1) The Philippines has a large number of smartphone users and spends more time on social media than any other country.
2) Mass media has influenced culture globally and allowed Filipino media like music and telenovelas to reach audiences worldwide. However, Western and Asian media have also influenced Philippine culture.
3) Different media platforms now target more specific audiences - TV stations broadcast age-appropriate content throughout the day. Social media allows everyone to produce and share content.
1) The Philippines has a large number of smartphone users and spends more time on social media than any other country.
2) Mass media has influenced culture globally and allowed Filipino media like music and telenovelas to reach audiences worldwide. However, Western and Asian media have also influenced Philippine culture.
3) Different media platforms now target more specific audiences - TV stations broadcast age-appropriate content throughout the day. Social media allows everyone to produce and share content.
1) The Philippines has a large number of smartphone users and spends more time on social media than any other country.
2) Mass media has influenced culture globally and allowed Filipino media like music and telenovelas to reach audiences worldwide. However, Western and Asian media have also influenced Philippine culture.
3) Different media platforms now target more specific audiences - TV stations broadcast age-appropriate content throughout the day. Social media allows everyone to produce and share content.
1) The Philippines has a large number of smartphone users and spends more time on social media than any other country.
2) Mass media has influenced culture globally and allowed Filipino media like music and telenovelas to reach audiences worldwide. However, Western and Asian media have also influenced Philippine culture.
3) Different media platforms now target more specific audiences - TV stations broadcast age-appropriate content throughout the day. Social media allows everyone to produce and share content.
Over the years, the Philippines rapidly catches up with the current advancements of technology. According to Statista Digital Market Outlook, as of 2019, there were approximately 74 million smartphone users in the country, and it has been forecasted to continue to rise around 90 million by 2025. This year, the Philippines tops the world for time spent using social media, making it on its sixth-year streak based on the recent annual report by an advertising firm, We Are Social. Despite being one of the developing countries and belonging to the countries with the slowest internet speed, the country managed to be the top consumer of social media.
Mass media's growth has been responsible for the instant dispersion of media content that has influenced popular culture across the globe and has connected people across time and geographical boundaries. Through this, market share expanded and reached Filipinos scattered around the world, which paved the way for Philippine media content to broaden their reach, whether through music, telenovelas, movies, and local news. Examples to consider are franchises of Filipino variety shows in Indonesia, telenovelas aired in neighboring Southeast Asian countries, and OPM songs being casually listened to abroad. But at the same time, the Philippines had also widely opened its doors to other countries' cultures by the western media, Korean dramas, Japanese anime, and including other products of pop culture in general. By these influences, the Philippine mass media had been inspired to be on par with international mass media, from production sets, concept making, scriptwriting, etc.
With the rise of different media platforms, there has become a consideration on which and what content is for whom. The target market has been narrowed down to cater to much more personalized content. In the Philippine setting, local TV stations broadcast cartoons, animated and educational shows in the morning. This caters to the young ones. It is very noticeable that the usual television series in the afternoon have themes like adultery, adoption, and rags to riches to revenge stories. These themes are typically enjoyed by the middle and the older generation. And in the evening, after news shows have themes that are usually suitable to all ages, as TV stations believe that that is the usual time a family gathers and watch TV together. And usually, in mealtime time slots and top-rated shows, commercial breaks are often longer than how it is usually, an implication that the show is a very suitable place for advertising. Furthermore, the creation of smartphones also has interlinked information technologies, media content, media companies, and communication networks. As a result, it transformed established industries, services, and work practices and enabled the emergence of entirely new content forms. One new driver of this convergence is the social media. Social media has made it possible for everyone in the network to be a producer, distributor, and at the same time a consumer of content allowing the rise of user-created content.
Among all the elements of media literacy, the most crucial in my opinion is the awareness of the impact of media on the individual and the society. Being conscious and mindful of the media you consume will allow you to control and lead how media will affect you as an individual and the society as a whole rather than being the one carried along and manipulated. This is very important, especially that now a days there are a lot of contents that encourages people to "normalize" and romanticize specific ideas that is not supposed to be so. There are also a lot of contents nowadays that has a purpose to distract and divert people's attention over a more significant severe issues of the society.
For me, one of the media literacy skills that media consumers often take for granted is the ability to think critically about media messages, no matter how credible their sources. Despite being a trusted source of media, distributors of these media are still owned by more prominent companies who mostly conglomerate other media companies for more significant benefit and power. Media distributors who are under these conglomeration are the ones who tend to have contents that leans toward their advantage. This often manipulates peoples' beliefs, which is why critical evaluation on media as a skill is very essential as a media consumer.
As the world is facing a pandemic, where every source of information are digitally acquired and credibility is often questionable, our role as media consumers is very crucial. Media literacy skills are very essential for us to view every content objectively for us to create awareness of the power of media and to inform people that they can use the media themselves to respond to problems or issues.
