Comm Dept. dissects media and politics
WHAT PREVENTS the youth from being politically engaged?
For Camille Kimberly Pilar (IV AB Comm), the student panelist at MediaTalk@admu 3, mainstream media is partly accountable because it “somehow sends us the wrong message that the political arena is for grown-ups.”
Pilar said that although the youth has been accused of political apathy and inaction, this is not the whole picture. “In my experience, it is the youth who are most painfully aware, or the ones who hold most potential to be aware, of social realities.”
This last installment of the MediaTalk seminar series, themed “Media and Public Connection,” was held on January 30 at Leong Hall.
In the talk, the speakers examined how the media’s treatment of those who are marginalized in politics enable and disable the youth’s active political engagement.
The Communication Department’s Center for Communication Research and Training organized MediaTalk.
‘Personal is also political’Pilar added that the youth is learning to engage in political issues if their personal lives are affected by these.
“The youth are starting to get engaged with the world,” she said. “Even if it means that they have to start in their own little spaces.” She cited blogs and forums as avenues where the youth can engage in politics.
Aside from Pilar, the speakers were Communication Lecturer Leloy Claudio, Inquirer columnist Patricia Evangelista, and English Associate Professor Danton Remoto. Communication Lecturer Jason Cabańes was the talk’s convener.
Symptomatic apathyIn his talk, Claudio said that apathy is a symptom of the lack of public connection. “The lack of public connection is manifested not in our complete apathy, but our apathy directly towards the institution, [particularly] the national government.”
Claudio also said that media institutions face structural and cultural problems in reporting on politics. He cited the Balikatan exercises in Mindanao as an example.
He said that in the Balikatan, human rights violations are not reported since media organizations get information from military press corps because it is cheaper and less risky than sending their own reporters to the field.
“The implication of this is that we’re not informed [and] our consent is manufactured. The problem is we don’t even know what’s happening out there,” Claudio said.
He added that to address the lack of public connection, the challenges are media reflexivity and media literacy. “Media practitioners have to be reflexive on the process that [they] go through because [they’re] more powerful than the average person.”
For media literacy, meanwhile, “If we don’t know what’s happening, we don’t know what to do. In other words, we become trapped,” said Claudio.
“Tell the story”Remoto talked about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community’s experiences with the media, particularly his campaign for the 2007 elections.
Remoto responded to the claim of former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. that the LGBT only has phantom voters: “If I have phantom voters, why do the presidentiables negotiate with me [to be their senatorial candidate for 2010]?”
Evangelista, meanwhile, said that journalists can get the public involved through their stories. “The more the journalists get involved, the more the public gets involved … [It is] the manner of your telling of stories that gets the public involved.”
“As journalists, if you keep telling the story, maybe [they will] understand why it happened [and] the public has to rewrite the stories. They have to do something about the story, so that we can prove something about this country.”