Features study conducted on the Celebrification Process of OFWs
In photo: Rowena E. Cantuba on the Celebrification Process of OFWs and Their Concerns from the Perspective of OFWs, Media Personalities, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA),
De La Salle University’s Southeast Asia Research Center and Hub (SEARCH) and the Department of Communication conducted a webinar presentation featuring Rowena E. Cantuba on the Celebrification Process of OFWs and Their Concerns from the Perspective of OFWs, Media Personalities, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), with Dr. Jason Vincent A. Cabañes as the discussant.
The presentation covered the celebrity-making phenomenon that involves OFWs and their plights as they are sensationalized by the media. Cantuba’s research looked into the possibility of how can the OFWs be “commodified”, “commercialized” and eventually exploited by the media personalities and thereby unwittingly creating celebrities in their own regard.
She postulated that there is an opportunity for the celebrification process to start because of the relationship between the mass media and its audience.
Cantuba noted that the audience has been very reliant on the information they read, hear, or see in and from the media which inevitably affects their decision-making. Furthermore, their dependence on the information that comes from these communication platforms does not give them time to process and discern its veracity because of their tendency to take this information at its face value.
It is interesting to note that the celebrification process is even more pronounced in the Philippine audience as media personalities raise the status of OFWs they feature in their programs by way of making their problems public.
In conclusion, Cantuba pointed out that it is incumbent upon these OFWs who have been relying too much on the various social media networking sites on airing their concerns in their desire to get a quick fix solution to their problems to discern, course through the right channels in order not to fall into prey from some unscrupulous people.
The presentation was held on this afternoon January, 29 at 3:00 pm Manila time, via Zoom conference. Certificates were given to participants of the Zoom conference.
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