Synthetic Culture and Development

RENATO CONSTANTINO

Synthetic Culture and Development

Foundation for Nationalist Studies, Inc. 1

By the same author: The United Nations, Graphic House, 1950  Recto Reader, (ed.) Recto Foundation, 1964 The Filipinos in the Philippines, Philippine Signatures, 1967 The Making of a Filipino, Malaya Books, 1969  Dissent and Counter-Consciousness, Malaya Books, 1970 The Philippine Philippine Insurrection Insurrection Against the United United States States   by J.R.M. Taylor (5 vols.) (ed.), Eugenio Lopez Foundation, F oundation, 1971 The Marcos Watch, (Luis R. Mauricio, ed.) Malaya Books, 1972   Identity Identity and Consciousn Consciousness: ess: The Philippine Philippine Experience, Experience, Malaya Books, 1974 The Philippines: A Past Revisited, with Letizia Constantino, Tala Publishing Corporation, 1975, reprinted as The History of the  Philippines: From the Spanish Colonization to the Second World  War, Monthly Review, New York  Global Corporations and the Transfer of Technology, Erehwon, 1976  Insight and Foresight, Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1977 Westernizing Factors in the Philippines, Erehwon, 1977 (co-au auth thor or Letiz Letizia ia R. The The Phil Philip ippi pine nes: s: The The Cont Continu inuing ing Past  Past  (coConstantino), Foundation For Nationalist Studies, 1978   Neo Neoco colo loni nial al Iden Identi tity ty and and Coun Counte ter-Con r-Consc scio ious usne ness ss:: Essa Essays ys on Cultural Decolonisation, Merlin Press, London, 1978 and M.E. Sharpe, New York, 1979 The Second Invasion: Japan in the Philippines, 1979 Soliongco Today (ed.) Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1981 The World Bank's Trojan Horses - KKK and Recolonization, Karrel, Inc. 1982 The Misedu Miseducat cation ion of the Filipin Filipino o (with (with World World Bank Bank Textbo Textbooks oks:: Scenario Scenario for Deception Deception  by Letizia R. Constantino), Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1983 Sovereignty, Democracy and Survival, Karrel, Inc. 1983   For Philippine Survival: Nationalist Essays by Claro M. Recto and Renato Constantino, Berkeley, Cal., 1983 The State of the Philippine Press, (ed.) Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1984 The Post-Marcos Post- Marcos Era: An Appraisal, Karrel, Inc., 1984 The Relevant Recto, Karrel, Inc., 1985  Parents and Activists, Karrel, Inc., 1985 Claro M. Recto, Memorable Speeches and Writings, (ed.) Foundation for Nationalist Studies (forthcoming)

ISBN 971-1058-03-0 Copyright 1985 Foundation for Nationalist Studies 38 Panay Avenue, Quezon City Second Printing, September 1987

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By the same author: The United Nations, Graphic House, 1950  Recto Reader, (ed.) Recto Foundation, 1964 The Filipinos in the Philippines, Philippine Signatures, 1967 The Making of a Filipino, Malaya Books, 1969  Dissent and Counter-Consciousness, Malaya Books, 1970 The Philippine Philippine Insurrection Insurrection Against the United United States States   by J.R.M. Taylor (5 vols.) (ed.), Eugenio Lopez Foundation, F oundation, 1971 The Marcos Watch, (Luis R. Mauricio, ed.) Malaya Books, 1972   Identity Identity and Consciousn Consciousness: ess: The Philippine Philippine Experience, Experience, Malaya Books, 1974 The Philippines: A Past Revisited, with Letizia Constantino, Tala Publishing Corporation, 1975, reprinted as The History of the  Philippines: From the Spanish Colonization to the Second World  War, Monthly Review, New York  Global Corporations and the Transfer of Technology, Erehwon, 1976  Insight and Foresight, Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1977 Westernizing Factors in the Philippines, Erehwon, 1977 (co-au auth thor or Letiz Letizia ia R. The The Phil Philip ippi pine nes: s: The The Cont Continu inuing ing Past  Past  (coConstantino), Foundation For Nationalist Studies, 1978   Neo Neoco colo loni nial al Iden Identi tity ty and and Coun Counte ter-Con r-Consc scio ious usne ness ss:: Essa Essays ys on Cultural Decolonisation, Merlin Press, London, 1978 and M.E. Sharpe, New York, 1979 The Second Invasion: Japan in the Philippines, 1979 Soliongco Today (ed.) Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1981 The World Bank's Trojan Horses - KKK and Recolonization, Karrel, Inc. 1982 The Misedu Miseducat cation ion of the Filipin Filipino o (with (with World World Bank Bank Textbo Textbooks oks:: Scenario Scenario for Deception Deception  by Letizia R. Constantino), Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1983 Sovereignty, Democracy and Survival, Karrel, Inc. 1983   For Philippine Survival: Nationalist Essays by Claro M. Recto and Renato Constantino, Berkeley, Cal., 1983 The State of the Philippine Press, (ed.) Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1984 The Post-Marcos Post- Marcos Era: An Appraisal, Karrel, Inc., 1984 The Relevant Recto, Karrel, Inc., 1985  Parents and Activists, Karrel, Inc., 1985 Claro M. Recto, Memorable Speeches and Writings, (ed.) Foundation for Nationalist Studies (forthcoming)

ISBN 971-1058-03-0 Copyright 1985 Foundation for Nationalist Studies 38 Panay Avenue, Quezon City Second Printing, September 1987

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Table of Contents 1 THE CONDITIONING PROCESS 1 The Cultural Component 2 Linking Culture and Economics 3 TNCs as Cultural Agents 4 Changing Values 6 Skewed Priorities 7 Medicated Society 8 Advertising and Cultural Commodities 9 Informational Monopoly 10

2 CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION 13 Culture as Social Communication 15 Ideological Apparatus 16 The Rise of Media 17 Communications and Technology 18 Concentration and Conglomerization 19 Hegemony of Amenican TNCs 20 TNCs and the National Security State 21 Widening the Gap 22 Origin of "Free Flow" 23

3 THE PHILIPPINE CONTEXT 27 Communications Monopolies 28 Role of Print Media 29 The Economics of Domination 30 Hollywood, Inc. 31

4 SYNTHETIC CULTURE 33 Reordering Reality 34 The Impact of TV 35 Standardization of  Culture 36 Colonizing Life Experiences 37 Means of Social Control 37 Ideological Dependence 39 Homogenization and Sedation 40 Standardization of Consumption and Culture 41 Thought Transference 42

3

5 PHILIPPINE CULTURAL SCENE 45 The Philippine Experience 46 Native "Transmission Belts" 47 Strangers to the People 48 Seepage from Above 49

6 RESPONSES 51 Synthetic Culture vs. People's Culture 52 One-way Information Flow 52 Third World Reactions 52 Two-Fold Problem 53 Alternative Possibilities 54 Communications and Development 55 The options at Hand 56 Some Guidelines 57 Communications and Liberation 59

7 THE COUNTER-CULTURE 61 Characteristics of People's Culture 62 The Need for  Re-education 63 Nationalism and Internationalism 64

NOTES 67

4

1 The Conditioning Process

In

the

age

of

neocolonialism

the

techniques

subjugation and control are no longer primarily military in nature. While decolonization resulted in flag independence for former colonies, it denied these emergent countries economic independence, further  integrating them into the world capitalist system. Assigned their roles in the new international division of labor, these new independent states find their  resources still subject to exploitation by the club of  advanced capitalist countries led by the United States. 5

A prominent feature of the neocolonial stage of capitalism is the   predominance of transnational corporations which produce and distribute a great portion of all the goods of the capitalist system and have at their command a global financial network that controls a huge amount of capital flow. Their overseas subsidiaries earn huge  profits through their use of the natural resources, raw materials and cheap manpower of Third World countries. In addition to the TNCs, transnational banks also extract wealth from Third World countries through the mechanism of debt service. Despite competition and contradictions among themselves in their day-to-day operations, giant corporations and transnational banks have a common stake in keeping these countries securely within the global capitalist system. Culture is a potent tool for realizing this objective. The Cultural Component

Some scholars have deplored the fact that questions of trade and finance and of the debt problems that arose from the latest crisis in the capitalist world have overshadowed the cultural component. On the surface, it is quite true that cultural factors have not merited the same attention from scholars as the economic issues that beset the Third World. However, no thorough-going economic analysis can avoid considering the cultural component, for culture i s a pervasive if  subtle force that is a determinant in the acceptance or rejection by Third World countries of the various economic development policies foisted on them by advanced capitalist states. In turn, these economic  policies have profound cultural effects on society. The cultural conditioning process has become an integral component of economic and political domination. Cultural instruments utilized   prior to and during the neocolonial period were effecting mass cultural colonization of emergent nations. This cultural matrix has  become both the arena in which foreign inspired economic policies are debated and the venue for making such policies acceptable. All too often the parameters of such debates and the concepts accepted as  givens are in fact those already set by global economic institutions,

thanks to cultural conditioning.

6

In assessing the problems of development, it is therefore essential not to lose sight of the relationship between economic and cultural factors. The role that the cultural component plays in the growing economic transnationalization of the world cannot be minimized nor  can we ignore the implications of the trend towards a "world culture" which on one hand desensitizes the citizens of the advanced countries to the effects of their governments' economic policies in the Third World and, on the other, threatens with extinction or at least modifies indigenous national cultures in Third World countries to suit neocolonial purposes. Powerful economic forces and institutions in the advanced states understand the economics of culture and use it for their own ends while presenting culture to those they wish to dominate simply as entertainment or aesthetics divorced from the material concerns of  daily life. Third World peoples (and those who work in their behalf) have to restore in their consciousness the link between economics and culture to understand how culture is being used to deepen their  economic domination. Linking Culture and Economics

Cultural values in any society reinforce the prevailing socio-economic base. Although they are products of definite stages of  development, these values are also essentially those of the hegemonic class or classes of a particular society and as such do not necessarily reflect the objective needs and interests of the people. Moreover, in many parts of the Third World, cultural values are external impositions by ruling powers over dominated nations in order to insure the continued rule of the former and the docility of the latter. Values which once corresponded to a certain stage of pre-colonial society are either destroyed or, if useful in forwarding the objectives of the colonizer, are allowed to blend with the new values. Thus, what the dominated people regard as their traditional values at  present may be something rooted in the past which has undergone modifications to suit colonial ends and thereby preserve the system of  national oppression. This deformed culture of the colonized is represented as the national culture

7

and with the passage of time comes to be regarded as native by a colonially transformed people. In the course of centuries of colonialism and with the intensification of

neocolonial

propaganda,

cultural

values

promoted

by

neocolonialism have become a material force forming part of the apparatus of dominance. The native elite have imbibed these values almost completely; they themselves have become agents of  Westernization and defenders of the status quo. Cultural values that assure the existence of good colonials have been carried over to the neocolonial phase because of the deep-seated nature of colonial influence. Thus, new nations are susceptible to Western models of  development and methodology which serve as fetters to their real liberation and social progress. Consciousness remains imprisoned within the mold created by the colonial past and the neocolonial  present. The relationship between cultural values and economic development is a dynamic one; it shifts depending on the prevailing balance of  forces. During the period when neocolonialism reigns supreme and the anti-imperialist forces are barely making themselves felt, cultural values reinforce the kind of economic, development favored by the advanced capitalist powers. However, with time, imperialist exploitation generates its own opposite, triggering mass discontent and a search for an alternative path of economic development. As this  process accelerates and as the anti-imperialist forces gain strength, cultural values in support of an alternative system will gain headway, transforming the sphere of culture and playing a vital role in changing the socio-economic base. Only when this transpires will real development - one which meets the real needs of the people and not the narrow corporate interests of the global corporations - finally take place. TNCs as Cultural Agents

As earlier underscored, the transnational corporation, that most economic of entities, has in the last three decades become a potent agent for cultural change. The presence of TNCs in the manufacturing

8

sectors of developing countries facilitates the transmission of their  "business culture," their management concepts and operational techniques to their Third World joint venture partners and to local entrepreneurs in general. The consumption patterns and general lifestyle of their managers become models to be approximated by local executives while suppliers and subcontractors must adjust their   production concepts and styles to TNC priorities and standards. Agribusiness transnationals for instance, have changed the lives of, whole communities. In the Philippines, the operations of Dole, Philippines and Del Monte have caused massive shifts from small-scale rice farming to contract-growing of pineapples and bananas. In many cases, the independent, almost self-sufficient small farmer was transformed into a contract-grower who eventually became saddled with debts as a result of onerous contracts he could hardly read. Many have ended up as landless laborers in the TNC plantations or as migrants who have swelled the squatter communities of the cities. 1 TNC requirements for international trade have changed not only the crops Third World farmers raise but their lives as well. Cash crops for export are rapidly replacing crops for domestic consumption. In the Philippines, both cultural conditioning in terms of the propagation of the value of modernization and the granting of economic incentives insured the acceptance of the Green Revolution,  particularly the high yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) funded by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. 2 The large amounts of imported fertilizers and pesticides required by these new rice varieties have, not only enriched TNCs manufacturing these items, they have also thrust large rural sectors into the moneyeconomy, disrupting traditional relationships of mutual help among subsistence farmers, introducing them to new consumption goods (household appliances, TV sets, canned goods, etc. also produced by TNCs) and eventually, as the prices of agricultural inputs were raised  beyond what could be offset by

9

increased yields, reducing many farmers to a new level of penury to the point that many have abandoned their lands and joined the urban ranks of the unemployed. Those who remain must contend with a   production pattern they have accepted as part of the modernizing thrust and which they can no longer change even if they wanted to. The indigenous seeds are no longer available and energy consuming equipment has taken the place of farm animals. Besides, in irrigated areas, the release of water is timed to the growth cycle of the HYVs, not to the slower one of the old seeds. The poor farmers can no longer live off the land as they used to; fish, shrimps, crustaceans have been poisoned by the chemical inputs that the HYVs require. Changing Values

The products of trans-nationals are not inert items on a shelf; they change consumption patterns, priorities and values. They are bearers of the values and lifestyles of an affluent industrial society and carry with them some of the skewed priorities and consumption aberrations which, deplorable in that society, are almost criminal in a poor  undeveloped country particularly, when they seep down to the poor. A few examples should suffice. According to R. Barnet and R. Mueller, the sales campaigns of TNCs have resulted in "increasing consumption of white bread , confections, and soft drinks among the   poorest people in the world   by convincing them that status, convenience, and sweet taste are more important than nutrition." 3 One may add that among the uninformed, these new foods may even appear more nutritious, given the tendency (common among the colonized) to regard foreign goods as superior. In rural, Philippines it is sad to see mothers selling fresh coconuts and giving part of the  proceeds to their children to buy a bottle of coke. The dreadful results of Nestle's massive promotion of tinned milk for  ' babies in Asia and Africa provoked a well-organized 7-year boycott of that corporation's products by consumer 

10

organizations.4 Despite the number of infant deaths and illnesses associated with bottle-feeding under unhygienic conditions, and despite earnest counter-propaganda for breast-feeding by health workers and other concerned groups, bottle-feeding is still a status symbol in the rural areas of the Philippines. A ludicrous effect of TNC sales drives on dietary values among rural Filipinos is their attitude toward canned goods. In many a rural household, canned sardines, mackerel and vienna sausage are considered the best that may be served to visitors. After being emptied, the cans are displayed on kitchen shelves. Skewed Priorities

In Third World countries where poverty is virtually endemic, the distortion of consumption priorities as a result of TNC advertising and sales campaigns obviously has more serious consequences than in affluent societies. In the Philippines, for example, where recent estimates place fully 70% of families below the poverty line, money sorely needed for food, shelter, and basic health care is often squandered on tobacco, cosmetics, soft drinks and the latest fashion  jeans. Although the targets of the TNC sales pitch are the elite and middle classes, their advertising is "democratically" heard via transistor radio,' seen on billboards and 'to a lesser extent on television. A recent interview of Filipino rural women revealed that imported goods (significantly lumped together under the term "stateside," short for United States) are status symbols and local goods of "export quality" also have prestige value. Moreover, rural young women have become fashion conscious and buy jeans and cosmetics on installment basis. 5 One may likewise mention the aggressive drive of tobacco transnationals to open new markets in Africa and Asia among women and youth at a time when dissemination in the first world of data on the deleterious effects of tobacco has caused their domestic markets to decline by 2% a year in most Western countries over the past decade. US cigaret exports nearly tripled in the last 10 years. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use in

11

the Third World has been going up by 5% annually. Thailand had a 50% increase in smokers between 1970 and 1977; India, 90% increase in 20 years; Pakistan, 60% increase in 10 years. 6 Medicated Society

Drug TNCs are still another economic group whose products have had far-reaching cultural consequences. In the Philippines, their  control of the market has prevented the development of a national drug industry. This is not simply a question of profits going to foreign companies rather than to local entrepreneurs. It has resulted in a climate of overmedication for those who can afford a pill for  every ailment. It has downgraded traditional folk -drugs even in the eyes of those who cannot afford foreign medicines such that a poor  father will do without food in order to buy a cough medicine or an antidiarrheal pill because he no longer trusts certain traditional decoctions from local plants, or knowledge of them has already disappeared from his cultural milieu, especially if he is an urban resident. Given the preference of Western pharmaceutical giants for imported raw materials, research on local resources has been stunted. Although there have been some successful government sponsored researches to systematize dosages of traditional medicines and produce them as   pills, the massive advertising of foreign drugs and the general cultural climate of confidence in and preference for foreign products has reduced the effectivity of such programs. On the other hand, drug multinationals themselves have evinced interest in herbal medicines which goes to show that traditional medicine is not really perceived as a threat by the TNCs, and/or it may be successfully neutralized as well as converted into a new source of profits. Moreover, the Western-oriented medical education in the country insures not only less interest in research on indigenous drug sources   but even

lack of expertise in dealing with diseases typical of a

tropical Third World country. The emphasis is on the latest

12

medical technology and curative procedure from Western medical centers rather than on the health problems characteristic of  developing nations. The concentration on medication rather than on disease prevention, on individual rather than community health, obscures the societal source of many diseases. As a result of this orientation of the medical profession and the general population, too, there is less pressure for policies intended to remove structures that  breed poverty, the main cause of malnutrition and the basic cause of  many diseases.7 Advertising and Cultural Commodities

The cultural effects of material goods such as those produced by TNCs are deepened and disseminated to every nook of the world by the

communications

industry.

Advertising

has

become

an

indispensable part of TNC operations. John Kenneth Galbraith offers a perceptive appraisal of the relationship between advertising and consumption in the following words: Advertising and salesmanship - the management of consumer  demand - are vital for planning the industrial system. At the same time, the wants so created ensure the services of the worker. Ideally, his wants are kept slightly in excess of his income. Compelling inducements are then provided for him to go into debt. The pressure of the resulting debt adds to his reliability, as a worker.8

The importance of advertising as a stimulator of consumption has caused TNCs to spend billions of dollars on it, a fact which inevitably resulted in their control over the communications industry. Media can no longer exist without advertising; policies and decisions affecting media are therefore largely in the hands of advertisers. Indeed, several industrial giants have found it useful and economical to invest in the communications industry as well.

13

Informational Monopoly

Thus, the increasing concentration of capital which characterizes all free-enterprise systems has resulted in the centralization of the   production

and

distribution

of

informational

and

cultural

commodities. This characteristic has become more and more apparent and decisive in the more advanced states. In the United States, for example, the trend ' is toward "increasing emphasis on the   production, storage, and distribution of information as its major  activity."9 Over 45 percent of the gross national product of the Unit ed States is tied to information production and distribution, while nearly half of the labor force is engaged in these activities. What is called the "primary information sector" is according to the US Information Agency "dominated by a relatively small group of large corporations that are the builders and operators of the basic information and communications infrastructure. Their size and influence are awesome. The industry is dominated by giants -IBM, International Telephone and Telegraph, RCA, General Electric, CBS, and so on." 10 Who benefit from the information technologies that are aggressively   being marketed worldwide? One

author cites

three

major 

  beneficiaries: "first, the foreign suppliers of the equipment and second, the financiers, because most of the governments ran quite quickly into tremendous balance of payment problems. So they had to borrow on the international market, and most of the money" comes from private commercial banks. The third major beneficiary was the local administrative elite - people who were close to the national administration, very often military people." 11 Their power will multiply at the same fantastic rate that the technologies they control develop. "In 5,000 years human knowledge has doubled once; at the present time, in fact, the bulk of information is being doubled: every fifth year in electronics; every third year in space-research and nuclear energy." 12 The means of communication, aside from being owned by

14

monopolists, are also dependent on advertising income from other  monopolies. Thus, through the control of the communications channels - the press, radio and TV - advertisers shape consciousness and are able to create new lifestyles and new needs that not only sell their products but also affect cultural norms, develop values, and inculcate ideas that support the system. At this point, it is necessary to explain the theoretical and historical underpinning of the processes  by which this takes place.

15

16

2 Culture And Communication

In the words of Amilcar Cabral, "Culture is the dynamic synthesis, at the level of individual or  community consciousness, of the material and spiritual historical reality of a society or a human group, with the relations existing between man and nature as well as among men, and among social classes and sectors." 13

17

Human beings must satisfy certain fundamental needs in order to survive. In satisfying these needs, people develop not only a material culture which includes technology and the overall system of   producing and distributing goods, but also patterns of behavior and thought, concepts, standards, and values which are handed down from generation to generation and which taken together comprise the  bedrock of culture. Each succeeding generation, however, modifies its cultural legacy in accordance with its concrete historical circumstances. In a narrower sense then, culture may be defined as the organization of shared experience which includes values and standards for perceiving, judging and acting within a specific social milieu at a definite historical stage. 14 Patterns of behavior and thought, concepts, standards and values encompass the economic, political, social and aesthetic areas of  human life and society. The last category - the aesthetic - is what is commonly referred to as culture. In its popular sense, culture is the distillation of human experience through various techniques involving manipulation of the senses to produce art, music, dance, and literature. Both culture, as patterns of behavior and thought, concepts, standards and values, and culture as aesthetics are shaped by material life. In turn, culture by shaping human consciousness and defining the self-view of a people and their view of the world also influences the development of material conditions. Let us subsume the two categories - culture as behavior and thought patterns, etc. and culture as aesthetics - under the term spiritual culture. It is in this sense that culture is discussed in this work; culture as developed, refined, and transmitted in the realm of consciousness especially that type of culture disseminated through what is now called the Communications Industry. Such a focus, however, will not dissociate spiritual culture from its material moorings, for there are many developments in the material field, e.g. technology, the organization of the labor force, etc. which define, limit and modify cultural forms. In turn, there are also cultural activities

18

which have stimulated the production of material objects that become  part of the cultural sphere. This is well illustrated in the development of musical instruments, the construction of theatres, the invention of  the phonograph and the movie camera, and -the rise of the electronics industry. Today, radio and TV are major material conveyors of  cultural products. Culture as Social Communication

Culture is not only the product of a distillation of social experience, it is in essence also social communication. Art must be seen, literature read, music heard before any of these aesthetic products can become  part of culture. The means of communication is therefore vital. At the same time, communication is crucial to society's development  because it articulates social relations among people. How people communicate, where and when they communicate, with whom they communicate and even to a certain degree, what and why they communicate, i.e. their mode of communication, is a function of  the historical process. 15 Communication, the conveying of information and ideas, is both a  product and a cause of social development and has itself its own development according to the specific historical period of particular  societies, because it involves the movement not only of people but also of commodities and of capital. 16 At an early stage of social development, communication was a bond among equals but as society developed and stratified, the means of  communication became privately owned and controlled and were used by its owners as a medium for reproducing -the types of society favored by ruling groups. As such, communication was transformed into a channel of domination. This is particularly so during the contemporary period when nearly all means of communication are in the hands of monopolies tied up with other monopolies engaged in the circulation of commodities and capital on a global basis.

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Ideological Apparatus

From its initial function of facilitating social interaction in relatively simple ways, communication has developed a massive, complex technological base. Media have become industries and have been transformed into producers of "cultural commodities." They are integrated into vast business structures and therefore are part of the economic base of society. At the same time, media are institutions functioning within the sphere of consciousness and reinforcing the existing socio-economic system through a network of ideas, images, and standards. It may therefore be said that the production of  concepts and values is not autonomous, but rather, intimately linked with material activity. Thus, when we talk about communications, information, and mass media, we must necessarily deal with a prevailing ideological apparatus and the set of social relations it seeks to reproduce and  preserve. Its overriding objective is to present the prevailing socioeconomic system as given and irreplaceable. In the Third World today, cultural domination cannot be separated from informational imperialism. Both are disseminated in the global communications system controlled by advanced capitalist states. Thus informational imperialism is a twin sister of cultural imperialism and both are interlinked with economic dominance. Both have general purposes which are political and economic in nature. The first is to isolate socialist countries by means of pejorative reporting and the second is to help private enterprise especially TNCs in the propagation of  capitalist ideas and the popularization of consumption patterns that clearly benefit these corporations. Dominant classes in control of communications and information can  be expected to limit dissemination, with occasional exceptions, only to such ideas, values, and viewpoints as will help them maintain their  ruling status. Given this reality, it is necessary to expose not only the concentration of private ownership of the means of production of  material goods but even more so, the monopolization of the means of    production of informational and popular cultural commodities. This is all the more urgent in Third

20

World countries like the Philippines where the abstract ideal of press freedom hag long obscured the partisan nature of information,  particularly foreign information fed to our press. Similarly, cultural products have been generally viewed as politically neutral, and insufficient efforts have been exerted to examine their  over-all political content and/or effect. Under a system of private ownership, freedom to transmit and to receive information and culture naturally works in favor of the owners of the means of    production and is necessarily loaded against those who are dispossessed. Current investigation as well as historical hindsight attest to the foregoing observations. The Rise of Media

Let us advert briefly to the historical development Western media. In Western Europe, freedom of the press was a battle cry of the struggling entrepreneurial class against the censorship imposed by the ruling feudal aristocracy. The first periodicals made their  appearance at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. They experienced rapid development in conjunction with the industrial revolution which witnessed major advances in printing technology and made possible the creation of a literate mass audience. The press, then as now, served primarily as an advertising agency and provided information about certain products and business operations. It soon took on a political coloring and became the voice of the rising class of manufacturers in the latter's struggle to throw off the feudal yoke and install itself in power. 17 As society became more and more industrialized, and as a literate work force essential in manning increasingly sophisticated industries   became more and more numerous, conditions became ripe for the mass production of newspapers and magazines to an unprecedented scale. This gave rise to a new kind of work, that of the professional communicator. During this stage of rising capitalism, freedom of the  press meant giving readers a selection of views. While press freedom was in fact the freedom of the owners of media who

21

generally were also property owners, the necessity of selling to a wide range of customers with varying interests restrained the owners from using their papers openly to propagate their ruling class views. Moreover, it was good business to allow to some extent the airing of  contrary opinions as this built confidence among readers in the impartiality of the newspaper. Competition required that each newspaper build up its readership and the  best way was to gain a reputation for fairness and truth.   Nonetheless, the general thrust of all newspapers was to induce readers to accept the economic and political frames of reference not only of the owners but also, and perhaps more importantly, of the advertisers on whom newspapers increasingly grew to depend for  their profits. This meant overall support for the status quo, even if  here and there, minor papers not dependent on TNC advertising were allowed to publish fundamental critiques of imperialism, and even 6f  capitalism itself. It must be emphasized, however, that the essential homogeneity of the ideological framework of most newspapers is not necessarily deliberate nor the result of a conspiracy among media owners. Rather, it is, the natural consequence of the system of private ownership itself. Communications and Technology

Information and communication on a global scale today likewise  proceed from the character of the social formation from which they emerged. These ideological "commodities" are inevitably defined by the material infrastructure that produces them. These material means include the printing presses, radio, television, videotape recorders, film equipment, computers, satellites, and a host of other  technological marvels. And all these means are built on even more  basic, far-reaching and interlocking foundations. Radio and television cannot operate without the electronics industry; publishing is not   possible without electricity and paper manufacturing; films and records depend on the chemical and allied industries and all these are in the hands of monopolies. A fairly recent revolutionary development in the field of microelectronics gave birth to the mind-bending powers of 

22

"compunications" hitherto thought possible only in science fiction movies. Computers of all shapes, sizes, and uses have invaded almost all fields of human endeavor in the industrialized societies. The "information age" has arrived and its sophisticated products have  become vital to global business activity in widening the competitive advantage of transnational corporations over smaller companies,   particularly those in Third World countries. Such computers have likewise given an immense ideological clout to the global communications monopolies. Big irresistibly becomes bigger. Concentration and Conglornerization

There are many examples of this inexorable process of monopolization, many through conglomerization. In the field of publishing, a multifaceted multinational, Gulf and Western, took over the  publication firm of Schuster and Simon in 1976. Note that Gulf and Western also controls Paramount Pictures. Bantam Books was taken over in the same year by Fiat, the Italian automotive transnational. In broadcasting, Westinghouse, Radio Corporation of America and General Electric (GE) graduated from producing and developing TV and radio equipment to establishing and managing TV stations and studios. American Telephone and Telegraph (ATT) not only manufactures

telephone

equipment

but

also

controls

the

administration of telephone and telegraph offices. It has cornered 80  percent of telephone services in the United States. 18 A merger in the works is that between two giants: Capital Cities Communications and American Broadcasting Corporation. Capital Cities owns 7 commercial TV stations, 12 radio stations and 54 cable stations. It also owns 10 daily newspapers and more than 70 other   papers and periodicals. ABC is not just television, it is also involved in publishing, cable, and software for advanced communications systems.19 An editorial of  The Nation of March 30, 1985 explains the significance of this merger:

23

The point of the merger is not necessarily to force competitors out of business but to control the terms by which limited competition is conducted, to pre-empt new fields of endeavor, to command material resources, manpower and money on a global scale, and to manipulate mass culture so that the audience will respond to the needs of the corporate network rather than the other way around.

(Emphasis supplied) 20

Hegemony of American TNCs

Although other major capitalist states have their giant TNCs too, the undisputed overall leaders are those of the United States. The film industry is an example of international monopoly, controlled by the United States. During the period before the second world war, the film industry was already dominated by eight major companies which held a monopoly of patents of film and sound. These companies tied up with distribution channels including ownership of  theatres and radio stations. All these interconnected companies had financial backing from major banking and investment groups. For  example, Paramount Pictures controlled Columbia Broadcasting and was in turn tied up with the Morgan group. Warner Brothers was tied up indirectly with Rockefeller interests. RKO's (Radio-Keith Orpheum) stocks were predominantly owned by Radio City, the Rockefeller real estate enterprise.21 Today, as members of the Motion Picture Export Association, American film companies are among the biggest multinational conglomerates heavily dependent on foreign sales. Jack Valenti,  president of the Motion Picture Association of America, once made this interesting revelation: "To my knowledge," he said, "the motion   picture is the only US enterprise that negotiates on its own with foreign governments." That is why the industry is sometimes called the "little state departmenC' 22 On the other hand, American film interests do not always advertise their nationality. In branching out to other lands, Hollywood companies have assumed the nationality of their host

24

countries. Many so-called European films are actually made by American subsidiaries. 23 The economic preeminence of American transnationals supported by and in turn supportive of the US government assures that informational and cultural dissemination serves US political and strategic interests. This is confirmed by a 1984 statement of the -Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives: Certain foreign policy -objectives can be pursued by dealing directly with the people of foreign countries, rather than governments. Through the use of modem instruments and techniques of communications it is possible today to reach large or  influential segments of national populations - to inform them, to influence their attitudes and at times perhaps even motivate them to a particular course. These groups, 'in turn, are capable of exerting noticeable, even decisive, pressures on their governments. 24

TNCs and the National Security State

The tie-up between American strategic interests, the US defense industry and global distribution of information and cultural products is, awesomely delineated by the following data: Huge enterprises indentified with military production and microelectronics have already absorbed cultural industries and are said to own, at world level, 90 per cent of the facts and figures accumulated in 82 per cent of microelectronic components, 75 per  cent and perhaps more of TV programs, 65 per cent of news dissemination, 50 per cent of films, 35 per cent of short wave radio   broadcasts, 30 per cent of book editing, and more than 800 satellites circling the earth, most of them of a secret nature and  purpose.25

Communications giants have strong links with the military under  whose auspices the various satellite communications programs were initiated and perfected. "The most important contracts for the satellite industry come from government sources, especially the military  branches, who for a long time have had a keen understanding of the  possibilities of this technology for their operations."

25

Among these contractors are Lockheed, Rockwell, ITT, RCA and others which "control COMSAT, the US satellite consortium that in turn controls the international satellite consortium INTELSAT. 26 This tie-up between big business and the military has given rise in the US to the concept of the national security state under which practically every area of the world where TNCs have investments or where they see possibilities of investment is deemed vital to the national security of the United States. While maintaining verbal allegiance to democratic processes, the military-industrial complex has an affinity toward authoritarian regimes in the Third World with whom it can deal with greater ease than with cumbersome parliaments. 27 Satellite communications as part of the military surveillance system are greatly responsible for the weak negotiating position of Third World countries' because these satellites are able to monitor the resources of a country better than the local experts. Moreover, the  perfection of computerization which has become a monopoly of the West leaves the Third World countries defenseless because the information flow is one-sided and access to data is safeguarded especially if they are to be utilized for negotiations. Widening the Gap

The means at the disposal of the global monopolies and the imperial states which protect and advance their interests are awesome. The modes of transporation and communication which facilitated colonial expansion in the early days of imperialism cannot compare with the   present-day technological wonders which now make possible the super-efficient extraction of surplus from former colonies whose economies continue to be ravaged by transnational corporations. As a result, the gap between the imperial powers and the less developed states has become wider. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the decisive field of communications infrastructure. As one expert reveals:

26

The developed countries (North America, Europe, and Japan) have 789 million radio receivers out of a world total of 953 million (82.7%). The U.S. alone has 454 million receivers (47.6%). Seven developed countries consume 17.7 million tons out of a world total of 23.6 million tons of newsprint (75%). The U.S. alone consumes 9.7 million tons (41.3%) which is more than four times that of the second largest consumer, Japan (2.3 million). Seven developed countries have 284 million copies out of a world total of 400 million in newspaper circulation (71%). The developed countries have 368 million telephones out of a world total of 397 million telephones (92.7%). The U.S. alone has 168 million (42.2%). The U.S. alone earns $47 billion out of the world market of $96.8   billion in advertising (49%). Thirteen of the top fifteen world advertising agencies are American. The developed countries earn $77.9 billion out of the total world sales revenue of $83 billion (9501o). The U.S. alone earns $37  billion (45.5%).28

These staggering disparities accentuate two important facts: first, that the U.S. leads other developed countries in the fields of higher  technology of information and of the media infrastructure and second, that the developed countries in general have overwhelming control over global information. Origin of "Free Flow"

The overwhelming cultural and ideological penetration of the Third World by Western media is justified, especially by the United States, through the invocation of the principle of "free flow of information." It may be useful to look back to the historical origin of this principle in order to uncover the real interests of those who have used it as a  political weapon.

27

It is well known that before the war, Britain and France had major  control of the cable services. The US-based Associated Press was trying to compete with them and wanted to make inroads into the territories controlled by the British and French empires. After the war, US business soon realized that the control of information was important to global expansion. The European countries were then economically

prostrate;

moreover,

the

propaganda

against

Communism was effective in weakening their defenses against American demands. Presented with a choice between the US and the USSR during the unfolding of, the cold war and dependent on the former for aid, the Europeans aligned themselves with the United States. Thus, the free flow principle got the support of the Europeans and the mechanical majority in the United Nations in 1948. With its military-propelled lead in the development of electronics and satellite communication, the US was soon able to dominate the field. Thus, "free flow of information" in practice came to mean the propagation of the American way of life, the dissemination of the US world view, and the defense of US interests, to the consternation of the former  holders of the communications monopoly.

29

The economic motivation for invoking the principle was well articulated by Assistant Secretary of State Benton in 1946. He said: The State Department plans to do everything within its power  along political and diplomatic lines to help break down the artificial barriers' to the expansion of private American news agencies, magazines, motion pictures and other communications media throughout the world. Freedom of the press and freedom of  exchange of information is an integral part of our foreign policy. 30

"Free flow" has been transformed into its opposite. The flow is now   practically unidirectional as Third World countries become mere recipients of information from advanced countries, especially the United States. The imbalance is not only quantitative; it is also qualitative.

28

The United States has succeeded in bringing about an apparently unchallenged position of leadership for itself in global media and communications, especially in the high-tech areas. The US-based transnational news agencies, UPI and AP, receive, process and deliver 40 million words a day. AP's subscribers alone include 100,000 foreign newspapers and broadcasting services in over 100 countries. As one observer commented, "Over a billion people a day make their value judgments on international developments on the  basis of AP news." Together with Reuters and Agence France Presse, AP an UPI handle about 95 percent of the information gathered in, and received by, Third World Nations. 31

29

30

3 The Philippine Context

The transnationalization of communication is a well-known fact, especially in the Philippines where a cursory glance at the foreign news pages reveals an almost absolute dependence on the Big Four wire agencies. Less obvious is the transnational hold on the telecommunications system and

other

advanced

information technology which has been "a boon to TNC

trade,

banking,

insurance,

manufacturing,

transportation, advertising and the mass media industries which enjoy the scale of production necessary to avail of the highly privileged cost of  access." 32 31

Communications Monopolies

The Japanese conglomerate Marubeni is the principal supplier  of  Domestic Satellite Philippines, Inc. (DOMSAT), which in turn is the transmitting system for Radio Philippines Network (RPN), in itself a lengthy chain of innumerable TV and radio stations. DOMSAT's other major customer is the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), which in 1977 initiated an $870 million project with the Siemens Corporation, a West German conglomerate operating in 129 countries, "to install in Manila and major regional centers an all-digital telephone switching and dialing system by 1986." Fraught with grave political implications is the fact that Philcomsat, the Philippine representative to the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat) has been in operation as a 11carrier5' carrier" since 1967 serving the US military,

the

international

carriers

and

PLDT.

Originally

established for US military circuits from Hawaii to the Far East for  the conduct of the Vietnam war, the current bulk of Philcornsat traffic goes through PLDT for international telephone service. The US military, however, remains its largest single end user .33

The transnational presence is strong not only in satellite communications but also in telecommunications. "Eastern Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. (ETPI), an international carrier, and its domestic interconnect, Oceanic Wireless Inc., are joint ventures of  the British international telecommunication giant Cable and Wireless." The other two principal international carriers, which take charge of telegraph, telex and data transmission are "the ITT subsidiary Globe Mackay Cable and Radio (GMCR), and RCA's Philippine Global Communications, Inc. (Philcom). 34 The above mentioned facts have long-range implications on national security and sovereignty because foreigners can have unlimited access to the country's data and even secrets. Knowledge of a country's resources and even potentials can be used against it in any negotiation. The close connection between the TNCs and the US military apparatus makes this power doubly ominous.

32

It must likewise be in identified with the present regime have been instrumental in linking up with the TNCs in the satellite and telecommunications fields, lending credence to the observation that the exercise of martial law powers has facilitated "the concentration, integration and hegemony of information structures that ultimately serve the ideological, cultural, material and political interests of the transnational corporations." 35 It may be remembered that the ownership of print and broadcast media substantially passed to the hands of  interests related to or aligned with the ruling family in late 1972. Media therefore faithfully served these interests which more often than not coincided with transnational concerns. Role of Print Media

Many newspapers and magazines are purveyors of American colonial influence. Foreign news and analysis of international developments are largely provided by the transnational wire agencies. Naturally, they contain a heavy bias in favor of the Western viewpoint. Articles from socialist and Third World sources seldom see print. Cold War  columnists continue to corner precious space, alongside opinions and feature articles reprinted from Western media. Magazines and the features sections of newspapers tranquilize their  readers by focussing attention on purely personal issues, psychological problems, sex, crime and violence, astrology and the occult, fashion and personality, entertainment and sports. Many of these make use of syndicated materials from the West. Their treatment of  such subjects encourages frivolity, conspicuous consumption, escapism, mysticism, hero-worship of sports and entertainment   personalities, a callous attitude toward violence etc. - everything except a sharper insight into the problems of their society or even an analysis of the subject matter as a reflection or an outgrowth of larger  social and economic questions.

33

The Economics of Domination

Given the powerful financial hold of foreign advertisers on local media, the latter have no real choice. One source reports: Subjects not banned are those that perpetuate foreign domination of  the marketplace. American ad agencies like J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson together with local proteges spin out Western-style jingles that turn the transnational corporate product into a barrio household word. Of the ten largest sponsors of  Benedicto's national RPN TV network, nine are such TNCs as Pepsi, Colgate and Nestle. And of the 123 members of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers who use all media, 75 per cent are TNCs or their affiliates. 36

It is not surprising that transnational corporations are known to have cornered as much as three-fourths of the air time for advertising. 37 The foreign, mainly American presence, is not limited to commercials. Past studies have shown that foreign shows dominate the programming of most television stations in the Third World. The US

supplies

prime

time

TV

programs

-

"game

shows,

  police/adventure thrillers, situation comedies and films." Other  sources include Britain and Japan. 38 Why this state of affairs? Because," as is true in all developing countries, it is more expensive to produce shows than to buy them from foreign suppliers." In 1981, local production of one single episode cost $800 - $2,400 while importing a whole foreign series entailed only $100 - $2,600. The latter, if highly popular abroad, would also be less risky to screen than an untried Filipino program. 39 One source claims that US TV programs sold to other developed states at $3,500 are being peddled to developing countries for less than $ 100 . The point for offering such a bargain is clearly cultural   penetration and influence, the lucrative export of the American lifestyle and consumption patterns. A more ominous motive springs from the close interconnection between the US government and media: the expansion of US-sponsored TV hookups facilitates global electronic surveillance through communications satellites. 40

34

Hollywood, Inc.

Filipino films on the whole are reflective of a Westernized society  because their themes are too often copied from foreign successes and  because the majority of scripwriters and directors view Philippine life through the lenses of their Western upbringing. Thus the popularity of Filipino films at the present time is not a complete gain for they are still agencies for Westernization. Filipino movie producers themselves have long been complaining against the massive influx of foreign films in the domestic market. As early as 1978, the Philippine Motion Picture Producers Association (PMPPA) in its position paper in support of a parliamentary bill limiting foreign film importation stated: ... in the past 10 years, close to 4,500 foreign theatrical films have   been shown commercially in this country against only 1,738 domestic films; last year, 294 foreign films were shown in Metro Manila, against only 141 domestic pictures, since this glut of  foreign films has been in operation for the past several years, it has supported conditions that place domestic 'producers at the mercy of  the exhibitors; the bulk of our foreign importations comprise cheaply-bought films. An importer can bring a dozen films of this variety into the country for less than what it costs a domestic  producer to make a single low-budget Filipino film (P500,000). ... Of the total number of foreign films passed, 148 were from the USA, 148 from Hongkong, and 105 from other countries.

Because of the long monopoly of American films, the principal Western influence in the Philippines is American. Philippine movies therefore ape American movies in their preoccupation with escapism, sex and violence. Escapism, sex and violence are fed to the American audience because these are commercially profitable, and they are commercially profitable because the majority of the audience are no longer in search of answers to social problems. They live for the moment, they have resigned their obligations as social beings. Their  main preoccupation is material consumption. The values they have embraced are intrinsically alien to human

35

existence for the material goods that obsess them have dehumanized their lives. While their government dominates nations and peoples, the American people have become enslaved by things, by the material goods they produce. The loss of a sense of social purpose has consigned great masses of the American population to an alienated existence. Concerned American individuals and institutions are themselves facing an uphill battle trying to awaken the American  public to a serious examination of their society and government.

36

4 Synthetic Culture

Man is born into a cultural system that is historically evol evolved ved.. He is perme permeate ated d by symbo symbols, ls, tradit tradition ions, s,   per perce cept ptio ions ns and and valu valuee orie orient ntat atio ions ns that that beco become me mediating forces between himself and society just as society is the mediating agency between himself and his material environment. environment. In much of the Third World today, this cultural heritage is in peril.

37

The transnationalization of communications has almost completely shatter shattered ed the cultur cultural al defens defenses es of develo developin ping g nation nations. s. The very very exis existen tence ce of indi indige geno nous us cult cultur ures es is thre threat aten ened ed with with mass massiv ivee modifications as Western culture is presented, as the culture which every modernizing state must emulate. Aspects of indigenous culture are preserved in bastardized, "touristic form" to attract dollars while the local population consumes popular Western cultural fare or local films, TV, radio, and comics which ape the styles, techniques and conten contentt of Wester Western n cultur cultural al produc products. ts. The incurs incursion ion of Western Western informational and cultural commodities is constant and widespread. They They are also also techno technolog logical ically ly superi superior, or, theref therefore ore admire admired d and enjoyed. In the course of the worldwide invasion of its cultural and informational tional infras infrastru tructu ctures res,, contemp contempora orary ry capita capitalis lism m has fabric fabricated ated a synthe synthetic tic cultur culturee that that has become become the matrix matrix of percep perceptio tions ns and orientations of masses of people both in the industrial world and in the newly independent states within the capitalist orbit. Indeed even the socialist world has not been spared from the incursion of some aspects of this synthetic culture. Perhaps the most important feature of this synthetic culture is its consum consumeri erist st ideolo ideology gy.. That That is not surpri surprisin sing g since since the capita capitalis listt dream dream societ society y is one where where everyb everybody ody buy buyss everyt everythin hing. g. While While cons consum umer eris ism m is dire directl ctly y prom promot oted ed by adve advert rtis isem emen ents ts,, a more more effective because subtle approach is the consistent presentation in media, particularly TV, of the concept of the good life in an affluent society .What should be regarded as luxuries in the Third World are  perceived as needs - Western food and fashion, modem appliances, a TV set, a car etc. - thus creating pressures pressures for importation or local  production and in the process distorting social priorities. Thus, we may may see see the the lates latestt car car mode models ls in a poor poor coun country try where where publi publicc transport is woefully inadequate. Reordering Reality

In industrialized states where the period of initial accumulation is long past, the emphasis on such values as "prudence, restraint,

38

thrift and saving" has waned. In an economy characterized by high  productivity and ever threatened by the prospect of glut, the values which which medi mediaa nurt nurtur ures es are are thos thosee of impu impuls lsee buyi buying ng and and asse assett acquisition. Products are no longer bought for their sturdiness and durability but for their style or for some claimed innovation. In an economy that reaps handsome profits from planned obsolescence, the idea that certain articles could be bearers of tradition and continuity from one generation to the next would hardly be promoted. Instead, the highest value is attached to the newest and the latest. The Impact of TV

The most graphic and beguiling promoter of the values and lifestyle of the "affluent society" is television. Television in the Third World is more or less dominated by imported programs. According to a UNESCO survey, imported programs in Guatemala occupy 84 per  cent cent of total total broadc broadcast asting ing time, time, in Zambia Zambia 64%, 64%, Malays Malaysia ia 71%, 71%, Singapore 78%, Hongkong 40% In the case of the Philippines a cursory review of the' television guide would reveal that some 30 to 50 per cent of TV shows broadcast daily are canned programs mainly from the United States. These include detective serials, religious features, educational shows for  children, cartoons and other action/fantasy series, comedies, musical variety programs, movie replays, sports and games. The influence of  such imports may be even stronger than the figures indicate inasmuch as they are generally aired on prime time. These programs, coming mostly from the United States and Japan and targeted at an audience of urban urban middlemiddle-cla class ss famili families es in the export exporting ing states states,, genera generally lly "pre "prese sent nt acto actors rs surr surrou ound nded ed by durab durable le commo commodi diti ties es,, mate materia riall conven convenien iences ces and many many aspect aspectss of the afflue affluent nt socie society." ty."42 Local  programs take their cue from such imports. As one one auth author or put put it, it, "the "the "hav "havee-no not' t' natio nations ns stan stand d prac practic tical ally ly defens defenseles elesss before before a rampag rampaging ing Wester Western n commerc commercial ialism" ism" which which dangles technology before their eyes." Impoverished as they are

39

many developing states are able to afford the new communications complexes only by accepting commercial packages which 'tie' their   broadcasting systems to foreign programming and foreign financial sponsorship." Quoting Sig Mickelson of Time-Life: "The various underdeveloped countries are having to permit commercials because they can't afford a television system otherwise."43 The effect is unfortunate: In this way their economic development paths are set, regardless of  the intentions and designs of their planners, by the pull of  market-directed consumerism. Expectations of new roads to national development which might foster motivations and behavior  different from contemporary Western styles are being dashed in their infancy.44

Standardization of Culture

The standardization of popular culture provides the dominant classes with happy, exploited people whose minds are sedated with entertainment featuring comic strips, mindless music, and soap operas and comedies revolving around situations that distort reality and ignore basic problems of society. At the other end of the spectrum are the stories about sex and violence, the movie and TV mayhem, which brutalize and desensitize and hardly provide useful social insights because the emphasis is on individualistic solutions effected by cops, detectives, supermen and wonder women who are the equivalents of the cowboys of yester years fighting bad guys in defense of the law, women, and private property. Social relations are not dynamically presented. Instead, there is an atomization of society, individuals without relation to the society they live in. The hero fights the forces of evil as an individual. Social relations become abstract. This is hardly surprising since the fragmentation of oppressed classes - or better still, their  unawareness of their status - is a condition of the hegemony of the dominating class.

40

Colonizing Life Experiences

Reality is reordered and class conflicts and other political questions are glossed over. The ruling class colonizes the life experiences of  other classes in order to give its own values and objectives the appearance of universality. Thus, the culture disseminated is one that ignores class conflicts, and is not part of the political struggle. According to a study conducted in Venezuela, the "marginales or    bottom segment of the population lost their perception of class differences. They think that there are, to be sure, rich and poor, but all have access to the same consumer goods they hear about on the transistor or see on the TV.

45

Today's so-called popular music, in its various manifestations, reflects even more extremely both the emphasis on technology and the mindlessness that afflicts the majority of film and TV   productions. Rock music with its ear-splitting volume, its empty repetitive lyrics, generates nothing more than a purely physical excitement. It is incapable of saying anything meaningful about human life. Instead, it simply erects "walls of sound" behind which its consumers exist in an unreal world where the violence done to the senses becomes an opiate for the mind. It is said that when the generals took over in Chile they blasted rock  music through the loudspeakers into the streets of Santiago -cultural violence reflecting political and economic violence. Under Allende's government, Chilean musicians had rediscovered indigenous music and developed it to express the people's sentiments and aspirations. Song became a great mobilizing agent. The generals arrested and killed the artists to silence their music. Means of Social Control

Cultural domination is facilitated by the fact that Third World audiences have been reduced to passive recipients of inputs from information monopolies. Cultural experience is limited to seeing, hearing, and to a lesser extent reading pre-digested and packaged  products of the information industry that also 'controls entertainment.

41

People now think that being informed is simply knowing the latest news: they are habituated to learning about the newest development or event and forgetting what happened the day before. This is especially true of a growing majority who rely on the TV news coverage rather than on newspapers. In the Philippines, for example, the daffy newspaper has become too expensive for most families. A TV set has higher priority since it  provides both news and entertainment for a growing population of  non-readers. But TV offers each day's events simply as a passing show: images flash on the screen, words assault the ear and fade away. Who, what and where are its staples; why is hardly its forte. At least newspapers offer an occasional intelligent analysis, but a TV-habituated generation has no time or patience to be intellectually  provoked - indeed, does not even miss such an experience. This does not imply that a non-analytical presentation is nonjudgmental. Value   judgments are incorporated in how news is presented, in what is considered newsworthy, in what is ignored. Unknowingly, most viewers will absorb these value judgments as part of the factual  packages. The extent of technological progress especially in the realm of  communications has resulted, ironically enough, in the erosion of the individual's opportunity to arrive independently at an awareness of  his environment. Instead, media, particularly TV, provide him with a mediated or synthetic environment which takes the place of personal sensory experience of the world he lives in. He is presented with a reconstructed world and his perceptions of the real world are defined and delimited by the images he sees on the TV screen from day to day, from one newscast to the next. The viewer becomes a mere receiver, not only of the facts of the event but also of the value judgments implicit in the telling of the apparently factual account. With information and opinion neatly  packaged together and bombarding the viewer every waking hour, he hardly has the time to sort it all out and actively form opinions

42

of his own. He has become simply a passive consumer of information and ideas in an environment recreated - one could even say manufactured - for him by the communications industry. Ideological Dependence

The analytical mind is exercised and honed through interaction. Popular culture as dispensed by television and video tapes is 'generally consumed in isolation and has produced a fragmented, escapist, pliable, largely unthinking audience. The isolated individual who lives within the recreated environment is ready for mental colonization. New needs are implanted through the medium of  advertising which is an important means for homogenizing people. It trains them to regard commodities as the be-all and end-all of life. Possessing or enjoying them becomes life's sole meaning. The individual is given new images of himself and pressured to live up to that image - one which places the highest value on his consumption capacity thus making him an asset to the corporate society in which he lives. While the upper and middle classes constitute the more faithful market for Western cultural commodities, the relatively inexpensive transistor is fast becoming an indispensable fixture in the countryside and doles out, though not as graphically and with a more local accent, more or less the same pap as the television set. This is not to say that television and radio are a complete cultural wasteland but certainly, good, serious, solid programs are the exception rather than the rule. As for material that addresses a  problem in a people-oriented manner, that is scarcer than a hen's teeth on radio-TV. At least, the much maligned because administration-controlled newspapers, manage once in a while to print research findings and exposes from a progressive, Third World   perspective. True, the occasional talk-show sometimes tackles controversial subjects but time constraints and commercial interruptions usually preclude thorough discussion. The communications industry is now the main agent in the manufacture of a synthetic culture which promotes the concept of 

43

a universal and permanent economic system that is not to be challenged in any fundamental way With the monopoly control of  the television networks, the information systems, the record industry, video recorders, etc., culture itself has become a commodity. It has also become a means of social control. While a variety of Cultural   products give the illusion of freedom of choice, practically all of  them aim to standardize men and women into acceptable types of  citizens and consumers who do not question the, system.

47

Homogenization and Sedation

Cultural homogenization cannot be divorced from the economic techniques of contemporary capitalism. Cultural forms of domination and exploitation act as masks for economic domination. While  previous dominant classes in slave and feudal societies considered themselves as exclusive groups with strict social hierarchies, the ruling class under capitalism pictures itself as an open group that dynamically brings in all sectors, not only assimilating them to its culture but giving them the illusion of free upward economic and   political

mobility.

The

culture

that

emerges

from

mass

communications has a common standard. Identical material is delivered to a homogenized audience. Corporate president and delivery boy listen to the same newscast, laugh at the same jokes in the latest sit-com episode. It is an irony that with the "mass consumerization" of high technology information and communications facilities, the means of  widening the people's outlook and their access to culture, and education, because they are in private hands, are instead used for  imprisoning men's minds, diverting their attention from the real sources of poverty and exploitation, and preventing them from ~Understanding the society in which they live. The extension, of  mass culture" has become a means of democratizing domination. "Mass culture" has become anti-cultural. The term "mass culture" is a negation of real culture when culture along Western consumerist lines is refabricated to suit the lowest common denominator. It sinks to such a dept that the senses which are

44

supposed to be refined by culture are defiled by the inanities and  banality that pass for popular culture. It is this vulgarization of culture that is transmitted to the peoples of  the Third World who are integrated into the system of international capitalism. It is this type of Western culture tied up with consumption that is being peddled as a universal culture. It is this culture that is deforming the development of indigenous cultures of Third World countries and has shaped the minds of Third World people to accept the values, the approaches, the premises, of the developmentalists of  the West Standardization of Consumption and Culture

The standardization of both consumption and culture begins with the adoption of new products and styles (cultural or material) for the consumer markets in the imperial economies. These are disseminated to and readily appropriated by the upper and middle classes of  developing countries. However, since wider markets are needed for  more profits, the product is further promoted either as is or in a less expensive version to be consumed by a larger public. This destroys its value of exclusivity. The upper classes must then be provided with completely new products or the old ones are restyled. Thus begins a new cycle in the inexorable process of premature obsolescence and frantic modernization.48 From the exclusivity of the centers of modernity, consumption items are adopted by the elite in the Third World. Eventually, they seep down (though in cheaper versions) to the mass, thus "democratizing" these items. This leads the elite to pursue new items of exclusivity which are dictated from the centers of modernity. 49 Modernity is little more than changing the forms of consumption within an unchanging social structure. Thus the appearance of change masks the fact that there is no real change. This standardized culture with its international appeal is essentially anti-nationalist. At a time when Third World peoples need all the resources at their command to help them attain economic and

45

  political independence, the cultural products they consume divert their attention from such goals and promote cultural dependence. The TNCs and the governments that represent them correctly regard nationalist movements as threats to their economic expansion and  political control. Cultural penetration has proven to be an effective tool to impede such movements or at least to tame them. Thought Transference

Another useful effect of 'cultural homogenization is the transmission to Third World leaders and peoples of a world view supportive of  TNC objectives. Various foundations, funding agencies and universities are involved in providing Third World scholars with the opportunity to be acquainted with Western thought. This would not  be a bad thing since scholars the world over do need to keep abreast of developments in their respective fields. Unfortunately, too many of these programs are ultimately, if not expressly, intended to deepen the commitment of Third World intellectuals to developmental  programs emanating from the West. This technique is a repetition on a grander scale of the colonial cooptation of local elites. Captive intellectuals become additional transmission belts of transnational culture. There is now a plethora of writing on the Third World by Western social scientists, especially those of the establishment. Because they have readier access to the latest information and data than Third World scholars themselves, and because they subscribe to the  policies of their own governments or their funding agencies or their  universities, their

works are promoted as authoritative reference

 points of Third' World- scholars. Peoples of the Third World are thus given foreign images of themselves. Ideological dependence among the political leadership facilitates acceptance, of recommendations on types of state structures and economic development programs whether done directly by imperial states or through multilateral agencies. Many Third World governments have readily swallowed the myth of lack of 

46

local capital and the consequent need to attract foreign investments. Having accepted the concept of mutual interdependence, as enunciated by industrial states, they are now accommodating TNC requirements by providing cheap labor' and producing what the world market demands, even at the expense of their own people's needs. Ideological dependence insures that external forces are viewed as friends while internal counter-forces are considered subversive.

47

48

5 Philippine Cultural Scene

The early and systematic inculcation of information, concepts, ideas, values and world view, projected by the informational and cultural institutions of the US and her major allies has been one of the main concerns of the World Bank's 'educational thrust since the 1960s. As of June 1978, the World Bank had assisted some 10,000 educational and training institutions in 80 Third World countries around the world. 50

49

The Philippine Experience

In this regard, the Philippine experience may be instructive to other  Third World peoples inasmuch as it shows clearly the role of the cultural component in both colonial and neocolonial control. At the turn of the century, when G6n. Arthur MacArthur recommended a large appropriation for school purposes "as an adjunct to military operations calculated to pacify the people," he began a massive transplantation of American education which eventually transformed most

Filipinos

into

naively

willing

victims

of

American

colonization.51 One major aspect of the colonial education of the Filipino was the distortion of the history of the early period of American occupation.. Accounts of the fierce people's resistance and of the atrocities   perpetrated by the Americans in quelling this resistance were suppressed. Instead, the leaders of this resistance were branded as   bandits while the early collaborators from the ilustrado elite were   presented to the people as their true leaders. Of course, the Americans were portrayed in the schools as altruistic benefactors whom the Filipinos had welcomed with open arms. Thus, succeeding generations forgot their people's record of resistance, their history of  struggle. The use of English as a medium of instruction made possible the introduction of an American public school curriculum. With American textbooks, young Filipinos began learning not only a new language but a new culture. Education became miseducation because it began to de-Filipinize the youth, taught them to regard American culture as superior to any other, and American society as the model  par excellence for Philippine society. These textbooks gave them a good dose of American history while neglecting their own. Such aspects of Philippine life and history as found their way into later  school material naturally had to conform to the American viewpoint since the whole educational system was highly centralized. Today, World Bank funding for educational programs is aimed not

50

only at producing the manpower requirements of TNCs but also at fulfilling the long-term objective of developing in the youth values and outlooks supportive of the neocolonial status quo. World Bank  funded textbooks for the primary and secondary levels present colonization - particularly by the United States -as a salutary learning   process for the colonized. These textbooks constantly tout the indispensability of foreign investments and foreign loans to development, the need to export in order to earn dollars, the advantages of free trade with advanced countries, the importance to developing countries of the friendly assistance of the advanced states in extending loans, transferring technology and buying their products, and finally, they stress the duty of every citizen to support the government's development program, which is in fact the program designed by the WB-1MF for the fuller integration of the Philippine economy into the global capitalist system. 53 Native "Transmission Belts"

Aside from institutionalizing miseducation, colonialism preserved the   backward agricultural economy. Instead of producing a class of   proletarians, an active sector that could carry out the more advanced struggle for independence and against economic exploitation, colonialism produced a big sector of petty bourgeoisie. Shopkeepers, salesmen, professionals, government employees, etc. formed the mass product of colonial relations and education. This sector became avid consumers of American goods. Westernized in orientation, they  became the transmission belts of an alien culture. Such Westernized groups were deliberately created by the colonial   powers in all colonized countries to "turn their victims into their  defenders." In the colorful words of one author: They were fabricated initially to act as cogs in the administrative machines of Empire, then as the summer-glory of imperialism waned, they were fabricated with increasing subtlety and sophistication, in either the metropolitan country or in one of the new universities which sprang up like mushrooms in the aid-warmed autumn of imperialism,

51

that they might act as media through whom the cultural, political and economic influences of the metropolitan country might be  prolonged.54

Today, if a foreigner were to evaluate the cultural state of the Philippines he would probably be impressed with the achievements of Filipino artists, noting how they have kept abreast of cultural trends abroad. Unfortunately, too many of these achievements belong to a coterie that looks up to foreign models. As a matter of fact, the audience at cultural presentations is often dominated by the cosmopolitan set which patronizes and graces these events and whose approval is prized as a sign of success. Of late, there have been a number of probably well-intentioned attempts by cultural leaders to remedy what they deplore as the cultural poverty of the masses by making available to them through  provincial tours and lower prices the cultural fare that the middle and upper classes enjoy. Though there is no intention to suggest that the  people do not need exposure to the real cultural achievements of  Western peoples - and of all peoples in fact - too often these efforts merely result in further indiscriminate Westernization. A more meaningful cultural development is one that seeks its roots in the  people's history and the people's lives. Fortunately, this development is now being pushed by a few cultural workers and artists who see the emptiness of aping foreign models, but the Westernizing current is still dominant. Strangers to the People

The "new cultured Filipinos," it seems, are a breed apart from the mass of Filipinos. Their thought-processes are comprehensible only to themselves and their foreign models; they do not understand their    people and the people in turn regard their artistic and literary creations as objects of curiosity which neither affect their lives nor  elevate their spirits. They do not speak the same language and they do not have the same experiences. These elements of the intelligentsia, however, do not constitute a homogeneous group. Some of them are in a state of ferment

52

 precisely because they realize that they are a class without roots -adopted children of a foreign culture and foreigners to their own   people. They are genuinely concerned about the drift of present society though they are hindered by the framework within which they labor. Others, mistakenly believing that sophistication in the Western sense and familiarity with Western ways are the true measures of  cultural progress, have completely embraced cosmopolitan culture. Their one ambition, is someday to be at par with their foreign counterparts. Though many in this group may call themselves Filipinos and may, in a queer manifestation of nationalism, even boast of the prestige that they are earning for their country, they will never really belong to the Filipino people. They may now enjoy the adulation of lovers of  the esoteric but soon they will be forgotten, for their work cannot  become a part of the people's culture. In the end, it is the people and their culture that will endure.  National culture will be developed by and will emerge from the real   people; its essential features will certainly not be shaped by those who regard themselves as the purveyors of thought, art and taste to a mass they do not really consider to be capable of appreciating their  accomplishments. Seepage from Above

Many so-called cultural leaders proceed from the assumption that the  people can experience growth only by seepage from above and that, moreover, real culture, is premised on certain levels of income and leisure. These so-called cultural leaders who claim that they are contributing to national development (actually some have selfish, even pecuniary motivations) are in reality divorcing themselves from the people and are in effect providing weapons for the obliteration of  any sort of national culture. What they are accomplishing is   providing Westerners with a comfortable haven in these shores, making tourists feel they are at home, pampering those intellectuals who find recognition in the limited world of foreign and local cosmopolites, and adding to the confusion of 

53

other sectors who really do not belong to these circles. It seems to be the belief of these cultural leaders that the people can  be awakened culturally only by massive doses of foreign culture and frequent visits by foreign performers. Even those attempts to present native art or cultural fare based on native themes are sadly inadequate  precisely because they -proceed from a Western bias. More often than not they are only a form of condescension and a concession on the part of the elite who have their own heroes and idols from Western culture.

54

6 Responses

However massive informational dissemination may   be, however pervasive the cultural penetration, the dominant ideology is not the only ideology that exists. Inevitably, there develops an ideology of the dominated people which in inchoate or more developed form exhibits its resistance to the dominant culture and the social forces that sustain it and are sustained by it.

55

Synthetic Culture vs. People's Culture

The synthetic "mass culture" which is so much the product of the global communications system and of the operations of transnational corporations must be contradistinguished from people's culture. The latter is developed by the people themselves in accordance with their  daily needs and long-term aspirations. In the Third World, a people's culture is necessarily linked to the struggle against oppression and foreign control, invigorates this struggle and is invigorated by it. Therefore, any action toward the attainment of economic and  political independence also nourishes the growth of a people's culture and vice versa. One-way Information Flow

One important cultural objective is that of establishing sovereignty in the acquisition of information by setting up a national system to gather information and disseminate it. This will reduce the present imbalance in information exchange due to the monopoly of  communication services by industrial countries. To the extent that a Third World country's government is responsive to its own people, its national information system will disseminate more relevant world information. Such a system will also change the present situation wherein Third World nationals receive information about themselves largely from foreign sources. Thus, even their image of themselves is the product of foreign eyes and minds. Third World Reactions

The arrogant way the transnationals wield their awesome power over  global communication has generated vehement objections from the developing countries collectively victimized by the generally negative image presented of them. Unfortunately, this very domination, the foreign control over many Third World economies, their disparate political structures and the interests of their respective ruling groups have made it difficult for Third World countries to act collectively in establishing a New International Information and Communication Order.

56

Like the call for a New International Economic Order sounded by Third World countries represented by their respective ruling groups and therefore inconsistently advanced, the move for a New International Information and Communication Order, for the past eight years, has remained "a hope, a long-term objective." The  NIICO is "no more than an aspiration, not a programme with set goals and rigid deadlines."

55

Yet it is an aspiration worth pursuing,

however modestly and despite the overwhelming obstacles, because its main aim is the decolonization of mass media by regulating the activities

of

the

information

multinationals,

by

developing

communications structures that safeguard national sovereignty and cultural identity, and by assuring access to and participation in the international flow of information under conditions of equality, justice and mutual benefit. To the doctrine of "free flow" of information which "has often been used as an economic and/or ideological tool by the communications rich to the detriment of those not so well endowed,"

56

the Third

World countries through the UNESCO argue for a "free, reciprocal  balanced flow of accurate, complete and objective information, and for the rectification of the imbalance in the quantitative and qualitative flow of information between the developing and the industrialized countries." 57 Two-Fold Problem

The problem in the Philippines is two-fold. On the one hand, we have internally a vertical flow of information from above with almost no reverse flow from below, and on the other, the very vehicles of  national information owned and operated by the dominant groups have become channels of international control   because of tie-ups with foreign monopolies. The NIICO like the NIEO is officially supported by the Philippine government but more in the realm of rhetoric, and only as a reaction to negative publicity on the regime in the Western press.  Nevertheless, the fact that it is intermittently mentioned as a desirable end may open up possibilities for popular forces to press

57

their demands, not only for a free press but also for an independent  press. Committed communicators may work within the interstices of the media system. There is no consistent conspiracy which ties all the   publishers at any given moment to one tendency or viewpoint. Publishers, too, have their own sectoral contradictions which could make it possible for some members of media to expose certain truths against certain sections of the ruling class, and even against imperialism itself. We need an expanding core of analysts who can correct impressions resulting from the barrage of information directed at a passive audience. Journalists and groups speaking for  the "inarticulate mass" must demand newspaper space and air time for their viewpoints in the context of the struggle for a free press. If  used in a responsible manner, such a foothold could become  permanent. Alternative Possibilities

Whether or not some little space and time in the establishment media is granted, committed organizations must explore alternative  possibilities opened by new technologies. Small radio stations can be operated, presupposing a struggle against monopoly of frequencies. Betamax tapes may be utilized to reach a wider audience. Small, efficient word processors may be employed to put out community   papers. In short, efforts must be exerted to pluralize sources. Attempts should likewise be made to widen exchanges with other  Third World countries. Whatever may be the chosen venue, it should  be organized and patiently sustained on a continuing basis. Too many   projects are either too grandiose to be viable or suffer from the ningas cogon mentality and expire after Vol. 1, No. 1. Above all,

such efforts should carefully adjust to the level of their target audience. These are small beginnings to counter the consequences of monopoly in media. Freedom of the press, traditionally the preserve of a narrow elite, should be extended to the masses who theoretically enjoy this  basic right. This is the real meaning of the democratization

58

of communications, -which is one of the goals of NIICO. In the words of a report on the subject submitted to UNESCO, "The media should contribute to promoting the just cause of peoples struggling for freedom and independence and their right to live in peace and equality without foreign interference. This is especially important for  all oppressed peoples who, while struggling against colonialism, religious and racial discrimination, are deprived of opportunity to make their voices heard within their own countries." 58 Communications and Development

The struggle against monopoly in communications must start at home. The restoration of freedom of expression is the beginning of  the struggle against international monopolies. Communication must  be restored to its original two-way nature. This will be an arduous, uphill, fight considering present constraints but some modest gains can still be achieved even within the system. The residual consciousness of people which reacts against oppression can become the focal point in the resistance against an unjust communications  policy which is the outgrowth of an unjust socio-economic system. We must not separate communications policies from the development   programs adopted by this country. They are part and parcel of a general plan conceived by external forces which the communications system is trying to sell to its victims. In the Philippine context, in the context in fact of all societies wracked by class antagonisms, large masses of people are denied,   partially or wholly, of specific rights "such as the right to be' informed, the right to inform, the right to privacy, the right to  participate in public communication - all elements of a new concept, the right to communicate."

59

They are disadvantaged by many

factors: illiteracy, poverty, inaccessibility or inadequacy of the technological means and knowhow, etc. During the moments when their lives are touched by media, they are inundated by alien or  distorted imagery or information which reinforce their ignorance and apathy. The communications revolution has arrived

59

even in the Philippines, but the magic wrought by computers, telephones, telex machines, video recorders, etc. is monopolized by a narrow urban elite. The Philippine experience shows very clearly that "the national oligarchy of a developing country has very close interests with those who sell the products of the industrialized countries, whereas the material interests of the poor masses are almost always in opposition to those of the ruling class..." 60 The Options at Hand

In the Philippines, the present power structure encourages integration with the world power structures. Though not openly stated, Philippine communications policy is in support of the developmental  programs of TNCs and advanced industrial countries. An alternative  program must therefore strive for a delinking, or a. selective linkage which will be based on the interests of the people. It must develop a communications policy that will transform the passive receivers into active participants. As a market for technologies and programs, we have the option of not buying, or buying only that which is in our  interest. Within the existing constraints, we can strive for a more horizontal access and participation in the communication process. There are crevices within the national structures that can be exploited. There are institutions and organizations that can make information flow from the bottom up. The movement for an alternative communications order must study structures of ownership and distribution in order to mitigate the vertical lines of  communications flow. Given their tie-ups and orientation, the local powers-that-be who also control the media have no choice but to bow to the pressures emanating from transnational advertisers and technology suppliers, even if they do complain sometimes and pay lip service to the   NIICO. In the main, there is a confluence of interests as quasimartial-law powers are exercised to contain dissent through media regulation or manipulation for the benefit not only of the present  power holders but also of the foreign corporations lording it over 

60

the economy. These interests, however, are not all the time identical, especially at this stage when the US is trying all means, including the adroit and sometimes clandestine use of both global media and some segments of the local press, to pressure the Marcos regime and pave the way for a more acceptable political order. On the other hand, we must not fall into the error of thinking that reforms within media will solve the problems of freedom of  expression. We must view communications as part and parcel of  international and national structures. We cannot entertain the illusion that we can have a free media simply by a change of leadership without changing structures that cause oppression and encourage a  popular consciousness that perpetuates an unjust system. Even if we change the ownership of present media, new interests intertwined with international monopolies would still constitute a restraining factor on democratic forces. Some Guidelines

The situation is complex. While it is correct to demand removal of  the obstacles created by the present regime to the exercise of the   people's right to communicate, the main enemy must also remain visible and be dealt with accordingly. To this end, some general guidelines derived from the Macbride Report, the output of the 16-member International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems submitted to the UNESCO in 1980, may be suggested: 1) Formulation and development of comprehensive national communication policies, which should "evolve from broad consultations with all sectors concerned" and "the setting up of adequate mechanisms for wide participation of organized social groups in their  definition and implementation." 2) Removal of obstacles and restrictions "which derive from the concentration of media ownership, public or private, from commercial influences on the press and broadcasting, or from private

61

or government advertising." 3) "Effective legal measures ... designed to: (a) limit the process of  concentration and monopolization; (b) circumscribe the action of  transnationals by requiring them to comply with specific criteria and conditions defined by national legislation and development policies; (c) reverse trends to reduce the number of decision makers at a time when the media's public is growing larger and the impact of  communication is increasing; (d) reduce the influence of advertising upon editorial policy and broadcast programming; (e) seek and improve models which would ensure greater independence and autonomy of the media concerning their management and editorial  policy, whether those media are under private, public or government ownership." 4) Strengthening cultural identity and creativity through the establishment of national cultural policies which "ensure that creative artists and various grassroots groups can make their voice heard through the media;" "introduction of guidelines with respect to advertising content and the values and attitudes it fosters, in accordance with national standards and practices;" putting more emphasis on "non-commercial forms of mass communications" integrated with the traditions and cultural goals of the country; 5) Development of essential elements of communications systems; "print media, broadcasting and telecommunications long with the related training and production facilities." These should include "strong national news agencies vital for improving country's national and international reporting;" comprehensive radio networks reaching the remotest areas; basic postal telecommunications services through "small rural electronic changes;" a community press in small towns and the country; "utilization of local radio, low-cost small format television, and video systems and other appropriate technologies (to) facilitate production- of programmes relevant to community development efforts, stimulate participation and provide opportunity for diversified cultural expression “.

62

6) Access to technical information and advanced communications technology with the end in view of developing national capabilities in this area to answer national needs; establishment of national and international measures, "among them reform of existing patent laws and

conventions,

appropriate

legislation

and

international

agreements," to counteract concentration and monopolization by a few

industrialized

states

and

transnational

corporations';

strengthening collective self-reliance and cooperation .among developing countries in this crucial field; 7) Democratizing media management "by associating the following categories: (a) journalists and professional communicators; (b) creative artists; (c) technicians; (d) media owners and managers; (e) representatives of the public. Such democratization of the media needs the full support and understanding of all those working in them, and this process should lead to their having a more active role in editorial policy and management."61 Communications and Liberation

The substance and spirit of the above suggestions are obviously antithetical to prevailing norms described by one media expert as "highly centralized," "government-oriented, (and) often associated with the domination of a technocratic elite that focuses on 'social' efficiency and 'public' rationality at the cost of democratic   participation.

End users are not consulted; technology precedes

 policy as when "broadcast stations are set up even before programme  philosophy and strategies are developed. Worst of all,"dependence of  communication technology on multinationals who supply technology as well as replacement 64 parts and maintenance has threatened the growth of self-reliance. Still, democratic and anti-imperialist forces must for the moment operate within the given constraints while seeking to transcend them through consistent and sustained struggle. There must be a determined effort to widen whatever breathing space is left, using the very means the enemy itself wields as well as creatively developing alternative vehicles of communication.

63

As the Macbride Report succinctly puts it. "communication can be an instrument of power, a revolutionary weapon, a commercial product, or a means of education; it can serve the ends of either liberation or  of oppression, of either the growth of the individual personality or of  drilling human beings into uniformity." 65

64

7 The CounterCulture

Democratic, anti-imperialist movements operating despite the combined repression of local regimes and external

forces

are

daily

developing

a

new

counter-culture in the course of their sustained efforts for national independence. Resistance has produced literature and drama, music and art for and by the  people because the growth of a real national culture is tied up with the struggle for liberation from local oppression and imperialism. The struggle against imperialism also requires confrontation with cultural imperialism. 65

What is the concept of a national culture? It is not the glory of the  past where there was little or none. It is not only folklore, it is not only a revival of tradition. Above all it is the summation of the needs of the people, the description of their past and present condition, an expression of their values, thoughts and emotions, the depiction of  their historic struggles to liberate themselves. True national culture is inextricably linked to the people's needs, ideas, emotions and   practices. National literature, art, music and all -other forms of  culture must therefore find their source and inspiration in the people's activities and dedicate their achievements to the people. It is true that the poverty of the masses is a major cause of their   poverty of culture. But this poverty itself breeds its own dynamic as it transforms the feeling of deprivation into a desire to negate the condition itself. This process in turn develops its own forms of  expression and action which if crystallized and systematized become the matrix of a. people's culture. A real people's culture will constitute the negation of a culture that is merely an appendage of or  an emanation from a foreign culture which has obliterated the Filipinos' own culture because it is the expression of their own obliteration as a nation. 66 Characteristics of People's Culture

The culture of dissent and resistance is not neutral and does not  pretend to be so. The culture of the oppressed is partisan. It is the dominant culture of the ruling classes that falsely claims both neutrality and universality. The cultural worker therefore cannot be neutral; he must make a choice. If he chooses the side of the people he will be more productive the greater his understanding of and  participation in people's movements and actions. People's culture will take many forms depending on each nation's history and cultural traditions, the characteristics of the people's struggle for liberation, and the period when this takes place. Despite its infinite possibilities, we may essay a list of qualities it would have and will probably have wherever it develops as an

66

integral part of the movement for political and economic independence. It will be nationalist without being xenophobic'. It will express nationalist sentiments precisely because the movement is committed to the defense of the country's patrimony from foreign exploitation. It will be democratic because it speaks with the voice of the majority, the working people; it expresses their needs and aspirations and is t he fruit of their wisdom and experience while it also helps them to understand themselves. Because of its closeness to the people, this culture will always be deeply human. An authentic people's culture must be scientific in order to counteract  popular mysticism, superstition and archaic traditions and beliefs that can only delay the people's victory. On the other hand, a culture heavily oriented towards science and technology but with a less than firm commitment to nationalism may eventually yield to foreign domination. Finally, a culture that caters to popular sentiments without a strong scientific and nationalist foundation may simply be a revival of cultural traditions rather than a new creation under new historical circumstances. These are pitfalls to be avoided. In the sense that the needs and aspirations of the working people follow a similar pattern in most countries, the culture that emerges from their struggle for national sovereignty and freedom from oppression, while possessing specific and diverse characteristics in each country, in its general contours transcends national boundaries and acquires a universal character. Such a culture will eventually negate the global synthetic culture as more and more Third World  peoples achieve their liberation. The Need for Re-education

The starting point must be an awareness of a separate identity, a recognition that Filipino interests are not identical with those of the United States, that they are in fact opposed to hers. To this day, many of the people, though they may readily see the exploitation of  Filipinos by Filipinos, still cling to the myths about a benevolent America that colonial education inculcated in them.

67

Once false consciousness about the United States is dismantled, understanding of the role of other states will quickly follow . Re-education is therefore an urgent task and this involves no less than a drastic mental overhaul, the exploding of myths, the correction of misconceptions, the exposure of facts hitherto concealed in Philippine history and in present reality. The most effective way of exposing the myths about the United States is through a re-study of history. This re-study will reveal that the original basis of Philippine "special relations" with the United States was a deception, a myth that has imprisoned generations of  Filipinos. Learning and teaching a decolonized history is therefore an essential part of re-education. The content of education should be detached from its colonial moorings and imbued with a Filipino outlook. The national language should be given more solid emphasis as a medium of instruction. Books and other instructional materials should be those written by Filipinos. Of course, the educational system as presently constituted can hardly  be expected to institute basic changes although here and there, some academic people may be making a dent. The hope of re-education therefore lies in workers organizations, peasant groups, youth associations. Nationalism and Internationalism

The advanced nations of the world naturally do not view with favor  the growth of nationalism in a Third World country although, shrewdly, they encourage its more neutral or harmless manifestations in the cultural field as an escape valve for the discontent of  dominated peoples. What the powerful capitalist states are encouraging is the concept of internationalism, the idea that they and the Third World nations are economically, interdependent in a mutually beneficial way and must therefore stand together politically. Just as the generations of Filipinos under American rule where  brainwashed into believing that their status as an

68

agricultural, raw-material exporting country was the only proper  one for them, the Filipinos of today are beguiled into believing that the only path to progress open for them is that of modernization through a dependent industrialization. Western cultural institutions and mass media generally reinforce all these concepts as they continue westernizing the cultures of the Third World. Subtly, the idea of nationalism is downgraded as no longer relevant, or it is associated with its past jingoistic manifestations in other  countries such as Germany and Japan. There are Filipinos who think they must make a choice between nationalism and internationalism or that one should be subordinated to the other. It is necessary to know the correct interconnection of the two. Internationalism is a feeling of kinship with the peoples of the world, not with their rulers or their governments. Nationalism is the Filipinos' consciousness of their interests. To be a good nationalist one must share the goals of other peoples for a better life, in effect making one a real internationalist. But before one can be a good internationalist, one must be a nationalist first, taking into consideration the welfare of one's own people before being able to help others - but ever conscious of the fact that the larger goals of a whole people preclude the exploitation of others. In other words, the internationalist content of nationalism lies in the egalitarian aspect of  world brotherhood, and the nationalist content of internationalism lies in the concept of national sovereignty within the present system of world states and in its defense against imperialist onslaughts. Our own culture forged in the struggle for liberation will be our  distinct contribution to a universal' culture embracing all the world's free peoples.

69

70

Notes 1

Ian Lind. "A Critical Look at Castle and Cooke," Multinational  Monitor, July 1981, Dorothy Friesen and Gene Stoltzfus, "Castle

and Cooke in Mindanao," January 1978, Third World Studies Program, University of the Philippines. 2. Ernest Feder,   Perverse Development, Quezon City, Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1983; Vivencio Jose, (ed.) Mortgaging  the Future, Quezon City, Foundation for Nationalist Studies,

1982, p. 108. 3. R. Barnet and R. Mueller, Global Reach,  New York, Simon and Schuster, 1974,p.184. 4. John Tanner, "Milk Marketing Continues,"  New Statesman, 23  November 1984. 5. Interview with rural women from Bulacan, Pampanga, Isabela and Nueva Ecija, by Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo, (March 22, 1985) in connection with the preparation of an alternative country report on the impact of the UN Decade for Women. 6. Jon' Madeley, "Third World; tobacco's last frontier,"  Bulletin Today, January 12, 1984; Albert Huebner, "Making the Third

World Marlboro Country," The Nation, June 16, 1979; "Cigaret smoking, lung cancer up in TW," Times journal, August 23,1982. 7. Renato Constantino, "Rescheduling the Crisis," address before the Rizal Medical Society, Feb. 10, 1985.

71

8, John K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, Hammondsworth, UK, 1975, p. 55 et. seq. 9. Wilson P. Dizzard, "The Coming Information Age."  Economic  Impact, No. 44, 1984-1984.

10.  Ibid. 11. Cees J. Hamelink, "New Technologies and the Third World - A 'Distribution

of

Social

Benefits'?"   New

Communication

Techonologies and Their Impact on Western Industrialized  Countries, Bonn, FRG, FriedrichEbert-Stiftung, 1984, p. 47.

12. Thilo Pohlert, "Computers in Telecommunication Services," in Ibid., p.68.

13. Amilcar Cabral, "The Role of Culture in the Liberation Struggle," in Armand Mattelart and Seth Siegelaub, eds., Communication and Class Struggle,   New York, International

General, France, IMMRC, 1973, p.210. 14. Maolshoachlainn 0. Caollai, "Broadcasting and the Growth of a Culture," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit. 15. Seth Siegelaub, "A Communication on Communication," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit., p. 11; a well rounded discussion of the problem can be found in Cees Hamelink, The Corporate Village, IDOC International, Rome, 1977. 16. Ibid.

17. Kaarle Nordenstreng and Tapio Varis, "The Nonhomogeneity of  the

National

Communication,"

State in

and

the

George

International Gebner,

et

Flow al.,

of  eds.,

Communications, Technology and Social  Policy, New York,

John Wiley and Sons,-, 1973, pp. 394-399. 18. Armand Mattelart, "Introduction: For a Class Analysis of  Communication," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit., 65-66,

19. "Lords of the Air," The Nation, March 30, 1985.

72

20. Ibid. 21. The Film Countil, "A Brief History of the American Film Industry," in Mattelart and Sigelaub, op. cit,, pp. 255-257. 22. Thomas H, Guback, "Film as International Business," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit., p. 364. 23, Ibid,. pp. 359-366. 24. R. Bunce, Television in the Corporate Interests, Praeger, New York, 1976, p. 84, also cited by Jeremy Turnstall, The Media Are  American, Great Britain, Constable and Co., 1977.

25. Enrique Gonzales Manet, "NIIO-. Issues and Trends, 1983,"  Democratic journalists, 7/8/83.

26. Cees Hamelink, The Corporate Village. Op. cit., p. 10. 27. Renato

Constantino,

"The

Transnationalization

of 

Communication: Implications on Culture and Development," lecture before the Institute of International Studies, University of  the Philippines, Nov. 23, 1984; fuller discussion on the national security state may be found in Armand Mattelart, "Notes on the Ideology of the Military State," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit., pp. 406-427.

28. Sang-Chul Lee, "Some Aspects of the New World Information Order,” Media Asia, Vol. 8, No. 2, 198 1, pp. 91-92. 29. Dieter Bielenstein, ed., Toward a New World Information Order: Consequences for Development Policy, Brunswick, FRG,

Institutefor International Relations, 1980, pp. 21-22. 30. Herbert 1. Schiller, "Genesis of the Free Flow of Information Principles," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit., p. 345. 31. Vicente Maliwanag, "The Flow of World News: An Appraisal," Media Asia, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1983, p. 30.

32. Gerald

Sussman,

"Telecommunications

Technology:

Transnationalizing the New Philippine information Order," in Media, Culture and Society, London, Academic Press, Inc. 1982,

 p. 388.

73

33.Ibid., p. 382. 34.Ibid. 35. Ibid., p. 388. 36.Ibid., p. 337. 37. "State of TV Reflects Economy,"  Business Day, Oct. 23, 1984;

see also, "The new economics of the air time for advertising,"  Business Outlook, December, 1976. 38. Orly S. Mercado and Elizabeth B. Buck, "Media Imperialism in

Philippine Television," Media Asia, 1981, p. 97. 39.Ibid. 40. Jeremy Turnstall, The Media Are American, Great Britain,

Constable and Co., Ltd., 1977, pp. 38-39. 41. Hidetoshi Kato, "Global Instantaneousness and Instant Globalism

The Significance of Popular Culture in Developing Countries," in Wilbur Schramm and Daniel Lerner, eds., Communication and  Change the L4st Ten Years and the Next, 1976, University Press

of Hawaii~ p. 257. 42. Ibid. 43. Herbert Schiller, "Channels of dependence: Export of homo

consumens" in Cees Harnelink, The Corporate Village, op. cit.,  p. 145. 44. Ibid., pp. 145-146. 45. "Barnet and Mueller, op. cit., p. 185. 46. Leon Rosselson, "Pop Music: Mobiliser or Opiate?" in Carl

Gardner, ed., Media, Politics and Culture, London, MacMillan Press, 1979, pp. 40-50. 47. Michele Mattelart, "Notes on 'Modernity': A Way of Reading

Women's Magazines," in Mattelart and Siegelaub, op. cit., pp. 158-178. 48. ibid.

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49. Ibid. 50. World Development Report 1980, Washington, D.C.; the World Bank, August 1980, cited in Vivencio R. Jose, ed., Mortgaging  the Future, Quezon City, Foundation for Nationalist Studies,

1982, p. 131. 51. Renato Constantino, "The Miseducation of the Filipino," and Letizia R. Constantino, "World Bank Textbooks - Scenario for  Deception," Quezon City, Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1982. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid. 54. Keith Buchinan,  Reflections on Education in the Third world,  Notting-ham, Spokesman Books, 1975, p. 37. 55. Sean MacBride, Many Voices, One World, Paris, Unesco, 1980. 56. Ibid. 57. Isaac A. Sepetu, "Toward a New International Information Order  Consequences for its Realization in the Third World's View," in Dieter Beilenstein, op. cit., p. 59. 58. MacBride, op. cit., p. 2 59. Ibid. 60. Nordenstreng and Varis, in Gebner, -op. cit., p. 411. 61. MacBride, op. cit., p. 267. 62. Florangel Rosario-Braid, "Patterns of Information Technology Transfer in the Philippines," Media Asia, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1983, p. 170. 63. Ibid., pp. 170-171. 64. Ibid., p. 175. 65. MacBride, op. cit., p. 253.

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