Amassing Media

I've been taking a class in my masteral course called Political Economy of Mass Media. It's been an interesting sem, and I enjoyed the heated debates and discussions with my classmates and teacher.

I realized though I have different ideas from my professor. Sure, political economy can be detrimental to the country, from the point of view of one sector. But from someone who has been seeing things from a business perspective, I've been wondering, can't it have a positive effect as well?

Based on what I've understood of the concept of political economy (limited, but enough, hopefully for me to pass the course), businesses merge/tie up with the media so that the status quo is retained, in terms of ideology, profit, value systems, and power. The more media partnerships you have businesswise, the better off you are. That's why big businesses here and abroad fall over themselves aligning with big media powers. But it is said, therein lies the danger.

Content can be controlled by these big businesses. So many stories float around about how some big networks here can be forced to kill news stories that put their businesses in a negative light. And because these businesses supply some basic human needs, they have a a pretty powerful grip.

Recently, NEDA chief economist Romulo Neri suggested that we open ourselves up to foreign ownership of the media. Many see this as a bad idea. But I wonder, can't we give it a try?

In the political economy course I took, I supported the idea of selling the squestered tv stations to foreign buyers because for one, the government can't afford to pay for it. No businessman in his right mind would shoulder the more than P10 million in debt of one station. So why not let foreign owners come in and try to crank it up? It's not like they haven't invaded us before: most of our content is drawn from Western plots and story concepts anyway. People now have cable. American movies still make a killing at our cinemas.

Why not let them run these stations on a lease for say, 15 years? I'm no economist, but if people are worried about them not having limits, then we can set those for them. 15 years. Pay off the debt. 75% of employees should be Pinoy. Tax the suckers higher than the Filipino networks. Ad buying should be ads bought in Pinas. Half the board should be Pinoy...and they should not be counted as part of the 75% of Pinoy employees.

I'm not sure if this is a viable solution, but at least it's another vote in favor of getting the sequestered stations out of a rut. Maybe media ownership by foreign investor isn't all evil, as long as the government is vigilant.

I'm not well-versed with the implications of what I'm saying, but these are just ideas of a humble student. Feel free to debate with me. I would love to learn more!