Celebrity Politics And Politics Of Celebrities In The Philippines Essay

Compared to the makibaka generation of the 70’s, ours is relatively apathetic to political matters. This is somehow attributable to the modern set-up of Philippine news broadcasting and advertising. Do you know what PDAF is? How about a storm surge? Before the Yellow Revolution in 1986, a distinct line was established to separate the primetime news from show business news. To keep yourself informed in both, you have to watch the professional reporter Harry Gasser in NewsWatch and the entertaining chikadora Inday Badiday in Eye to Eye. Nowadays, you can be updated by watching a single program. In Bandila, Boy Abunda can be found sitting side by side, laughing and sharing banters with primetime news reporters Karen Davila, Ces Drilon and Julius Babao. As observed by Jean Encinas-Franco, a political scientist in UP, it just shows how serious news and celebrity gossips managed to intertwine over a few years. Furthermore, it suggests that the former and the latter are now equal in terms of importance. Our interest is diverted. Even if we are presented with political issues that require our attention, we often turn a blind eye and immerse ourselves with trivial matters. Do you think Ping Lacson is gay? Is the president dating again? In the context of the Philippine society today, the subject of politics is enough to make one cringe. The word almost always comes with the word corruption. This phenomenon is intensified by the negative portrayal of our â€Å"authority† on television. A study by psychologist Bruce Levine shows that watching TV, which is a national pastime in the Philippines, pacifies the mind, making it more passive and more susceptible to information-feeding. We are constantly informed of how unprofessional our government is ... ... deem it as pointless to gain unbeneficial knowledge. This rationalization of ignorance results in political nonparticipation. Works Cited Encinas-Franco, J. (n.d.). Celebrity Politics And Politics Of Celebrities In The Philippines. Retrieved from http://halalan.up.edu.ph/index.php/viewpoints/by-professors/167-celebrity-politics-and-politics-of-celebrities-in-the-philippines Levine, B. (n.d.). Does TV Help Make Americans Passive and Accepting of Authority?. Alternet. Retrieved December 30, 2013, from http://www.alternet.org/culture/does-tv-help-make-americans-passive-and-accepting-authority?page=0%2C3 Morgan, N. (2013, March 7). How to Master Yourself, Your Unconscious, and the People Around You -- 3. Forbes. Retrieved December 29, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2013/03/07/how-to-master-yourself-your-unconscious-and-the-people-around-you-3/