Last Friday night, I was able to watch a program in ABC5 called Dokyu. I could personally say that it was probably one of the best programs we have in television right now. Watching this show doesn’t only entertain people with its timely topics, but it also educates us about socio-political, health and environmental issues. They had shown two documentaries entitled Koreanoy and Putok. For me, Putok was a lot better than Koreanoy. Aside from the filming of the documentary, it has more significance in terms of influencing people. Well, anyway let me take you back to the documentaries.
Koreanoy was about a Korean named “Danny”. He had always been fascinated with film-making but unfortunately, there was no school in Korea that offers the course he wanted and that brought him here in our country. He was taking up Film and Audio-visual Communication in UP Diliman. It was entitled Koreanoy because the subject of the documentary felt that he’s more of a Filipino than a Korean. He has already adapted in our lifestyle and culture. He said “You may know more of our culture than I do; but I know more of Filipino cilture than you do.”
The next documentary was entitled “Putok”. This documentary was about the life and struggles of an indigenous tribe called the Dumagats. One of the biggest problems they have right now is poverty. They considered themselves as lucky if they were able to eat twice a day. Aside from that, their town was hit by Malaria and up to now, this probem has not yet been resolved. Many of them, particularly children, died because of this sickness. They have a little knowledge of Malaria and because of that, they weren’t able to prevent it and to do something to stop the epidemia. The hospital was also far from their town and as an effect, they have not been given the medical attention they need. In addition, they could also not afford the medicine they need and they only relied to herbal medicines their “elders” had taught them. But clearly, those weren’t enough.
The first documentary clearly emphasized that before we try to know other culture, we must understand and appreciate our own culture first. Through this documentary, the makers were able to awaken their viewers. They were calling us to get out of the long-lived mentality that anything which comes from abroad was already the best. They had simply wanted to point-out that we, as Filipinos, must give importance to the works of other Filipinos.
The other documentary opened a new viewpoint to the their audience. Instead of making the viewers think that the Dumagats got sick because they are less-fortunate, they have pointed out that they got sick because they were forsaken and left-out by the government. They have shown that the government had less involvement in helping and protecting these people. It was as if the documentarists were calling us to act.
In watching these documentaries, we could clearly see the influence of effective communication. They have used these documentaries as their medium and with the help of ABC 5, they were able to reach a bigger audience. Thus, they were able to relay their message effectively. They have opened a possibility that a larger number of people would start acting and helping the Dumagats, as well as get out of the “boxed” mentality we’ve been living up to. One role of communication in our life was to enhance our ideas ang knowledge about the things we’re seeing around us and to affect one another. As these students, who made the documentaries, took the first step to do something for the Dumagats; through media they have surely brought change to the tribe’s life. Just like what my friend has quoted, “Media is the easiest way to influence people.” If we start acting right now for the benefit of others, not just for the good of ourselves, we could really bring about change we’ve always been asking. We don’t really have to rely on the government. On our own way, we can make a change.
