ADMU COM11-B

Araos, Buenviaje, Choa, Ocier, Pow, Sanvictores, Tan

TOO CLOSE

The compilation of the paparazzi shots of Gretchen Barreto and KC Conception, the public funerals of FPJ and Rico Yan, and the picture of Chris Tiu illustrates how the media can portray various subjects as “too close” because it invades their privacy and disrespects their differences therefore becoming a form of symbolic violence. Media creates the feeling of almost knowing them by drawing the audience too close to be indistinguishable from them and hindering them from diversity through extensive intrusion.

TOO FAR

The representation of Madam Auring in FHM magazine, President Gloria Arroyo as “Adolf Hitler” and the popular show Fear Factor (show concept and what it makes its contestants do) is an example of how media can depict people as “too far” because media fails to regard these people they portray as human beings and pushes them too far that they seem not individuals any longer. Media is able to epitomize them as the “distant other” for people in general tend to overlook and forget that these people are far beyond what media depicts them to be for they also possess various ethics, mind-sets and emotions and have diverse functions, purposes and roles in society as well.

PROPER DISTANCE

Although we see poverty, calamities, destruction, and hunger that would stir up sympathy and engage us emotionally in these pictures; the people in these pictures still have this humane quality that can be seen in every one of us. These may seem far from what we are used to, but they give the reality of these situations. In this collage, we see a boy picking up trash, but at the same time, helping his brother. Another one is of a tricycle driver, still doing his job, despite the heavy flood. The circumstances in these pictures may depict extremities that may be alien to most of us, but seeing a father holding his son tenderly while sleeping, despite being in the streets make us think and feel something both at the same time.