The University of the Philippines Department of Broadcast Communication (UP DBC) closed its year-long celebration of 70 years of Philippine television this November with several activities. The department spearheaded a lecture on long-form narratives in the age of algorithm and Tik-tok; launched an exhibit of short documentaries on local TV experiences; and conducted a roundtable discussion on radical television “in the time of crisis.”
UP DBC Lecturer Dorian Merina delivered a talk titled “Countering the Algorithm: Is There Space for Long-Form Media in a Tik-Tok World?” on November 13, 2023. He emphasized the importance of cultivating long-form media amidst the proliferation of short-form content and platforms, both of which also tend to be influenced by algorithms.
The Columbia University-educated lecturer asserted that there is currently an increasing demand for longform content, such as full-length articles and multimedia reportage. Apparently, consumers are also looking for depth, contrary to the popular belief that media culture nowadays is constricted by the public’s short attention span.
“Shorter and faster trends in broadcast media promise to amplify new voices and reach audiences. . . it is not only possible, but critical, to produce and engage with long-form media to better serve our communities,” the Batanes-based Filipino-American lecturer underlined in his abstract.
Meanwhile, UP DBC launched “TV sa Tabi-tabi: Maiiksing Dokumentaryo ng Danas TV ng mga Pilipino” on November 17, 2023. The exhibit mounted at the UP College of Mass Communication lobby featured videos produced by undergraduate students of the UP DBC’s Broadcast Media and Arts Studies program. The videos offered first-person accounts of TV viewing habits, recollections, and reflections.
“In addition, this exhibit examines television as object, text and practice, urging us to ruminate on the technological, political-economic, sociocultural, and ontological realities that define and are defined by televisual engagement,” stated the Department in the exhibit’s brief.
The exhibit, which ran until December 1, 2023, consisted of an iconic couch where visitors sat to watch; a TV monitor from which the documentaries were viewed; and some panels offering discourses on television, such as a poem by Joi Barrios, and popular culture as power articulations by the late National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera.
Lastly, the roundtable discussion, “Radical Television in the Time of Crisis”, on November 17, 2023, surveyed the ever-changing terrain of broadcast media and explored current trends and perspectives in emergent televisualities.
The panelists included: Benson Logronio, writer of GMA Network’s hit TV series Maria Clara at Ibarra; Jervis Manahan, ABS-CBN News reporter and teacher; Nick Santiago, Arcade Film Factory founder, partner, and commercial director; Eji Santos, IUGO Mobile Entertainment software developer and game designer; and Joelle Yuvienco, voice artist, host, and creator of the “Papaano Kung” Podcast.
UP DBC’s year-long celebration, titled “Panonood at Pagtatanod: Paggunita sa ika-70 taon ng Telebisyon sa Pilipinas”, marked the sterling seven decades of Philippine Television, which began in 1953 with the first television broadcast of Alto Broadcasting System (later to become ABS-CBN). It was one of the few commemorations undertaken in Philippine academia.
The celebrations kicked off in March 2023 with a colloquium on children’s television in the Philippines. It was followed by a conversation on “streaming unsettling televisuality”. The activities were supported by the UP Diliman Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA), and streamed at the department-managed DZUP 1602 khz.
In 2022, UP DBC also marked the centenary of Philippine broadcasting, capping it with a virtual national conference. It also hosted several colloquial and roundtable discussions, as well as aired select broadcast productions marking the event.
Louie Jon A. Sánchez is an Associate Professor of Broadcast Communication at the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines Diliman, where he teaches critical theory, broadcast history, media research, and gender and sexuality in media.