Communication and Society

Can ideas from the past be useful in our modern day problems? The answer is yes, because people do not want to repeat the mistakes their ancestors made in the past. But some of the mistakes may be repeated due to it being inevitable. After World War II, the press was free to criticize whomever they want, and it appeared to the world that our press was irresponsible. And when Marcos became the president, he did not want the Media to overpower him, He was the president and he thought that having been seated in the top most position he should have absolute power, he couldn’t have the media scrutinizing him for every move he makes. Our grandparents and parents use to say that Marcos reign was the prime era of the Philippines because of the good deeds he has done for the country, but little did they know that his good image is due to the fact that Marcos has a leash on the mass media to prevent news of his somewhat malicious intentions on killing journalist who publish bad news about him. Media is a politician’s biggest opponent. The use of Media might have supported the government/politicians on campaigns but when fooled or did not kept their promise, The media has the power to ruin you in an indirect manner. When a government is hiding something, it will not last long for it to come out. As technology advances, being in a progressing country, truth be told, we always get left behind when it comes to new things. We have learned to make movies from the Western World, but in the present day, why couldn’t we make movies as good as them? Why can we only make films with so little special effects? Is it because we still lack the technology to do so? The problem is with us, Filipinos already made some animation films, but due to not having met the standards of American animations, we tend to ignore it. If we have supported our own, animation might have progressed in the world of Filipino film. Why is the trend in movies nowadays having an extramarital affair with another woman? Because it reflects the society, it shows the realism about the lives of ordinary citizen in a more glamorous and sophisticated manner, and we Filipinos love that, since many of us have lives that are routine and unexciting, we spice things up a bit by imagining life through celebrities, since they have the money, the status and influence we wish we had. Why don’t we Filipinos get tired of watching the same old stereotyped characters in melodramas? Why don’t we try themes that are based on sex, crime and drugs on television shows? The protagonist always win and the antagonist is always the loser. Why can’t the antagonist win in the end, instead of dying or be imprisoned? Since most of us are all Catholics, The Filipinos are not ready to take on new themes that would contradict the belief of the Church, that evil will finally defeat the good. That is the very reason why we are trapped in a never-ending cycle of protagonist vs. ntagonist themes. We sometimes think if the news that had been reported on the television or the newspaper is really news worthy? Much likely the â€Å"Amalayer† issue, should it have stayed on youtube instead? The problem with people today is the lack of common sense. An issue concerning the â€Å"Amalayer† situation, wherein a student confronted a lady guard who was working i n a train station and that the guard was accusing her of lying. The woman was identified as a student of a known school in Manila. This was videotaped by a passenger and was uploaded in the internet, this issue became a trend in Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Common sense would tell most of us that causing a commotion in public would easily destroy not only our reputation, but have lessen our dignity as well. Basically the role of the mass media is to inform the people and comment about the issues regarding the society, but this issue doesn’t concern us at all, it is just a dispute between a student and an employee. Will we benefit something from watching this? It was basically posted in the internet so that other people could criticize and pass judgement on the girl to how she was treating the lady guard. In our modern society, the Philippine Media clearly reflects the society, since us Filipinos are easily influenced, an example is the Korean wave in 2009, bright and colourful outfits, hairstyles that I couldn’t even describe, eating Kimchi and most of us even studied the Korean language. The television was bombarded with Korean dramas. It is not only the Korean wave but the whole purpose of the media is to influence the society, we tend to imitate what we see in television. People go to a plastic surgeon, so they can look like their favourite celebrity, some would even go to the extent of having two of their ribs remove just to have a waistline they see on supermodels walking down the catwalk. These are the circumstances that will test a person’s ethical behaviour, from what they perceive on national television, if what they will acquire is good or bad, moral or immoral, appropriate or inappropriate. Ethics not only promotes a better individual but a better society.