PBA 1: MEDIA INFORMATION LITERACY

NAME: John Lennard Costuna GRADE: 12 HUMSS

NAZARENO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GNoPxDHf7k

This video by the Word of the Lourd, a show in the television, shows the tradition of the
Black Nazarene. The video may seem to be a satirical video about the beliefs, the traditions, and
even the people who subject themselves to a devotion to the Black Nazarene. The camera style
and the background music really show the comedic approach of the show to point out to the
audience how absurd people may become because of their faith. The reddish natural lighting shows
the reality of the situation.

At the start of the video, it shows that people tend to make business out of the tradition and
religion. Lourd De Veyra asked a vendor regarding his goods and why he makes a profit out of it.
It subtly tells the audience that oftentimes people would take advantage of a particular aspect in
the life of other people for their own gain. Quite ironic, isn’t it? That Jesus once became angry
because the temple of the Lord was made into a marketplace, and now, no one is there to be angry.
Let’s move on to the part where Lourd asked the people where Nazareth is and what the term
Traslacion means. Now for the first few people, they answered correctly, but when the other
“hardcore” believers were asked the same question, they gave disappointing answers. This pokes
fun on us, believers, that even when we believe on something, we don’t even try to know the reason
behind our beliefs. We don’t even try to remotely gain knowledge. We just follow what we are
used to or what society tells us to follow. Towards the end, it reveals it’s punchline, “Sige, halik
lang sa pisngi.” That for me is again poking fun at the absurdity of the believers that to some extent
they are selfish but their intentions are selfless. This is because, they push each other just to touch
the image. Now this is becoming a bit problematic. They are idolizing the statue. The statue is just
a representation of Jesus. As you can see, people would often be hurt during the procession of the
Black Nazarene just because someone has a “greater faith” than them.

Now this video conveys a hidden message. It is a message of critical thinking and
background knowledge and true faith. Yes, we can believe and have faith blindly, but it is
important for us to know more and grasp the basics of our faith. How can we proceed forward if
we don’t even see the past? You may say that it’s already in the past, however, the past is what
makes the future. In faith, there is this commitment not only to the tradition, but also to the reason.
We must know the reason behind why we have this so-called faith for us to become a true believer.
Furthermore, as the video had shown, we tend to ignore a lot of things. If we don’t know, we just
scratch our heads and not try to even understand. The belief of the devotees to the Black Nazarene
is sometimes a depressing and inspiring. You can be inspired by their faith that it becomes their
way of life, however, it is so depressing to think that they sometimes forget the true meaning
behind their devotion. We should always know why we are doing a certain devotion or belief in
order for us to fully capture the essence of what we do.

My stand in this kind of satirical content is that I enjoy watching it. It is a new way to
enlighten the audience in the new media. Using such kinds of content will poke the brains of the
viewers and they will ask themselves and learn to think critically. The show “Word of the Lourd”
really is an eye-opener as it helped me to use my mind in seeing the true messages behind certain
shows. Although it may seem to be disrespectful, we all have different perspectives. Maybe what
you see is not what I see. Maybe you lack knowledge, maybe I know the reason. Media information
literacy is a vital tool in helping us to sieve information in this new digital era where contents and
information are readily available for us to see and use.