MAKING SENSE OF MEDIA-MAKING: FRAMES OF A STORY

Let us take the case of news as an example. It is important to give weight

to news because it is our main source of information about our community,
our country, and the world. The news organizations are also considered
authoritative bodies responsible for overseeing the political and social order
aside from marshaling public opinion. In this section, we hope to unpack this
common assumption and see through the many implications of media and
information texts emerging from news organizations.
We have already established that all media and information texts are
constructed. In the process of planning, producing, and creating these texts,
choices have to be made. The producers and creators make the choices. Their
choices reflect their values, opinions, and points-of-view.
Integral and vital to the process of creation and production is the
selection of what to include and what to exclude. The selection of a news
source, such as the presidential sister in the case of the news story, implies
that there will also be other sources that will either corroborate or invalidate
the opinions stated by the news source.
The process of inclusion and exclusion is best illustrated by the way we
frame an event or a scene before we click the shutter of our cameras. Some do
it with a deliberate choice, most of the time guided by the conventions of
composition in photography. Others simply zero in to a central image and may
even take the option of blurring the background so that the foreground image
may assume more prominence. In this case, the frame is used literally as a
structure that surrounds something. In the case of a picture, these are the
imaginary four lines that form a square and border a scene that will be
rendered in a shot.
In media production, frames are tools utilized by media creators and
producers to tell their story. The use of frames gets more complicated for more
complex media messages and formats. For news stories, the journalist provides
an angle by which to tell the story or a platform by which to launch the story.
In the earlier example, the angle from which we viewed the story was the
presidential sister, and her point-of-view on poverty and its causes were
foregrounded. The exclusion of contrary points-of-view had some effect on the
way the story cuts across to the public and that is the one-sidedness of the
opinion.
In other forms of media, like the feature story or the investigative report,
the frame can be a powerful organizing tool for telling stories. For one thing,
they will have to frame media stories so their content and form as well as their
meanings, can be shared by a huge segment of society. That shared experience
is dependent on shared narratives, metaphors, phrases, cultural memories,
even allusions to pop culture and history, and basically a shared social
context.
 Frames can be both enabling and constraining to audiences. Teleseryes,
for instance, frame the long narratives around familiar themes that have
resonated with audiences since the advent of this format. Add to the framing a
re-contextualized love story that incorporates contemporary elements-highly
altered courtship practices, the fast-changing power dynamics between men
and women, and the influences of popular culture and social media. It can be
constraining, too, because that frame may, more often than not, deliberately
include stereotyped characters such as women and homosexuals. It can be
constraining because the audience is hooked to formulaic impulses of
storytelling. Thus, framing is a process of putting together the elements to
create or produce a media text. The reverse is also true-it is also a process of
excluding some elements in the creation and production of a media text.
Choices inevitably bear the values, opinions, and points-of-view of the
media creators and producers. Every decision they make-lifestyles to portray,
opinions expressed by major characters, and the actions in the plot-are
enfolded in the media texts. The executives running the newsroom make
decisions about the chronology of the program-what news should make up the
headline portion and therefore should come first and what should come last.
Based on shared cultural experiences, those that come first are of national
importance, and those that come last, bear the least significance. The political
and economic situation is constitutive of national concerns, implicates nation-
building processes, and bears an impact on the citizens. Lifestyle and
entertainment stories are niche concerns, the reason why they are called soft
news. Let us interrogate the news genre in television.
Media and the Status Quo
We all possess values or points-of-views and exercise lifestyle choices
and attitudes toward other people and situations. What we are after in this
section are the values, attitudes, and points-of-view that media today reflect to
support, perpetuate, and affirm the existing status quo. It is a Latin term that
means "existing state of affairs."
When we say the status quo, we refer to prevailing state of affairs in
society- the social institutions and the relationships that exist between
institutions and social classes. Most existing state of affairs is always powerful
relationships that are favored to a small segment of society which holds
economic and political power. If we narrow down to specifics, these are the
resilient ideas that make discrimination, exclusion, and marginalisation that
are well tolerated in our society.
Does media serve the status quo? Does media enable changes so that
reforms can be instituted and the status quo a bit altered to serve the interests
and well-being of the less privileged?
Mainstream media and how it supports and perpetuates the status quo
has been the cause of many reservations and resentments about the
institution's role in society. The rise of "independent" outfits doing equally
independent endeavors has also been been largely a reaction or a resistance to
the dominant role mainstream media institutions play in our society. Using
limited capital resources but capitalizing on the mileage provided by social
networks, independent producers of indie films, for example, embarks on a
creative journey to allow themselves to determine both content and form
without having to go acquiesce to the demands of big industries.
Public criticism against the media ranges from its bias in favor of
mainstream ideas (defined as the popular, acceptable, unchallenged, and
favored by powerful institutions) to the propagation and reinforcement of
stereotypes. These limited perspectives circumscribe our understanding and
appreciation of the world and makes us even blind to more expansive
possibilities of being a media user, of being a citizen exercising and
experiencing the spirit of democracy through responsible media use.

Values and Attitudes

Values are commonly held beliefs, views, and attitudes about what is
important and what is right. Values can be prescriptive and serve as a guide
for desirable behavior.
Values are principles that we use to judge the worth of an idea or a
practice. It also underpins the criteria by which we judge what is good or bad,
what is right or wrong, and what is acceptable or not. Personal values are those
that guide or drive our individual behavior. When you declare that you will
spend an inordinate amount of time finishing your term paper for a subject to
make sure it is a well-researched and well written piece, then you are
exhibiting your value for diligence and industry. Spiritual values direct your
actions and decisions with regards to a higher power.
Value systems, on the other hand, are a coherent and harmoniously
aligned set of values from where you derive you sense of identity and integrity.
Diligence, industry, respect for others, empathy, and compassion align to
provide you with a sense of how it is to be good person given your particular
circumstances.
Attitudes are the expressions of our response to particular ideas, events,
circumstances, or people. In cognitive psychology, attitude may be described as
a predisposition to react favorably or unfavorably to a situation, event, or a
person.
Lifestyles
Lifestyles are ways of living and denote the interests, hobbies, behavior,
opinions of an individual, family, group, or even a community. Both tangible
and intangible elements combine to render the kind of lifestyle that an
individual is predisposed to lead. Tangible elements could be the social class,
largely determined by income and other material possessions, as well as the
spaces inhabited. Intangible elements could come with the values and attitudes
a person or a group is predisposed to.
For instance, a fairly good amount of income allows a person to live in a
gated village, where privacy, family leisure, and expensive hobbies are valued
practices. Combine these with a person's attitude favoring leisure over work
and we can actually describe what lifestyle this person is predisposed to live.
Spaces and places influence the kind of lifestyle a group would most likely
possess. For instance, it is said that residents of Northern Luzon are more
prone to live a frugal lifestyle because the land is difficult to till and yields very
little thus constraining their buying capacities.
Media exposes its viewers to lifestyles that may be different from what
they know. Local television programming has always favored the lifestyles of
the rich and powerful classes engendering aspirations of a new lifestyle for its
viewers. Mass advertising encourages people to patronize products that
promote certain lifestyles. Social media today has privileged the sharing of
information which also includes those that can positively affect one's lifestyle,
such as media texts encouraging healthy lifestyle and eating habits, and the
prevention of lifestyle diseases through the advocacy of exercise, dieting, and
other wellness practices.

Propaganda and Persuasion

The term "propaganda" was first introduced in the national
consciousness when a group of ilustrados launched the Propaganda Movement
in Europe in 1868. When the three Filipino priests Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora
were sentenced to death because of their alleged participation in the uprising
in the Cavite Naval Yard, feelings of anger were stoked. In Europe, a group led
by Marcelo H. Del Pilar organized upper-class Filipinos to "awaken the sleeping
intellect of the Spaniard to the needs of our country" and to create a closer,
more equal association of the islands and the motherland. They aimed to seek
reforms from the Spanish colonial government right in the heart of their
homeland and the most notable were the following: representation of the
Philippines in the Cortes or Spanish parliament; secularization of the clergy;
legalization of Spanish and Filipino equality; creation of a public school system
independent of the friars; abolition of the polo (labor service) and vandal (forced
sale of local products to the government); guarantee of basic freedoms of
speech and association; and equal opportunity for Filipinos and Spanish to
enter government service.
Most of them used the power of the written and spoken word to advance
their causes. Lopez Jaena was an excellent orator. Marcelo H. del Pilar put up
the newspaper Diariong Tagalog and used it as a platform to speak about the
abuses of the friars. Jose Rizal wrote treatises and his two famous novels were
largely responsible for stoking resistance to colonial authorities, ushering the
Philippine Revolution in 1896.
Today, starting from the invention of the radio, the means of
disseminating propaganda have evolved into more technologically advanced
channels. The advent of the moving image, first in cinemas and later on in
television, gave propaganda an even greater mileage.
However, the rise of the Internet transformed propaganda immensely,
beyond those tasked with dispensing it have ever imagined. In fact, it is almost
a truism that with the rise of social media, every netizen has been given access
to advance his or her personal opinion, thus making him or her a bit of a
propagandist.
Propaganda means to disseminate or promote particular ideas. In Latin,
it means "to propagate" or "to sow." It has been used extensively in history to
advance religion and even justify conquest. In 1622, the Vatican established
the Sacre Congregetio de Propagande Fide or the sacred congregation for
propagating the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. It was ostensibly an act
that should circumvent the growth and spread of Protestantism. This is why
the term lost its neutrality and has come to be associated with deceit,
manipulation, and even lies.
Essentially, propaganda is about communicating ideas designed to
persuade people to think and behave in a desired way. When you write your
status update, when you express an opinion about a social issue, or when you
share, re-tweet, and circulate information, you are attempting to influence how
people think about matters and issues. You are marshaling resources to
change or reinforce their opinions.
In the traditional arena, terms that are associated with propaganda are
spin, news management and public relations. These are all forms of syncopated
actions and tactics with the aim of minimizing negative information and
packaging in a positive light that can be a story, an advocacy, or even a public
personality. Spin is often used with reference to manipulating information so it
can be angled to generate positive images; the ones who are assigned to do this
are called "spin doctors." Public relations firms are usually very adept in
handling crisis situations and generating spins to alter public perception.
Jowett and O'Donnell (2012, 6) offer a more elaborate and comprehensive
definition of propaganda that focuses on the communication process:
"Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions,
manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior that furthers the desire of the
propagandist. The definition carries more weight than the earlier definition
stated since this one underscores the willful and strategized move to "shape
perceptions" and even, "manipulate", with the sole intention of furthering the
objective of the propagandist."
Persuasion, on the other hand, is defined as:
"... a complex, continuing, interactive process in which a sender and a receiver
are linked by symbols, verbal and non-verbal, through which a persuader
attempts to persuade the persuadee to adopt a change in a given attitude or
behavior because the persuadee has had perceptions enlarged or changed"
(Dowell and Kable, quoted by Jowett and O'Donnell 2012, 32).
From the definition, we can sense that persuasion has a transactional
quality. There is a relationship between the persuader and the one being
persuaded. Persuasion happens because there is an imperative to be
addressed, a need that has to be filled up. It can also be an interactive process-
the two parties agree on a process and suggest a mutually agreed upon
message that results from exchange of opinions. The one who is the object of
persuasion is an active audience negotiating meaning in the hope that it will
benefit them.
Electioneering during national and local elections can be a persuasive
act-the voter can be scouting around for candidates, actively engaging the
political advertisements he/she is witnessing, and perhaps finding some
reason for him/her to cast his vote in favor of this candidate.
It is said that persuasion in communication is a necessary feature of a
democracy.

MEDIA AND IDEOLOGY

Today the word "ideology" is associated with rigid political beliefs or with
social movements espousing radical ideas about reform and revolution. When
someone is referred to as "being too ideological" it only means that he/she
subscribes to some political ideology and is unyielding to other beliefs.
It is said that the word first made its appearance during the French
Revolution (1787- 1799) when it was introduced by Antoine Destutt de Tracy
as an encompassing concept for what he called "the science of ideas."
Karl Marx believed that ideologies were systems of thought perpetuated
by the ruling classes to preserve an existing social order that only serves the
interests of the ruling classes. For instance, the ruling class can perpetuate
religiosity through the church institutions which they support. In turn, this
practice is seen as perpetuating an ideology that sustains fatalism and an
abiding belief in the supernatural.
But ideology really is more expansive than the above definitions. It
actually means a more coherent system of concepts and beliefs held by an
individual or a group. Most of one's ideological beliefs touch on the dynamics of
power.
In this chapter, we assert that media is a purveyor of ideology. We want
to learn how to unpack the ideology of media and information texts. That
means, ideology becomes the system of meaning that defines and explains the
world to its audiences. The active process of unpacking media and information
texts means seeing through the values, attitudes, lifestyles, points-of-view, and
even worldviews.
Let us look at how theories see media and ideology. Invariably, all of
these view the reading and creation of meaning. The extent of contestation over
meaning is what characterizes the spectrum that these theories present.
On one side of the spectrum, the theories describe how media texts
dominate its audiences and users. For Marxists, the discussion of ideology is
always attached to the idea of false consciousness. Ideology is a powerful
mechanism that exerts control over the people, specifically the oppressed
classes who are forced to accept the ideology of the ruling class. The use of the
word "false" is actually to state that what they receive is not the ideology of
their own class but the ideology of the powerful classes in society.
The Marxist analysis asserts that media is an instrument of the ruling
classes. It is a purveyor of ideas that represent the interests of the ruling elite
and the powerful media institutions are actually equated to be the
representative of the ruling elite. There have been some revisions to the idea of
classical Marxism that talks about false consciousness. Antonio Gramsci
(1977) favored the idea of hegemony over the idea of false consciousness, and
posited it as the intersection of power, culture, and ideology. In other words,
the ruling classes willfully combine persuasion and power to enforce its
ideology over the masses. Persuasion enforces consent and it is media's
cultural leadership that enforces this, as they produce and reproduce ways of
thinking. Think of a more subtle process where tools and techniques for
attracting and convincing audiences and users are invoked. By deploying
common sense, media constructs a world that implicity says this is the norm,
the acceptable, and the socially appropriate.
Stuart Hall, sociologist and cultural theorist, offers a very compelling
analysis of how media media institutions exercise the hegemony we are now
trying to understand. He says messages do not reflect the world as it is, rather
they represent it. It is tied to the idea of construction as we discussed in an
earlier chapter where there is the active work of selecting, structuring, shaping,
and infusing new meaning, As Barker (2004, 177) asserts:
"...representations are not innocent reflections of the real but are cultural
constructions, they could be otherwise than they appear to us. Here
representation is intrinsically bound up with questions of power through the
process of selection and organization that must inevitably be a part of the
formation of representations."

Ideological State Apparatus

Gramsci and Althusser negated Marx's view that social and political
institutions including the state and their interactions, as well as the ideas,
values, and beliefs of a society, are solely determined by the economic
structures and activities of society. They both argue that the superstructure of
society enjoys a degree of autonomy from its economic base and the
relationship between ideas and economic and class interests is not always
linear. The cultural institutions like media, religion, and the cultural system,
and structures in charge of imparting ideology, operate independent of the
economic structure and this is the reason they enjoy popular acceptance.
Althusser proceeded further by theorizing how the media and other
ideological state apparatuses work to reproduce the dominant ideology. He was
interested in understanding the means by which the ruling class ruled as well
as how the dominant ideology shaped people's perceptions of the world.
For Althusser, the media manufacture an imaginary picture of the real
conditions of capitalism for their audiences and in the process hide the true
nature of their exploitation. For instance, take a look at our narrative fiction,
particularly the soap operas, and see how most of the protagonists are
stakeholders of huge companies involved in businesses and even
conglomerates. The boardroom scenes are a typical in almost all local soap
operas-there are feuding camps conniving against the protagonist who could be
heir which is apparent to the leadership of the company. Regular audiences of
teleserye become too engrossed with the travails of the protagonist and turn
oblivious to the other implications of the scene, such as how profit rules over
the motivations of both protagonists and antagonists, which is enough to
implicate collusion and conspiracy with the villains of the narrative. The
frequency of such representations of board meetings make it an acceptable
practice and conceal the true nature of capitalist interactions in an
environment governed by desires for profit and power.
Althusser dismisses the claims of Marx about false consciousness.
Instead, he sees consciousness as something that structures people's lived
experiences. The ideological state apparatus, previously labeled as
superstructure in classical Marxist theory, is now the ideological state
apparatus. Coercion passes through repressive state apparatuses (e.g., the
army and the police) to maintain the power of the ruling class but it is the
ideological state apparatuses that are more resilient in the exercise of their
functions to ensure that power remains in the hands of the ruling class.
The way that media behaves as part of the ideological state apparatus is
through their messages on how they produce particular forms of consciousness
on how people should act, behave, and think because of dominant
representations of groups and behaviors in media. Media normalize practices,
behaviors, and representations in a variety of ways.
Aside from the boardroom representation in soap operas, what are the
ways in which the ruling class ideology is portrayed in media?

Media as Purveyor of Dominant Ideology

In the previous section, we introduced the idea of media texts as carrier
of ideological messages, specifically those that favor the ruling class. Today,
there seems to be a debate: there are those who argue that media promote the
interests of the ruling classes, the most powerful segments of society, thereby
carrying the dominant ideology; on the other hand, there are those who assert
that media texts can also contain the messages that challenge existing
worldviews other than that of the powerful classes. It is a matter of how the
media texts were created.
Take the case of soap operas as we discussed in the previous section.
While some have viewed it as displaying the rich and lavish lifestyles of the
ruling classes, others see its emancipatory potential, especially recently that
the lives of the oppressed and dispossessed are represented, they who face off
with the powerful and chart an alternative course for what could have
otherwise been marginalized lives.
We propose to think of media texts as sites where no one single reading
should be considered as definitive. The context of the viewer plays a significant
part in how he or she formulate and articulate the meanings that he or she
makes of the media texts. It is also dependent on the media infrastructures
that undergird the creation, production, and dissemination of media texts.
Some ideological perspectives are packaged more attractively, and are
disseminated using effective channels and thus gain more mileage and
prominence. Other ideological perspectives lag behind because their packaging
lack the mileage or that the dissemination is limited or the resources expended
for effective dissemination are also limited. In effect, these ideological messages
are lurking and designated to stay in the margins until such time that they are
discovered. Media remain to be a site of negotiation and contestation.
One thing is clear: all sectors of society are engaged in the promotion of
certain ideological viewpoints. Big businesses, religious organizations, civil
society organizations, activists, scientists, and artists-all of them seek to
further the promotion of the ideological views they hold and seek media as a
platform to disseminate it.
Let us try to contextualize this in the local setting. For instance, in the
realm of the family, the culture wars manifest themselves on how the
reproductive health bill, otherwise known as Republic Act 10354, was played
out in the public sphere with two competing ideas-one that favored its
legislation, mostly women's groups and civil society organizations pushing for
reform; and second, the pro-life movement which the Catholic Church has
routinely taught that family planning is against the teachings of the Church.
Both took the battle to the media to inform the public about their positions,
hoping to generate support.
Ideology in Stereotyping
Stereotyping is an overarching belief about the characteristics of a
certain group in society. Members of a group are attributed certain
characteristics. Most of the time these characteristics are widely held as true
and is an oversimplified image of a group or a person belonging to a certain
group.
It was a journalist in the United States, Walter Lippman, who first used
the term "stereotype" in 1922. He referred to stereotypes as "pictures in our
heads" which we use to organize our perceptions of the world and those people
in our world. It is actually a very assistive device in building expectations of
others, how they should behave, and how groups actually represent itself in a
bigger society.
Stereotypes are forms of characterization that are also memorable and
widely patronized by many. The Visayan house helper, for instance, is a
recognizable type in movies and television. Most of the time the house helper is
a woman, talks with the characteristic inflection, and is presented as someone
sloppy and clumsy with her work. The production and reproduction of the
stereotypes has important implications, both for the Visayans and for house
helpers as an occupation. Some media scholars argue that these stereotyping
practices stigmatize marginalized groups. There is an enormous possibility that
it will negatively typify the Visayan as household helper-making her act as a
clumsy, unthinking workhorse around the house and will degrade a work that
has significantly contributed to the smooth functioning of the household.
Stereotyping then is never neutral or value-free. In most cases, forms of
stereotyping in the media reinforce the marginalized status of certain sectors,
and impose a double marginalization on those whose freedoms and dignity are
traditionally degraded because of poverty and exclusion. Some stereotypes are
attacked because they do not really convey the glaring realities faced by a
particular group of people. When media present the followers of the Islamic
faith as "terrorists," they are missing out on how the Islamic faith preaches
peace and cultural acceptance, and that the majority of Muslims are
themselves caught in the crossfire and are also desirous of peace.
However, stereotypes are not always negative. In fact, some are rather
positive representations worthy of emulation (e.g., the stereotype that Ilokanos
are really hardworking and diligent people or the notion that nerds are
naturally studious and diligent with their studies). However, current practices
point us to the reality that more often than mot, the media help perpetuate the
ascription of negative traits because it generates drama, Comedy, or simply
spectacle. Stereotyping can become too rigid and constraining, limiting the
roles, responsibilities, and potentials individuals can play in their everyday
lives.