ARTICLE | Romanticizing Poverty in Mainstream Media

Romanticizing Poverty in Mainstream Media

Miss Universe Catriona Gray in her final Q&A described poverty in the Philippines as both poor and very sad. To an outsider, how does Philippines poverty register to them when they see clips of it in maintream media. We talked to Professor Sarah from the University of the Philippines, Diliman to know her take on the representation of poverty in mainstream media. In our discussion, she shares that media has a normative effect on the audience in terms of maintaining the status quo. Some other interesting points include the relational imagination and creation of spectacle which are discussed in detail in this article.

Mass media is one of those institutions which is very powerful in representing poverty. It is through television shows, yung mga news, yung mga documentaries, yung mga featured shows or yung mga shows like Wowowee, Maalaala Mo Kaya yung mga ganun, where we actually have a glimpse of what’s poverty is all about so it doesn’t really renders it absent in fact yung media yung mas nagpapakita lalo na yung television, yung news, na kung ano yung ibig sabihin or you know it represent poverty but at the same time it doesn’t mean that you know, kaya nga media because it mediates right? 

So it is representing poverty in a way that will make those who own say media conglomerates really profit from this kind of representation so the representation of poverty in mass media is one that is quite commodified in the sense that it is a discourse that sells. It represents the lives of the poor but these lives were already packaged in a way that will be sale-able to the poor. 

Right, so in that sense the media is really a state apparatus it doesn’t allow for any other discourse that would represent poverty in a way that is beyond how the state wants to manage the country and it’s a form of social engineering di ba. 

It recruits people from different disciplines with different orientations for them to be able to come up with plots or advertisements that would portray poverty in a particular way. Ano yung portrayal, what are the dominant portrayals of poverty? That it is actually a situation that can be traversed. How? Through charity, halimbawa yung Wowowee, the charity of these OFWs, through the charitable or the generous hearts of media conglomerates like the Lopezes, ABS-CBN who in fact have the stakes for the status quo. 

Ayaw naman talaga, they wouldn’t, they don’t want to eliminate poverty because that would change their position so it’s really a strategy of containment yung kanilang mga diskurso ng charity, yung lotto, yung swerte, etc. Poverty is a situation that can be traversed through the help of the ruling elite or through the help of those who have you know a generous heart. 

Number two, they represent the poor as an oppressed class but never as a fighting class so sa Wowowee halimbawa ipapakita you know these poor people falling line you know for how many days tapos they would go there and come up with the testimony of how poor they are and so on and so forth and they would you know dance to the tune of these sexist tunes kung anuman break yung mga jokes noh, na nirerequire ng isang game and so on and so forth. 

So while it exposes the situation of poverty it masks this because in a way, uhm yun nga one sided yung portrayal ng poverty na halimbawa bakit sumasali sa ganung mga contests yung mahihirap? Is just because they’re poor? I think it really erases the fact that there is a system that keeps them poor and the media apparatus is one of those mechanisms that actually keeps them poor by actually deploying a very insidious discourse of poverty. Kasi hindi naman nila pino-portray halimbawa yung mga mahihirap who are calling for a radical change of the system. 

In effect itong mga mahihirap na to, pinoportray nila na ito yung mga mahihirap who trust that those who are in a better situation can change their condition of living yung halimbawa yung, ano yun, yung mga palabas na there’s going to be a switch. There’s this actor who will live the life of a fishball vendor or of a taho vendor for one day and this taho vendor naman will be given the chance to live like a king or a queen di ba, so this person will be given gift cheques from Vicky Belo, from this particular shop and so on and so forth. 

So I think it erases the fact that for people to really transform their situation they really have to intervene. They have to challenge yung hegemonic discourse and not just assume for one day the lives of the rich or those who are you know who are privileged in society. What else?

Portrayal as ethical or unethical

It’s very unethical because it precisely erases the relational imagination. Yung mga representations halimbawa yung charity o yung ah, that this is just you know you can avoid poverty by betting on the lotto etc., parang hindi pinapakita that people are poor because you know some people are rich. And hindi you know this relationship is a mutually dependent relationship. It’s not mutually exclusive. So you know, we have to have that kind of relational imagination in a sense na halimbawa kasi pinapakita na kaya mahirap yung mahirap because of their you know very distinct individual characteristics or the sorry states of their lives and it has got nothing to do with the excessive accumulation of the rich. When in fact magka-ugnay yung dalawang yun, so pinaghihiwalay yung mga tao. 

That is precisely the function of creating a spectacle . Yung spectacle, pinaghihiwa-hiwalay niya, it actually portrays a very fragmented view of the world which disallows people from seeing their relationship to other human beings so it’s unethical because it, one, it reinforces a system that is exploitative and oppressive to the majority. So instead of exposing this it actually masks this situation by coming up with spectacles of yun nga, of charity, of how poverty is really a situation you know that can be avoided if only the people will be, uhm what, will be risked, yung parang will take the risks, you know will join game shows instead of parang acquiring that kind of imagination that will make them realize how to intervene historically, how to intervene effectively, and how to solve poverty and how to actually, actually there’s a contradiction, may contradiction between the ruling class and the ruled but mass media would try to, it really tries hard in order to dilute or to even erase this contradiction, di ba? Binubura niya eh, binubura niya yung conflict instead pinapakita niya na pwede silang magtulungan you know. 

So it’s a strategy of containment, a very insidious kind of containment which desensitizes not only the rich but also the poor and so in the end you maintain that system, where you know most people are really oppressed, where most people are poor because you cannot be changing your life by just joining in a game, one of those games in Wowowee, right. So it’s unethical in that way because Emmanuel Kant, defines ethics as the ability, the capacity to go beyond, go beyond one’s nature. 

And what is nature? Yung nature naman ito yung mga bagay na we’ve been socialized, or these are the things we have internalized and interiorized as human beings so halimbawa we’re socialized to view poverty as something that can be transcended without a rapture of the existing system you know so that’s how people would view it naturally you know. Now from the Kantian perspective ethics would present a way out from this kind of view no, na it, ethics is a way for people to go beyond their nature or how they have been brainwashed by society then it has got to be a form of ethics that will really counter what is dominant in society and now media if it merely perform that role of reinforcement of reaffirming the social order then I think that’s not ethical especially what comes out of that social order is a, are conditions which are you know what, which a disallow people to gain access to education, to health service, people die of curable diseases I think that is very violent. 

Tapos di ba yung mga crimes they are always associated with the lower class because that’s how media portrays yung mga news reports. Bakit sila laging naka-station sa mga police stations? I mean they don’t realize that of course hindi mauubos itong mga pick pockets, yung mga drug addicts because you know ganun yung system. There are reporters who are stationed in police stations because for sure you will always come up with a coverage of such news reports a kind that would portray or that would showcase the poor as playing the role of pick pocket, not just playing the role but you know nahuli sila ng pulis, nagnakaw, etc. 

I’m sure yun na parati kang may ma-fe-feature without really explaining that of course you create that kind of consciousness na people see, ah ganito pala yung poor, they’re stereotyped as the ones who are always engaged in petty crimes pero yung mga ginagawa halimbawa tax evasion ng mga mayayaman, that’s never reported in the news and only because these programs are dependent on their advertisements. Right? So ah yung mga news reports which feature the poor people as victimizers of their you know of other people pwedeng pick pockets, drug addicts, ano pa ba? Pwedeng sexual harassers. These features do not explain why or how people are actually loompinized by this system.

Alternative portrayal of poverty by the media in the Philippines

Well you know these suggestions naman are not based on my own ideas but I think there are alternative media groups which have been doing their part in trying to really engage this issue of poverty. Like you have Southern Tagalog exposure, which is an activist media organization that foray into human rights violations, they discuss how the state actually is responsible for this and not only that, and yeah media organizations like Sine Patriyotiko, Tudla, Kodaw Productions these alternative media organizations uhm, they’ve actually laid out the groundwork for a portrayal of poverty that is representing the poor not just as an oppressed class but as a fighting class. 

And how do you represent the poor as a fighting class? You try to engage their lives whenever they would be there to actually rally a very anomalous policy or they’re there to fight for their wages, for higher wage, for benefits etc., yung ganung klaseng empowerment when nandun sila para mag-strike but these are the things that the media or the news reports avoid. Whenever they feature yung mga people who are involved in a mass demonstration ang portrayal nila, o eto na naman yung mga magugulo, yung mga protesters na wala ng ginawa kundi magreklamo, etc. kaya hindi tayo umuusad. 

That’s the kind of portrayal that they do but I think an alternative representation would really be a that kind of representation which will be from the very beginning biased to the wager of the poor people, and what kind of bias is this? It’s a bias for another form of democracy. Another system that will eliminate exploitation kasi itong media mukha silang walang bias. Kasi nga it’s been naturalized, yung objectivity that is biased to the interest of profit accumulation so kunyari walang bias. Kunyari balanse. Kunyari on this issue on agrarian reform, mag-iinterview sila ng magsasaka tapos mag-iinterview ng somebody from the Department of Agriculture, arguing para kunyari balance pero walang balance dun because yung mga manunuod, yung audience they are already ideologically aligned to the ideology of the state so when you watch it, of course mas effective yung discourse nung nasa pwesto, yung nakabarong etc. as opposed to the farmer na you know ang tingin naman ng iba, ano ba namang alam niyan, etc. 

So I think it’s very important na for an alternative visualization of poverty those who will be behind, or those who will produce it should be really reflexive. It should be, from the very beginning take a stand coz mainstream media have already taken a stand, it’s not hindi sila objective kasi hindi naman ah of course that’s, yung illusion nila they’re doing it to inform the people, etc. 

But you know, yung filter kasi talaga ng media is really what- profit and ownership. Who owns this media organization? What are his interests? Who are his friends? Sino yung mga kaibigan niya na hindi niya pwedeng banatan sa isang news report. So it’s quite filtered.