Navarro

Reading the Ending of "Game of Thrones": Patriarchal Ideology and Women (Mis)representation | Blog Post #1 [Navarro]

In the book, Media Control, Noam Chomsky spoke of the media consuming masses as a “bewildered herd”. Accordingly, he claimed that the state and the ruling elite find it necessary to tame the herd through the manufacture of consent by means of propaganda. In this sense, corporate media, especially the mass and broadcast media, are viewed not as institutions dedicated to critical and quality journalism. Instead, their objectives are traced to profit via the commodification of audiences whom they sell to other businesses (e.g., advertisers). They are, likewise, treated as ideological state apparatus that primarily serve the interests of the ruling elite and the state through the perpetuation of elite and state narratives. Further, their function is to propagate propaganda to ensure non-coercive control over the public in what are considered democratic societies (Chomsky, 2002; Shoemaker & Reese, 2014).

What is most striking in these insights by Chomsky in relation to this module's focus on active users, is the treatment of the media consuming public as mere spectators (i.e., bewildered herd) prohibited “to become participants in action” (Chomsky, 2002, p. 12). Arguably, such an analysis is in part due to the subject of analysis, namely the mass and broadcast media (e.g., newspapers and televisions) which are underpinned by the producer-consumer dynamics where media institutions are the main producers of content while consumers are relegated to the role of impressionable audiences/spectators. But considering the rise of the internet and participatory culture (Croteau & Hoynes, 2019), does this observation still hold water? Perhaps, yes, considering that many still rely on mass and broadcast media for information. What is certain, however, is that the internet, through active users who can simultaneously create and distribute contents, has enabled various forms of resistance against elite and state propaganda.

One of these forms of resistance is culture jamming. It is originally defined as ways or tactics employed to criticize and subvert the reigning consumer culture (Croteau & Hoynes, 2019; Shoemaker & Reese, 2014). But its utility has since extended to the realm of politics as it is used to resist dominant narratives, state propaganda, or otherwise expose and mock the gaffes of political personalities. Pranking, which involves the co-optation and sabotage of state/elite/consumerist messages and/or symbols, is one of the tactics used in culture jamming (Croteau & Hoynes, 2019) and is exemplified by the works of Joey Skaggs (Amaze, 2019). It is manifest in social media, among others, through memes – “user-generated digital content… distributed to a wide audience via informal networks… [that] frequently lampoon, or champion, political actors, and issues, often using parody and humor” (Huntington, 2017). That memes can be a form of pranking that critiques and subverts political machinations and propaganda is demonstrated just recently in the context of the fast-approaching Philippine election.

On April 17, 2022, Easter Sunday, presidential candidates Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, and Norberto Gonzales alongside Vice-presidentiables Doc Willie Ong and Tito Sotto called for a press conference. During the meeting, a joint and vacuous statement about “unity” was read. For the most part, however, it featured inane claims and innuendoes punctuated with misogyny against leading presidential candidate VP Leni Robredo. The message that the VP should withdraw from the presidential race as a “sacrifice” (for reasons that evades logic) was also oft repeated and emphasized by Isko Moreno. Other presidential candidates distance themselves from the explicit call of Moreno but arguably their expressed sentiments do not stray far from his.

As a response to this political maneuver to discredit and pull the rug from underneath the candidacy of Robredo, discerning social media users and Robredo supporters have created and distributed memes that appropriated and parodied the message of the press conference. And, in effect depriving it of any legitimacy. As can be seen in some of the examples below, the call for VP Robredo to “withdraw” was rendered with humor in the most literal sense. Moreover, other circulated memes (1) mocked the "drama" of Isko; (2) appropriated the format of withdrawal receipts to validate the claims of Robredo; and (3) took advantage of the occasion's timing with Easter to invoke religious imageries to invalidate the claims of the three (3) presidentiables.