A Midterm Project

PHILIPPINE MODERNITY AND THE RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

In Partial Fulfillment as one of the Requirements

in Elec-2 Philippine Popular Culture for AY. 2021-2022

Submitted by:

LEA B. DACILLO

Student

Submitted to:

JOANN MAY T. LUMANOG

Instructor

Date of Submission: May 18,2022

I. Cover Page i

II. Table of Contents ii

III. Introduction 1

IV. Body of the Project: Philippine Modernity

and the Rise of Social Media 2

V. Summary 10

VI. Conclusion 11

VII. References 12

Introduction

The purpose of this research is to examine the rise of New Media and social media in the Philippines,
as well as their impact on the promotion of popular culture among the country's media consumers. It
will examine several aspects of contemporary Philippine life, including the political, economic, and
social, and connect them to the cultural. By the end of this paper, there will be predictions about the
future of the Philippine experience under these conditions, assuming that the current state of media in
the country does not change, a kind of analysis that will allow readers to begin their own introspection
about media use. Thus, the three interconnected tiers of Philippine life will be examined in this
[Link], this paper will examine the implications of these three interconnected tiers of Philippine
life and connect it with popular culture in the Philippines to provide the public with an overview of this
obvious but unnoticed scene in Philippine media studies. The specific goals of this paper are as
follows: to dissect and locate the origins of the concept of popular culture in the Philippine context; to
connect popular culture to the use of traditional media such as television and radio, as well as the rise
of social media or new media; and to locate interlocking concepts regarding popular culture and social
[Link] provide an overview of the current state of Philippine media studies, I will use social media in
the political, economic, and social aspects of everyday Philippine life. However, one unstated goal of
the study is to elicit public reflection on their use or personal consumption of media in their daily lives.
This paper will discuss the rise of social media in the Philippines.

I. Philippine History and Culture

Despite a string of largely unsympathetic rulers, the turbulent history of the Phillipines has
nonetheless managed to produce a friendly, resilient, family-oriented, deeply religious and artistic
population, most of whom are indigenous, Spanish or of mixed heritage. People have lived in the
Philippines since the dawn of human history. Originally, the various islands were populated by
competing tribes, each with their own king or queen. In 1521, the explorer Magellan claimed the
islands for Spain and colonization began in 1565. Manila was established as the capital of what was
then known was the Spanish East Indies in [Link] rule brought Catholicism to the area, with
missionaries establishing churches, schools, hospitals, universities and largely displacing the
previously entrenched Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist faiths. Free education was introduced in 1863,
but did not take off until much [Link] were obligated to defend against internal revolts by
indigenous groups, as well as attacks from the Dutch and Portuguese. Free trade was introduced
during the 19th century which brought wealth to the population. Evidence of Spanish rule can be seen
across the Philippines, particularly in the plentiful Baroque churches and the walled Intramuros
district of [Link] Philippine-American war between American soldiers and Filipino revolutionaries
lasted from 1899-1902 and resulted in US control of the region, during which literacy increased and
freedom of religion was introduced, removing Catholicism's status as the state religion. America's
promises of independence in 1916 led to the Philippines being granted Commonwealth status in
[Link] culture of the Philippines comprises a blend of traditional Filipino and Spanish Catholic
traditions, with influences from America and other parts of Asia. The Filipinos are family oriented and
often religious with an appreciation for art, fashion, music and [Link] are also hospitable
people who love to have a good time. This often includes getting together to sing, dance, and eat. The
annual calendar is packed with festivals, many of which combine costumes and rituals from the
nation's pre-Christian past with the Catholic beliefs and ideology of present day.

POPULAR CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES

"Building a culture has to start with a foundation, and that foundation must necessarily be the culture
of the Filipino people if this could be separated with the encrustations grown on it by colonial
rule."Popular culture, according to National Artist for literature Bienvenido Lumbera in his book
Revaluation: Essays on Philippine Literature, Theatre and Popular Culture (1984), is highly different
from the folk culture and nationalist culture of the Filipinos. In a nutshell, folk culture is the way of
living in a place in a specific time and portrays the practices of a certain people, and on how they cope
to survive with nature. Nationalist culture is the culture created through colonial resistance with the
collective of a people on a given place and time. These two are different from popular culture which can
be traced even in the period of Hispanization of the [Link] 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 [Link], once the native intelligentsia saw the
effects of popular culture and knew how to work. its way as propaganda, they soon used the Spanish
weapon against them. In the 19th century. through the Propaganda movement, the native
intelligentsia used the same forms of popular culture to "undermine the power of the abusive friars
and rally the populace to put an end to colonial rule" one example is the work of Marcelo H. del Pilar
when he soon used prayers such as the 'Aba, Ginoong Maria' and 'Ama Namin' in a sort of parody to
strike against the abusive Spanish [Link] advent of American colonialism brought, the properly so-
called, popular culture to the Philippines. The liberal policy regarding the printing press, soon through
radio, television and film, increased the circulation of of popular culture forms. Not only through these
forms but also in new media then, such as films. Hollywood films had a near-monopoly in the
Philippine market especially in the absence of European movies due to World War [Link] on the local
intelligentsia has the same apprehensions over mass media as they called it commercialisation, or
vulgarisation of art. According to Lumbera, the local intelligentsia noticed that "Popular literature as a
commodity intended for a mass market was seen to pose a threat to serious artistic work, because the
writers accommodated his art to the demands of the publishers and editors who were more interested
in sales rather than aesthetics." More so, "...popular culture is not created by the populace... rather, it
is culture created either by the ruling elite or by members of the intelligentsia in the employ of that
elite, for the consumption of the populace."; it is ".... packaged' entertainment or art intended for the
profit of rulers, be they colonial administrators or native bureaucrats and businessmen.

THEORIES ON THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO CULTURE

THE THEORY OF THE NETIZEN AND DEMOCRATISATION OF MEDIA-The word netizen, though it has
been used popularly in current times,is actually a word from the theory of Michael Hauben (1996) is a
corrupted term from the phrase "Net Citizen". According to Hauben, as netizens, geographical
separation in the actual reality is replaced by existence in the same virtual space called the internet.
More so, along with the power of using the internet is the power of the reporter given to the netizen for
a netizen could actually be a source of primary information regarding certain topics or issues. Hauben
profoundly cautions that the internet can, nevertheless, be a "source of opinion" though he said that a
netizen can train him/her self to discern real from fabricated information. This prophecy will soon be
reflected in Graeme Turner's book called the Demotic Turn (2010) but in a certain extreme way for
even news reports are often bent to suit the "infotainment" genre favored by the general audience.
According to Turner, there is a rise of opinionated news as reporters tend to bend the news to the
stories they often favor. A concrete example of this is tabloidization, or sensationalizing small news
items and making a big deal out of such.

THE AGENDA-SETTING THEORY The Agenda-Setting theory of McCombs and Shaw can simplified by
saying that the media influences people to focus its attention on something under certain agenda. It
can make people think that something is actually happening when something is not, or give special
attention or focus on certain subjects or topics and hype it to make an impression that something big
is going [Link] give an example, the agenda-setting theory can be seen in a newspaper where in the
headline is supposed to be the biggest news there is, and the other items, decreasing in font size and
the farther its location from the front page, the lesser priority it has. Similarly, in a news program me,
wherein the reporter or news anchor gives too much air time to a certain news, or depending on the
arrangement of the news items, the more pressing issue it is. This theory can also be applied in the
radio, or on new media such as the internet.

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE
COUNTRY

Political Economic Aspect- According to the Yahoo-Nielsen 2013 Survey, infotainment is one of the
most searched content and sites most visited in the Philippines. This meant: a lot of irrelevant news we
see on the television or internet that can be dismissed as a fad but were given the limelight to amuse
people, and people seem to buy it. Just look at websites like Yahoo, itself, for it offers a lot of
interesting articles which may seem to catch the interest if the public but also to [Link]-
promotion is a term referring to the promotion of an advertisement in a very subtle way inside another
program, or the like. Aside from acknowledging that the reason why there is this so-called
"vulgarisation of the art and the "rise of infotainment" to attract advertisers to advertise in commercial
breaks during television or radio shows, or popping-up in the websites, cross-promotion has been a
wide practice and people can actually sense it but not look it straight in the eye. Imagine watching a
movie and seeing a product endorsement of the main protagonist being used in it, say coffee, and he or
she prepares and drinks the coffee in one of the scenes -- that is cross-promotion. The latent or subtle
manifestation of endorsing products. Even in the internet, there are a lot of articles planted just to
make an advertisement and these are often the infotainment ones. Cross-promoting activities in
various media platforms cannot always be subtle, for there many now with explicit exercise of such,
and in connection with Lumbera's sacrificing the art grievance, it can already be seen that media does
not proliferate art, or material with high value but sacrifices all these, even the content, form, and
quality of popular culture just to use it as an [Link] an example, a whole dialogue os story
plot can be twisted, to bend, bow and scrape to the demands of the main benefactor – production
Socio- Political Aspect-It is important to notice, however, that media's power does not only reside on
the economic, but also to the monopoly of sources, as cited also by Herman and Chomsky. There are
limited sources by which media can get information, and with it, they control government, businesses,
and the like whatever is going in and out of the information tube. Moreover, one must also check the
relation of media to its [Link] of popular culture, media is actually used to create a certain
agenda on its viewers, and the resulting relationship is a political one. wherein the one controlling here
is the media company or institution. According to McCombs and Shaw's Agenda-Setting Theory, media
can make us think about something by conditioning our minds in a very latent manner, most
especially through salience. It means that if ever the media company wants you to think about a
political stand or buying that special perfume, they will do it in repetition and via cross-promotion
using several

advertising [Link] such as Nielsen give the media companies an idea what formula would
work on a sellable television show, or the like. This can be equivocal with the idea that the "naked"
news in several western news companies is created not because they need people to watch news, but
also to make them watch and earn their share in the advertising arena. 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 [Link] three (3) social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, and the
like have penetrated the society with their platforms. 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. In everyday life, one can see the leverage done 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 time broadcasting simultaneous with the real-time updates of social
media information dissemination (Garchitorena, 2013). This is soon proved to be beneficial when
media companies make news out of public opinion often found in tweets or posts in social media sites,
as predicted earlier on through the rise of talk radios ( Turner,2010 ).
Summary

The origin of Philippine modernity results from several processes that occurred within the country and
outside it. In this way, it is also an outcome of the process of [Link] accounts have
shown that after the Spanish introduced new ideas and innovations to our shores, Filipinos could
absorb them into their culture and make these fit into their way of life. It is also worth noting that
American occupation and the second world war have shaped our country's present national culture
even as they established a colonial system different from Spanish colonialism until its end in [Link]
Americans' influence proved significant, especially in terms of infrastructure development, particularly
transportation and communication networks, which were needed to administer the archipelago during
their era of control effectively. In addition, some modernization efforts were carried out starting in
1922 when the National Government was created after an agreement between American Governor-
General Leonard Wood and revolutionary leader Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. This is manifested in the
setting up of various facilities such as schools where students could learn new skills, including art
education; hospitals with healthcare services accessible to more Filipinos; and public buildings such
as courts of justice, which helped maintain law and [Link] American occupation institutionalised
the introduction of new ideas and innovations through the educational system after it took over in
1901. Thus, for example, the Americans started a program for teaching the English language in
schools, which eventually became the medium used to teach subjects like mathematics and foster
nationalism among [Link] addition, modern media technologies were introduced, resulting in
changes in Philippine culture, including those affecting popular taste. Media content is now influenced
not by oral traditions passed on from generation to generation but by what is being shown on
television screens or projected onto movie theatres' screens because these are available anywhere at
any time. It is true that even before the Spaniards came, Filipinos already had a culture of their own.
Still, contemporary Philippine culture is different from what it was in the past, just as Philippine
society has [Link] is dynamic, which accounts for why we are still doing practices that were
once common decades ago. For instance, Filipinos have been attending wakes to pay respect to the
deceased and socialize with others while consuming food prepared by relatives of the departed person.

This practice remains relevant until today because many people still go to wakes mainly because they
do not want to offend grieving families who may feel alone after losing a loved one. Another example is
dancing, such as sexy dances, which some people have continued performing despite criticisms
received from other people. This was very much influenced by the introduction of new forms of popular
culture from foreign sources in the first place.

Interestingly, these examples perpetuate until this time because, in a way, the people have been
conditioned to continue doing [Link] all the new things introduced to our society over time,
many Filipinos still keep ancient practices alive for no other reason than to preserve these as part of
their culture.

Conclusion

To summarize the paper, the study of Lumbera was the first to introduce and flesh out popular
culture. It will serve as the foundation for the media we see today,fleshing out the reasons why the
media wields economic, political, and social power in the Philippines. Several media theories have
demonstrated that the proliferation of pop culture creates commercialized world by generating income
through advertisements, and whoever political power. Because they control the information flow,
media companies can also use ways that are advantageous to [Link] can be countered by
democratizing media through the use of social networking sites and projecting ideas as a netizen on
the internet. This may result in leverage, but it may not fully realize its full potential for full
democratization unless all members of society have full access to the said technology. It may also have
a negative impact on media companies' ability to use Netizens as primary sources of information, as if
"empowering" them. This can also be countered by educating the public on how to use social media to
their advantage. "Popular culture is power, and whoever wields it to manipulate minds will almost
certainly find its literary equivalent.""Whoever wields popular culture to manipulate minds is likely to
find its literary and technological machinery turned against him when the minds it has manipulated
discover its potency as a political weapon" (Lumbera, 1984). The future of social media's political,
economic, and social utility as a tool or weapon against media conglomerates and advertising
machinery, or the government or any institutional agenda, may still be realized if the general public,
particularly those on the margins who have always been victimized by false images shown through
media, discovers and uses its full potential.

Reference
[Link]

[Link]
historyandculture#text=The culture of the Philippines,, fashion, music and% 20food.

[Link] library/get_file?uuid=37ca1a50-41f0-6d0f-18c0
c41e39c36cf5&groupid=252038

[Link]
symbolisms/chapter-1-handout-phil-popular-culture/14512843/download/chapter-1-handout-phil
[Link]