Why 'higher level of discourse' in media will never happen in the Philippines

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William Esposo explains here why Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III makes a call for "higher level of discourse in media." This of course is not going to happen any time soon. Not in a free market, and specifically not in one where increasing competition, shrinking profit margins, and more demanding shareholders will make a choice between investing in the production of "higher level discourse" and cheap low-brow but high-audience-pull content a no-brainer for producers.

The bleakness of the prospect of ever seeing higher quality content in Media is even more evident in a country like the Philippines, where low-level thinking trumps high-level thinking in just about every endeavor.

Rather than try to appeal to private enterprise to go against the grain of their pursuit of profits, Government should take the lead. That is where state-controlled media comes in. Who else will invest in content that delivers educational value? In the United Kingdom, the state-owned British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) fills the gap in a country known for its own brand of media trashiness. Perhaps it is about time the Philippines Government steps up to the same challenge.

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 5, 2011 at 10:44 AM

    NBN content isn't bad really. It's the production style that outs it as 1990's junk.

    ReplyDelete

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