The instructive role of popular publications

Title

Creator

Petanne, E. P.

Language

English

Source

Panorama XII (8) August 1960

Subject

Mass media -- Philippines

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Extra! Extra The Instructive Role of Popular Publications By E. P. Patanne The family has been the chief institution charged with preserving and trans mitting from one generation to the next the ideas which this na tion accepts and cherishes as tra dition. This function of the family is basic to the group. Whether Christian or pagan, the family discharges the obligation, not only for the benefit of the society at large but also for the sake of posterity. The rise of institutions of learning has challenged the authority and responsibility of the family vis-a-vis its obligation to the group, to an extent where the latter nas relinquished part 86 Panorama of its role as an agency of culture transmission. A further intrusion upon this sphere of family res ponsibility came about with the growth and development of mass media — newspapers, magazines, movies, radib, television and co micbooks—a combination of the most potent instruments of com munication. With the refinement of advertising techniques, through these media, it has become pos sible to sell soap along with the desirable virtues among women. The printed word, along with pictures, is a pervasive force in modern society, assuming an in fluence vital to the process of nation-building. This little paper seeks to dis cuss the proper and responsible role of popular publications in the Philippines and will confine itself to magazines — Sunday supple ments, fortnightlies and month lies. The magazines circulated in this country, whether supplements to the dailies or separate publica tions, have a readership quite distinct from the following of newspapers. What the magazines offer is usually an entirely differ ent fare from the dated stories strewn in the dailies. There is an extended and more permanent form to magazine articles and sto ries, where the treatment may vary from journalese to literary. Certainly, tnere is more of litera ture in the magazines than in the newspapers. The quality of August 1960 87 this literature may not always be consistently high but in the psy chological plane magazine stuff can sink deeper than humdrum bits of humanity recorded in the dailies. And magazines besides disseminating information can al so be instructive. It is with re gards to this latter function of popular publications that maga zines can be counted among the more significant purveyors of cul ture in the Philippines today. With the apparent antipathy and apathy shown by students toward textbook learning, popu lar publications have assumed ap pealing forms. They offer learn ing without tears, knowledge with illustrations. And they require no semestral examination. They cover a spectrum of subjects classed as “general interest” — from sex to science — attractive and fascinating face for the reader immersed in a mass culture. A further delimitation of this discussion is needed. Preoccupa tion requires my narrowing this paper to the function of the Eng lish-language magazine catering to the so-called popular mind. Since sophistication and distinc tion are regarded as virtues among the masses, the English-language publications are often held up as arbiters of taste and ideas. Ma gazines have become the media for norms and ideals. Their read ership, however, has determined, often dictated upon these pub lications the kind of materials that would ensure continuing pa tronage and keep circulation and advertising within the bounds which guarantee profits. Thus, magazines find it more palatable to popular taste to give prominence to the escapades of Hollywood than say, a histori cal piece dealing with an inci dent in the Revolution or an article about the rituals of rice cultivation. Herein lies a con flict of interests. The magazine editor is often outvoted by read ership, advertising and publisher. But the magazine editor is a creature of compromise. In the end, he would run a profile on Elvis Presley along with a critique on Rizal’s novels. This saves and solves an issue. the English-language pub** lications which has grown conscious of its fundamental role, partly usurped from the family, are still faced with the more sig nificant problem of fighting down the influence of comicbooks, the movies, radio and television feed ing on imported opiates—the tran quilizers and bromides of mass culture where good can hardly be distinguished from the perni cious. An indiscriminate publica tion of the so-called syndicated or canned materials has brought us moments of entertainment along with neurotic lapses deve loping out of sheer frustration. 88 Panorama This ugly aspect of the popular publications has submerged what ever feelings of identity which tradition seeks to buoy up amidst the swirl of mass ideas. In this miasma of mass media, the magazines can define their role. If they seek merely to ap proach the standards and model of foreign publications, then they shall continue to be recreant to society. It is enough that accul turation has packed a surfeit of foreign ideas into our lives, so that Filipinos today practically grope about looking for them selves. The tendency has been a looking back. Magazines to fulfill that vital role it can assume in national growth must perforce adopt an active, instructive policy. They have started to enlarge upon that function which they share with the family and the school. The task is not easy. Magazines have amplified the nationalist sentiment but the ap proach has often been couched in reproachful terms and the treat ment of the subject often turns into an evangelical preaching of unity and survival or a disserta tion on a concept. It is difficult, at this stage, to explain, move and at the same time criticize a people for lacking such a senti ment. Harangue against the leaders of this conutry to provide inspiration to. the people is not often met with success. Nationalism as a positive force in nation-building should be deve loped from a consciousness of race distinction. The approach as many English-language magazines have taken is to let Filipinos discover themselves, their institutions, their culture; not teaching by author ity but by example and illustra tion. Through feature and fiction, this has been done. What is need ed is added and spirited interest in Philippine history, sociology, anthropology, politics, geography, folk litreature and the lives and works of illustrious Filipinos. This can provide orientation to think ing. The popularization of great folk epics, the works of Rizal, Mabini, Lopez Jaena, Marcelo del Pilar and others, significant events in our history, discoveries made in the fields of sociology, anthro pology and archaeology on these shores—all these can help the Fili pino find himself. There is no more nationalistic Filipino than one who feels proud of his race. Magazine editors, writers and contributors are in a position to diffuse a sense of racial distinc tion to the people more than textbooks can ever hope to achieve. This js not making a plea for a return to the hills, to the primitive clustered village of life, to stick agriculture. Rather, the task for the magazines, is to bring the past to the present, making no value-judgments, sim A.UOUST 1960 89 ply filling up for many a blank tapestry of nistorcial experience. By accepting that Philippine life and manners are more in teresting than the romance of the spinning jenny and the telephone, the magaznie editor accepts the priority of articles that can im part national consciousness. Through such articles or stories the popular mind can establish contact with the past and discover an affinity with the minds that produced such grand epics as the Hudhud, the Alim, the Maragtas, Biag ni Lam-ang, Tuwang, I ha lon, and Darangan. Through the magazines, the creative writer can define and dramatize what has been termed “the Philippine experience.” The works of our leading scholars, for long regarded as species con fined to graduate seminars in uni versities, have began to filter into the pages of popular publications. The stuff thev write is usually regarded as “heavy, hence not popular, hence not conducive to upping circulation. The old eco nomic consideration always rears its head. Publishers are business men first and journalists second. But publishing cannot be di vorced from the role which mo dem society has endowed it, namely, that of contributing some thing to national experience. And publications must exert a force other than civic and political. At this point the question may be raised that if the Englishlanguage magazines whose reader ship is confined to a certain level, the proper and responsible pub lications which can do a better job of diffusing the nationalist sentiment are those printed in the vernacular as these enjoy a cir culation touching the grass roots of our society. There is no doubt they can. But then the popular publica tions printed in the dialects are dictated in content to a degree by the mentality and taste of its readership. It is this same reader ship that has made comicbooks national reading matter, prolonged sufferance in Philippine movies and radio and are most prone to borrowed popular ideas. But it can be said, it is the most na tionalistic too. There can’t be any quarrel be tween the purposes of popular publications, whether in English or in the vernacular. There is a striving in them to assert a Fili pino identity, a gradual shedding of stereotype ideas and a reluc tance to accept as proper totally alien experiences. The problem restated is not anymore the total lack of na tionalism among magazine editors and writers; rather it is a defini tion of their role. ¥ * * 90 Panorama

pages

86-90

Media