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This matter is close to my heart since my late father was diagnosed with a mental illness. Being with him 24/7 I get to understand how he, living with a psychotic disorder, lived his life despite the negative reactions he received from the people around him. These negative social reactions include stigma and discrimination.
Mental health stigma remains to be one of the major social issues in the Philippines. Rivera and Antonio (2017) revealed that stigma toward people living with mental illness is widespread. Among many strategies to redress mental health stigma, they recognize the important role of media institutions and agencies in promoting positive representation of people living with mental illness. This is crucial considering that at least 3.6 million Filipinos suffer from one kind of mental illness (Department of Health, 2020). However, not all portrayals in media represent the realities of those living with mental illness.
The entertainment media in the Philippines have long been misrepresenting their realities. Media contents’ depiction of mental illness and related symptoms are superficial, oversimplified, exaggerated, and inaccurate. The portrayals of many Filipino films and programs featuring persons living with mental illness are overdramatic and distorted, emphasizing more on negative behaviors such as aggression and false images.
For instance, the controversial “Tililing” movie poster received backlash for its actors' display of exaggerated facial expressions. Also, the “Last Night” movie was condemned for trivializing suicide and oversimplifying its motivations. Whereas in “Little Nanay”, the portrayal of the lead role’s mental condition is said to be superficial and exaggerated rather than insightful.
Media are expected to promote inclusion and be responsible with the contents that they create. But this is not always the case. Entertainment media continue to reproduce irresponsible portrayals of persons living with mental illness. Croteau & Hoynes (2019) implies that the creators of media content often reinforce the dominant ideology; in this case related to stigmatizing attitudes and discriminatory behaviors. As a result, media perpetuate stereotypes and misunderstanding about mental illnesses. Aside from that, media contents are influenced by shapers of symbolic environment (Shoemaker and Reese, 2014), namely the socialization of media workers, media organization and practices, culture and so on from which attitudes and behaviors toward persons living with mental illness are rooted in.
False portrayals of those living with mental illness are influenced by the intention of the program writers and producers. Common to films and programs with characters depicting mental health illness is the use of such to create controversy. Producers and writers may use the controversial value of mental illness as a reflection of their priority to entertain. Also, the misrepresentation is deliberately done by providing distorted images of the individuals as comedic devices.
It is also possible that the misrepresentation is merely a response to the interests of the audience. Filipinos love dramas, especially family-oriented and romantic-comedy genres. These genres are integrated into and highlighted on these films and Television programs. Alongside, stereotyped portrayals are regarded as comical and entertaining.
Moreover, social norms of the Filipinos reflect these misrepresented contents. The lack of understanding of mental illness contributes to the public perception that persons living with mental illness are deviants. Thus, they are being targeted by stigma.
Screenshot image from https://entertainment.inquirer.net/316375/gma-entertainment-calls-on-public-to-stop-the-boyet-challenge
The #NO2BOYETCHALLENGE digital poster from http://www.autismsocietyphilippines.org/2019/01/why-filipinos-should-say-no-to-boyet.html
If left unchecked, potential effects of distorted media representation will persist. Meaning, stigma associated to mental illness will persist as well. Stigma and related processes play an important role in exacerbating inequalities in access to mental health services by serving as primary barrier (Martinez, Co, Lau et al., 2020). Consequently, stigma would impair self-esteem, help-seeking behaviors, treatment adherence and compliance, and recovery/rehabilitation.
References
Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W. (2019). Media/society: Technology, industries, content, and users. 6th ed. SAGE Publications, Inc.
Department of Health. (2020). Your mind matters: DOH calls for unified response to mental health. Retrieved from https://doh.gov.ph/press-release/YOUR-MIND-MATTERS-DOH-CALLS-FOR-UNIFIED-RESPONSE-TO-MENTAL-HEALTH
Martinez, A.B., Co, M., Lau, J. et al. Filipino help-seeking for mental health problems and associated barriers and facilitators: a systematic review. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 55, 1397–1413 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-020-01937-2
Rivera, A.K. & Antonio, C. (2017). Mental Health Stigma Among Filipinos: Time For A Paradigm Shift. 21(2): 20-4.
Shoemaker, P.J. and Reese, S.D. (2014). Mediating the message in the 21st century: A media sociology perspective. 3rd ed. Routlege.
Blog Post #1
Comment/Feedback:
Maricris Hudtohan: This is very interesting and insightful Mary Jane. Back then, I was also prejudiced and discriminatory towards people dealing with mental health conditions. I believe that my impression of people dealing with some mental health conditions was greatly affected by how they were portrayed in television shows. Usually, these people as portrayed in the television, cannot control themselves and can hurt other people. From then on, I was too scared to even be near them. Yet, as I grow old and studied Sociology and Psychology, I learned how the human mind and behavior can work. With all my experiences in this field, I have unlearned my harmful stereotypes. Also, I am careful when using terms like "Buang, May-katok, or Kulang-Kulang" , which I was really fond of using back then as a joke.
Carl Sanchez: Great point! it's also interesting how the lack of representation or the lack of PROPER representation of that matter is a very big problem especially with regards to mental health. The reason why people laugh towards people with mental illness is because it lacks visibility in mainstream media and even if it appears in the mainstream it's not well represented. I must admit that I myself is guilty of making derogatory remarks that are offensive towards people with MH problems. However, I really do believe that with enough media presence and policy changes MH will slowly become a prominent talking point of concern among people in society
I have been following this local media/news company since 2019, named the Daily Guardian, which produces English-language news contents. A few days ago, I have seen several news items in its Facebook page that has a political advertisement (banner) of a party-list candidate for the May 2022 elections. I thought that it is a good example of media organizations’ transformation to adapt to digital world. Moreover, I realized how practical the political advertising is in such digital media with the locals as its intended audience.
According to their website, the Daily Guardian is a renascent Iloilo-based publishing firm and media outfit with bureaus in some provinces within the Western Visayas region and also in Manila, Philippines. The public is most likely to pay attention to news that is close to home. That said, latest news stories that take place in local communities are most likely to be followed closely by the intended audience. The Daily Guardian has that advantage.
Newspapers have many opportunities to deliver an audience to political advertising campaigns (Sillick, 2021). Like any other form of mass media, a newspaper is an influential tool to inform the people. In this case, the Daily Guardian is serving the role of spreading awareness about a party-list candidate and eventually influencing the audience (who are voters too). These opportunities could be maximized when existing in virtual world.
Traditional commercial media have digital versions already. Many local media companies have embraced digital transformation and they are present in more than one social media platform. Filipinos are among media users in worldwide that use social media sites as source of news. Facebook is the most popular followed by YouTube, Twitter and Viber, respectively (CNN Philippines, 2019). By this we come to see the influential role of social media in election. At present, we observe that digital media landscape has changed the campaign strategies in the Philippines.
In terms of advertising, digital media companies are selling two things: (1) the “thing” that is to be advertised to the media users and (2) its audience to the advertisers (Al Jazeera English, 2017). As digital media companies became progressively relevant in political campaign, they get to yield more financial gains as well. Political advertisements are paid and they could be expensive depending on how good the reputation of the media company and how wide its reach is.
Furthermore, Shoemaker and Reese (2014) pointed out that commercial mass media make money by delivering audiences to advertisers. In context, the Daily Guardian makes a profit from affixing a banner advertisement of the said party-list candidate. This political advertising targets the audience not just from Iloilo, but also from Western Visayas region. Possibly, the news items could reach beyond that once media users participate in and engaged with it online.
In today’s Internet environment the role of professional “gatekeepers” has been diminished. Instead, media users served as gatekeepers and distributors of media contents. Media user participation altered the form of gatekeeping by actively engaging with the media contents in the basis of their own set of criteria (Shoemaker and Vos, 2009). Sharing available news items on a digital newspaper page and commenting on them about the newsworthiness is audience gatekeeping. Accordingly, media users critique media contents so that it is less likely to be seen by others- a form of filtering contents by reducing or slowing its reach. Also, this online activity exemplifies the central role of audience in media content distribution. For some people, they focus on giving reviews to media company itself so that people visiting the page will see it hence influencing the confidence and trust of the public.
References
Al Jazeera English (2017, March 2). Noam Chomsky – the 5 filters of the mass media machine [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/34LGPIXvU5M
CNN Philippines. (2019). SWS: Facebook next to TV as Filipinos' top source of news. Retrieved from https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/6/30/facebook-news-source-filipino-adults.html?fbclid
Daily Guardian. (n.d). About Us. Retrieved from https://dailyguardian.com.ph/about-us/
Shoemaker, P.J. and Reese, S.D. (2014). Mediating the message in the 21 st century: A media sociology perspective. 3rd ed. Routlege.
Shoemnaker, J. & Vos, T. (2009).Gatekeeping theory. New York: Routledge.
Sillick, B. (2021). Newspapers have unique advantages to attract more political ad dollars. Retrieved from https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/newspapers-have-unique-advantages-to-attract-more-political-ad-dollars,209725
Blog Post #2
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In the Philippines, which is a democratic society, the constitution provides for freedom of press, speech and expression. Ideally, these basic rights are expected to be valued. The reality, however, projects a different scenario. The series of events related to attacks against journalists in the past years, including intimidation, harassment, surveillance, and so on, imply that press freedom is under threat.
As the constitution entails, Philippine government plays an important role in guaranteeing free press and preventing any breach of freedom of speech. It is inevitable since media exist in relationship with other institutional power centers in society (Shoemaker & Reese, 2014). Government wields such a power and a way of exercising it is through media regulations.
According to Croteau and Hoynes (2019), government regulation is important because it sets the ground rules within which media must operate. Regulation provides protection to media producers but could also limit how these producers operate and the media contents they produce. A good example for this is the broadcast media in the Philippines. Before broadcast stations can operate, they need authorization from the government. This intervention is necessary since frequencies are a scarce resource. Hence, broadcast media industry is subjected to regulation- airwaves, the medium of radio and television transmission, cannot be appropriated nor be the subject of any claim of ownership. Instead, broadcasting companies are given franchise as a mere privilege.
Requiring the franchise to broadcast stations is a content-neutral regulation that allows the government to merely control the manner of broadcasting under well-defined standards, such as financial and technical capacity of the media company applying for the franchise (Conventus Law, 2020). This does not, on the other hand, involve content-based restraints or censorship. It is not included in the role of the government to strictly scrutinize the subject matter of the media contents, which have a significant impact on the information, meaning-making, and opinion of the public regarding matters that concern the society. The regulation by the government only requires the intervention to be narrowly drawn to pursue a substantial government interest (to serve and protect the public) without discriminating the communicative content of speech (Conventus Law, 2020).
In addition to legislation on press freedom, the media industry is influenced by intellectual property, privacy, criminal law and the general civil law (Dimayacyac & King- Dominguez, 2020). Specifically, the laws and regulations applied to broadcast media in the Philippines focus on regulating access to content, for example, age advisories in relation to television shows. Moreover, there are government agencies that handle content regulation, namely the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), the Optical Media Board (OMB) and the National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT).
The regulation of the government to Philippine broadcasting media is deemed necessary as broadcasting media remain prevalent and has become embedded in every aspect of Filipinos’ lives. Mass media is one of the leading sources of news, information about public affairs and entertainment. Nevertheless, it is important to take note that broadcasting media through press freedom is constitutionally protected. Therefore, any intervention by the government should not infringe such a right and should help strengthen democratic norms of the Filipinos.
References
Conventus Law. (2020). Philippines- broadcast media and government regulation. Regulatory & Compliance. Retrieved from https://conventuslaw.com/report/philippines-broadcast-media-and-government/
Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W. (2019). Media/society: Technology, industries, content, and users 6th ed. SAGE Publications, Inc.
Dimayacyac, M.F.T & King- Dominguez, R.M.M. (2020). In brief: media law and regulation in Philippines. SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gat6maitan. Retrieved from https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2c8a14b6-742a-40f7-b587-1aef8c77c420
Shoemaker, P.J. and Reese, S.D. (2014). Mediating the message in the 21st century: A media sociology perspective. 3rd ed. Routlege.
Blog Post #3
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