shot in the Manila area (and the vast
majority are), they are still written, directed, acted and financed by people who live in
Manila . Yet as well as the term "Tagalog movies" captures the specific vantage point from
which movies in the Philippines are made, it does not reveal the historical influences on this
very popular and influential medium.
Understanding the representations of the Filipino self in Philippine cinema requires
first a knowledge of the cultural and social context from which it has sprung . The Philippines
is unique in Asia because of its close historical ties with the United States . However, prior to
the relatively brief American colonial period which began at the turn of the century the
Philippines was a long time colony of Spain whose roots travel much deeper in the Filipino
psyche. The Filipinos often refer to their long colonial subjugation as having been "350 years
in the convent and 50 years in Hollywood ."
LANGUAGE
Language is a cultural identity; it can be viewed locally and internationally, and most
especially, it bridges the gap between ethnic differences.
According to Klainerman (2008), language is a symbol of nationality, of the people, of
its suffering, its destiny, its grandeur, its triumphs; the primary instrument of conception,
expression, assimilation and communication of these experiences therefore ends up being
considered as their very sum and substance.
The truth is that, Filipino language is a manifestation of cultural identity that
embraces all dialects in the Philippines. The studies of Regional languages and provincial
dialects are important because they remain the lingua franca (common language) outside of
Metro Manila. If you live in the province, it is the language you use at home. At the same
time, learning Filipino and Regional language may be the key to national development, but
preserving the different dialects is the key to preserving our heritage. This includes native
songs and dances, folktales, beliefs, traditions and others. All efforts must be made to
preserve our heritage by translating them in Filipino and propagating them through the
different parts of the country (Eskwela, 2014).
The idea in studying English language over Filipino is to become globally competitive in
finding job opportunities abroad. Hence, more than the value of language in a global standard
for job employment of the Filipino abroad.
Language is not just a means of communication, but a symbol of our identity as a
people. Language is not just a story of being globally competitive but a story of sharing our
culture and understanding others. Language binds, not to separate people together.

REFERRENCES:
• https://www.sagisag.com/article/642/technology/the-implications-of-social-media-
in-the-philippines
• Culture-Philippines.pdf
• Understanding-Media-and-Culture-An-Introduction-to-Mass-Communication.pdf
• The%20Mass%20Media%20as%20a%20Force%20Peace%20and%20Development.pdf
• the-filipino-language-and-culture/
• charie_reading_1_see_blog_for_other_links.pdf