ALTERNATIVE MEDIA in the Philippines and beyond.

By Eric Evangelista

What is alternative media?

Mainstream media, or traditional media, is the primary ways by which messages are communicated to a larger audience. It consists of TV, Radio, and Print. However, it can be argued that at least for urban areas, internet and mobile communications have become mainstream as well. Alternative media is the term used to refer to channels of communication outside mainstream media. The term alternative can be used in various contexts such as mode, reach, as well as content. Newer modes of communication outside traditional media such as the internet, mobile communications may be considered as alternative media. Alternative media could also refer to smaller media outfits that have smaller resources and reach. It could also refer to media (newspapers, TV, radio) that communicate/air messages that are not considered mainstream (alternative points of view, not commonly accepted by society) etc. Alternative media, which promote an active, critical, and empowered audience, tend to be independently operated, small-scale, openly supportive of political change, and critical of dominant institutions and values. Alternative media sources include periodicals, non-commercial radio stations, broadcast and low-power television stations, cable access operations, and independent video and film producers. To the extent that alternative media are effective in reaching the public, the promulgation of a different set of values

should be expected. If the values of the alternative media affect the new century, then more participants should feel more involved, share more information, and represent more interests than would be the case without the alternative media Some would refer to SMS as alternative mediahowever, its wide access to the masses makes it more of a mainstream media rather than alternative media. However, for this paper, we define alternative media as media outside the traditional onesTV, radio, and print. Discussion During the 2010 Philippines' Presidential election a great deal of alternative media campaigns were used to get the message out to vote for their candidate of choice. In todays technology driven society the key to a successful media campaign is to use alternative media such as social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs to tap the consumers to get out and make a difference. In a essay written by Anisah Mohamed, she defines; Alternative Media is a slippery term fraught with multiple meanings. Ranging from community radio to fan zines to news websites, it covers a wide gamut of media forms that challenge the status quo. In its most expansive and popular use, the term alternative media includes all media that are somehow opposed to or in tension with mainstream media. (Mohamed, 2011) She also adds that communications scholar James Hamilton argues that most definitions of alternative media casts mainstream media as maximizing audiences by appealing to safe, conventional formulas, and [alternative

media]foregoing the comfortable, depoliticizing formulas to advocate programs of

social change.. In other words by reaching a wide audience they are able to connect with people they would never reach through mainstream media. Hamilton and others have suggested this dichotomy is oversimplified. The radical media theorist John Downing argues that to speak of alternative media in this way is almost oxymoronic. Everything, at some point, he notes, is alternative to something else .(Mohammed,2011) Thus, creating a duality with the way people are able to interact with news and information that would otherwise reach only a limited group.

With the increase use of video-mobile technology the idea of having active participation in news media has become an interesting forum for people to be active or vigilant in reporting abuses in crime. In a blog entry from 2010 Butaldini predicted the rise of this alternative media in approaching the way people report crimes. He suggested in his blog that, Alternative media could help in catching and preventing corruption from elected officials and bureaucrats. For one, a lot of the dealings of government officials could be posted on the internet. The budget and actual expense items of the various national government offices and LGUs could be posted. This approach would technically make government more transparent and accountable for their actions. In the same blog entry he also noted that lifestyle survey findings could also be posted using alternative media. Anti-corruption action sites could be made, to which people could tweet, SMS or e-mail tips and leads. These could then be taken up by blogs (data-mined, analysed, and commented on), and if

need be posted on Facebook and other social media. The writer also made some suggestion on better improving corruption watch with the use of alternative media. He wrote: The bureaucracy is a source of what is called petty corruption, with fixers asking for money to help people get a drivers license, accomplish and submit income tax returns, get GSIS or SSS benefits etc. What if people would set up honest citizens desks in the LTO, BIR, GSIS, etc. where volunteers would help out ordinary citizens with their applications. These desks would double as assistance centers and complaints desks for ordinary citizens, and they would be online through blogs. Many problems with these offices would be blogged about, and get the necessary mileage in social networking sites; and citizens can always contact these by SMS, Tweet or blogs. Im sure petty corruption will be lessened, and efficiency increased as a result of this. Hence, great ideas can come from alternative media that can impact a community instead of using personal connection to get ahead why not create a new forum where help is free at no cost to the masses.

Another individual that has created a forum for alternative media using the internet is Maria Ressa. She evokes this old idea of reaching out to people and finding out truly the core of emotion in the field of communication that is very important in creating a voice in our internet driven times. She said in her speech back in 2011 a very powerful and meaningful message about the power of alternative media. She stated:

The medium that carries the message shapes and defines the message itself. Social medias instantaneous nature pushed the speed at which these revolutions unraveled and spread discontent and courage virally across the region. The first messages created ripple effects, amplified and pushed further by countless, nameless people spreading not just the message itself but their emotions what psychologists call emotional contagion. Its extremely powerful, and it created protest movements that were difficult for authoritarian governments to control. Why? Because they were modeled on the networks of the web loose, nonhierarchical, leaderless. You dont know whom to arrest, no political parties to tear apart, no underground revolt to dismantle. This is the people, and any government that fights its people will ultimately fail. Essentially, her claim is that alternative media like the internet and social media like Facebook has created a seat of power for individuals to recognize the difference between what is being fed by traditional media to the reality based on first hand experience. The alternative media has like blogs or facebook has

become a more mainstream. Since mainstream media tend to be biased or cater to a certain group of people or sector of society. Alternative media tends to offer information that can be available to a niche audience. Mainstream media employs professionals. These professionals have a series of skills they have acquired in order to do their job, and have a vested interest in keeping their job, given that their livelihood depends on it. In contrast with alternative media which tends to be run on a parttime basis by people who have other specialization. This allows a much greater

freedom to choose stories, because one is not sedimented as strongly within a power-knowledge structure on which one depends on. Thus, making alternative media much more appealing to a niche audience who would not normally pick up a newspaper to catch up on the latest news. Since most of the alternative media outlets are non-profit organization they tend to give less biased information to consumers. Hence making them less likely to sell you on the information they are giving. The alternative media has also

helped in marketing new ideas, brands to otherwise less savvy consumers. Mobile marketing can take several forms, including messaging, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and the mobile Internet, streaming media, and downloadable content. Consumers are readily accessible through this emerging form of new media, with mobile campaigns having the ability to build a database of consumers that can be mined to better understand consumer wants and needs, which in turn can help develop highly targeted campaigns (Ferris,2007) In another paper on alternative media authors suggested the effectiveness of this approach to give access that can be quantified in terms of viability of social media. The power of an effective social media program must be measured. This can be accomplished by continually assessing the level of dialogue and engagement among members. Specifically, relationships and content constitute the two sources of social media currency. The effectiveness of a social media marketing program must be measured in terms of its ability to generate positive buzz about a firm, as well as its products and services. This, in turn, should translate into measurable business results for the firm -- whether in the form of

increased awareness, increased sales, or increased loyalty. Social media effectiveness should not solely be measured in terms of the volume of WOM buzz; rather, the importance, impact, and level of involvement of WOM communication must also be quantified (Dwyer, 2007). Therefore, making alternative media like social media platforms serve as the vehicle through which all communication efforts can connect to easily accessible, integrated consumer venue. Social media is pervasive by nature and is characterized by its ability to instantaneously connect an infinite number of people. ( Castronovo,2012)

Since Facebook and twitter are a forum of used as alternative media, individuals can also argue the affects of this forums on how communication of information can alter ways of perception. In a research conducted in 2012, a multivariate analysis indicated that those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives. Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook friends agreed more that others had better lives. ( Chou,2012) Therefore, this form of alternative media can help sway perception of information found on their feed that could impact not only they way they live but also the way they choose a candidate to vote for or which milk to buy.

Going back to our history in the Philippines alternative media one can argue

that this type of communication date back to the times of Rizal with his writings in La Solaridad. To further bring closer to recent history we can look at the alternative media during the 80's and the Edsa Revolution. In an article by Vicky Randal she explains the use of alternative media in helping end the Marcos dictatorship and helping bring back the democracy in the country. She writes: One striking instance of the contribution of the alternative media to this phase of democratization is in the Philippines. According to Gonzalez, these media, among which he includes international media but also Church media and street papers, played a key part in helping to formulate alternative perspectives to the official and dominant view before the revolution of February 1986. During the uprising, Church radio stations, Radio Veritas and a makeshift back-up, Radio Bandido, interpreted ongoing events and offered advice. Radio Veritas had revised its programming following Aquino's assassination, and thereby entered the ranks, Gonzalez argues, of the alternative media. Extending his analysis into what could admittedly be seen as the transition period, he observes "People in the barricades were told where the next loyalist attacks might be expected and which roads leading to the rebel camps needed to be blocked by human waves". All in all he summarises the alternative media's role: The main accomplishments of the alternative media in the Philippines were to broaden the context in which events could be interpreted and to influence as well as react to some of the key audience segments that provided leadership in the Aquino campaign and in the subsequent revolution.(n65) Randal further asserts that in using alternative media during the 80's edsa

revolution, people needed to realize its impact on the messages they brought to the masses. She writes in the article: Here we must also mention the 'alternative' media. It must first be acknowledged that in circumstances where the 'mainstream' media are subject to extensive political repression, the moment they do criticise authoritarian rule they risk transgressing the hazy boundaries of what is deemed legitimate and becoming de facto 'alternative'. The distinction is by no means hard and fast. Also there is no logical limit to what forms of media are included in the category. The wall poster, the leaflet and the sporadic cyclostyled broadsheet can all count. However, the term 'alternative', at least in the context of the indigenous media, seems often to connote 'popular', owned and run not by government, parties or commercial interests but by collectives of one kind or another. These are often based on religious groups, trade unions or guerrilla movements. And they consciously seek to provide an 'alternative' perspective, more relevant to ordinary people's 'real' lives and needs. In that sense, such alternative media require a degree of continuity and some minimum level of technical proficiency and access to equipment, however rudimentary. As such they are more a feature of Central and Latin America than of Africa. Locally-run, sometimes illegal, radio stations have been especially noteworthy in parts of Central and Latin America, and in the Philippines. To further explore the use of alternative media to get the message across to the masses. One can also look at the approached used by the masses during the Edsa Dos revolt against President Joseph Estrada when the use of SMS was

vital in helping gather people together.

In an article by Clay Shirky further

explains the implication of alternative media in helping create social change. The author wrote: On January 17, 2001, during the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada, loyalists in the Philippine Congress voted to set aside key evidence against him. Less than two hours after the decision was announced, thousands of Filipinos, angry that their corrupt president might be let off the hook, converged on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, a major crossroads in Manila. The protest was arranged, in part, by forwarded text messages reading, "Go 2 EDSA. Wear blk." The crowd quickly swelled, and in the next few days, over a million people arrived, choking traffic in downtown Manila. The public s ability to coordinate such a massive and rapid response -- close to seven million text messages were sent that week -- so alarmed the country's legislators that they reversed course and allowed the evidence to be presented. Estrada's fate was sealed; by January 20, he was gone. The event marked the first time that social media had helped force out a national leader. Estrada himself blamed "the text-messaging generation" for his downfall. As the communications landscape gets denser, more complex, and more participatory, the networked population is gaining greater access to information, more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action. In the political arena, as the protests in Manila demonstrated, these increased freedoms can help loosely coordinated publics demand change.

Although the story of Estrada's ouster and other similar events have led observers to focus on the power of mass protests to topple governments, the potential of social media lies mainly in their support of civil society and the public sphere -change measured in years and decades rather than weeks or months. The U.S. government should maintain Internet freedom as a goal to be pursued in a principled and regime-neutral fashion, not as a tool for effecting immediate policy aims country by country. It should likewise assume that progress will be incremental and, unsurprisingly, slowest in the most authoritarian

regimes( Shirky,2011) Although, at the moment alternative media's role in helping create change in the grassroots level has been primarily unseen in Manila since the failed attempts to outs the former president. The clear existence of social networking and other technologies has made a huge impact in creating a forum for communication when it comes to echoing messages of change particularly in places where it is needed the most. Furthermore, alternative media helps give voice to individuals who wouldn't have a chance to do so on a larger form of media. In an article written by Dorothy Kidd in 1999, she explained the effectiveness of alternative media in influencing social change in communities all over the world. This role of alternative media as unofficial opposition to mainstream media has been crucial to the extension of public discussion and debate about a wide range of concerns and issues. If alternative media are not the first to break stories, we are usually the first to provide any depth of analysis.

Alternative media that are committed to altering society, to social, political and economic change, operate with a different vision from corporate media, which view people as ever-narrower niches of consumers to be delivered to advertisers. Underscoring the social change part of "alternative" also allows us to differentiate between alternative media. A whole range of media are described as alternative because they speak to groups who have been misrepresented, or

underrepresented, in the mainstream.( Kidd, 1999) Atton (2002) offers as an example Project Censored which each year releases its list of the 25 top censored stories -- stories that were not covered or not covered adequately in the mainstream media but that would be familiar to readers of alternative press publications (p. 11). Interestingly, the top censored story for 2001 and 2002 was a story critical about the individuals and the system that determine which stories do receive widespread media coverage, specifically, a story about how the US Federal Communications Commission (the FCC) is moving to privatize the public airwaves and to do away with the FCC's own mandate of acting in the public interest (Phillips & Project Censored, 2002, pp. 35 --36).Simply put, the "alternative media provide information about and

interpretations of the world" that we "will not find anywhere else" (p. 12). Drawing on the work of Michael Traber, Atton writes that in contrast to the mass media which marginalize the role in society of the ordinary man and woman, the alternative media "adopt very different news values" and introduce as the subject of news stories "alternative social actors" such as "the poor, the oppressed, [and] the marginalized" (p. 16). Often, alternative "grassroots" publications are

produced "by the same people whose concerns they represent," thus giving them "a position of engagement and direct participation" (p. 16). Most importantly, perhaps, the alternative media ask the questions that are not asked in the mass media and they question the assumptions and so-called common sense realities that we tend to take for granted and accept as unchanging and unchangeable. The alternative media encourage multiplicity and diversity and seek to challenge dominant definitions and positions -- not adhere to them. It is fitting, then, that there is no consensus on the definition of what constitutes alternative media. In fact, it would be counterintuitive to render common knowledge a single definition of the alternative media, when it is common knowledge that the alternative media seek to interrogate and undermine by bringing to light other knowledge and other ways of imagining the world. It could thus be said, perhaps, that what is concealed by common knowledge is, in fact, other knowledge, other ways of imagining the world, and that the alternative and independent media provide the means of bringing that subtext a little closer to the surface.( Liburn, 2005) Thus, helping the cause to spread information that is free from the influence of government and large corporations.

Conclusion Alternative media one can say started from the reformist sects Christians who's religious writings paved a way to one powerful religion. Although, I would argue at this point that in the Philippine's history that Dr. Jose Rizal began one of the most successful social change that help carve out the movement of freedom from the Spanish tyranny. His writings throughout his life through and 2 novels help depict the struggles of the Filipinos. Today, social networking sites like facebook and twitter, text messaging, and mobile internet technology are helping usher in a new era of how we get our information and communicate the stories that must be told. Alternative media has helped our country during the two EDSA revolts, and through Martial law. Therefore, embracing this form of alternative communication can help future generation in changing our communities to become socially responsible in delivering information without biased or prejudice.

Reference:

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