Televisual experiences of poverty and abundance: Entertainment television in the Philippines

Abstract

This paper draws from ethnographic research on entertainment television in the Philippines, in which poverty, suffering, abundance and joy are materialised and enacted as central themes. Examples are considered from a particularly successful Philippine television program, Eat Bulaga, in which audience members compete to win prizes of cash, bank accounts, feasts, appliances or vehicles. While the production of this television program creates a wider, mediated representation of poverty and abundance, suffering and joy, the paper focuses on the practices and experiences of the people – including production staff and audience members ‐ whose participation in the making of this television program is a materially, and at times spiritually, transformative event. In doing so, Eat Bulaga consolidates and remediates a large market of television audiences whose self‐understanding incorporates the mass consumption of particular goods as being central to the Philippine experience of poverty‐in‐modernity.

Entertainment publics in the Philippines

“…Ong’s work draws in part from political and anthropological models of patron–client relations, of which there is a long literature in Philippines studies; poorer Filipinos rely on their relationships with elites to generate income or seek favours, while those elites foster networks of indebted dependents upon whom they can rely for political and personal loyalty. Patron–client dynamics can also be seen in the relationships and interactions fostered between television audiences and television celebrities (Pertierra, 2018).…”

The Cultures of a Globalized World

“…A cursory peek into the average household quickly reveals people watching, perhaps not always intently, their favorite Eat Bulaga segment; Eat Bulaga (and similar talk shows) is part and parcel of people's everyday experience both televisually and sensorially. Given its silly and superficial appearance, how Eat Bulaga achieves this important cultural role requires serious investigation (Pertierra, 2017a).…”

The television families of Mexico and the Philippines: dynasties and caciques in transpacific media cultures

“…The business of television operates in a similar fashion to other structures in Mexico and the Philippines, where economic relations (such as between employer and employee) and political relations (such as between candidate and voter) are tightly and deliberately enmeshed in the personal connections of family and regional loyalty. But in the context of television, these connections extend beyond the employees of television stations and their loyalty to the family empires that hire them, and out into the world of television fans, for whom their favorite stars, but also the networks themselves, represent the opportunity for personal connection into a better life (Pertierra, 2018). In the case of Philippine television especially, such opportunities for fans to being uplifted through their network loyalty can be seen in very clear terms, as ABS-CBN’s philanthropic organization, the ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, is one of the country’s most prominent charity initiatives, and its distribution of goods is frequently the subject of coverage on the ABS-CBN broadcasts (Ong, 2015).…”