#AlDub and the Big, Mean Media Machine
Ever since the Internet went live, TV and print media have been on the defensive. All around the world, print editors and TV producers alike have come up with one statistic after another to back claims of their paper’s revolutionary roots and outcomes, their magazine’s staying power, or their channel’s (supposed) continuing relevance. Statements, mostly coming from the men and women of print media, range from objective analyses of having a so-called secure and thinking audience, to audacious assertions that print media might just lord over all media in the years to come. Ironically, the latter statement is often reiterated when addressing advertisers who, being used to BS, should be able to smell it a mile away.
Yet these overzealous projections are understandable since professions, vocations, and ways of life hang in the balance when it comes to the survival of print media. But in all honesty, it’s impossible to come up with something these days — anything — without an online component of some sort. Nowadays, the tiniest semblance of an online presence means the world for many who wish to see themselves as healthy and interactive homo sapiens. And now, we are confronted with a mammoth display of online prowess: #AlDub.
What it all boils down to is this: #AlDub is nothing new. In fact, it has been the same-old same-old the moment it went on-air. So why the unrivaled fame?
#AlDub is the culmination of everything we’ve learned so far from decades’ worth of soap operas, noontime shows, Pinoy rom-coms (the type which have song and dance numbers in zoos, no less), and the newest addition to the ballgame, social media. The storyline is a comedy of errors. It makes use of a wide arsenal of twists and turns, what with our long heritage of soaps and affinity for the slapstick. And true to Yaya Dub Maine Mendoza’s online origins, the kalyeserye mashes it all together in one, topsy-turvy, 30-minute, makeup-mascara, Eat Bulaga! costume party of good vs. evil, featuring a show-stealing Lola Nidora (her twin), her sidekicks, sideshows, and a love supreme; an All-4-Juan: Juan-4-All segment, centered on the split-screen, star-crossed, amo-et-amore, without voices of their own, à la Ariel, the Little Mermaid, tandem: Alden Richards and the zero-to-hero Internet sensation, Yaya Dub. How we all fall for Maine Mendoza’s seemingly overnight stardom, and how we applaud GMA Network for finally finding a place for one of its long-time-budding stars. I’d say that, all in all, it’s a laudable work of genius, but it’s really nothing new. It’s exactly what Austin Kleon preached: it’s stealing like an artist.
An article from The Philippine Collegian entitled “Kalyeserye: AlDub, Kulturang Popular at ang Naka-Hashtag na Politika ng Ating Panahon” by Mykel Andrada and JC Sibayan places the media craze in its proper place. By citing Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life, the authors locate #AlDub not only as a TV production running on its own merits, but a piece which is subject to its audience’s interpellation. In short, #AlDub’s audience actively creates its story and meaning.
No wonder we are bombarded with a thousand and one handles for a story. The satire in the character of Lola Nidora, the unwarranted silences the dubs fill, the quirky improvisations of Jose, Wally and Paolo all find meaning in our heads even if there is hardly any meaning intended — they’re all bound to work, they’re all bound to be funny some way, somehow. And with the series being aggressively marketed and circulated online, it leaves little wonder as to how “audience participation” works as the series’ lifeblood. #AlDub is postmodern media’s very own Frankenstein.
Eat Bulaga’s Kalyeserye proves all doubters of online media both wrong and right. #AlDub comes at a time when GMA Network is shifting its energies out of the good ‘ol (but costly) TV programming towards a greater dependence on (cheap) Internet and a heavier presence on social media. (In fact, some segments of the show are shown exclusively online.) Kalyeserye shows just how much more effective online media is in terms of call-and-response over all other media. But at the same time, #AlDub, intentionally or not, reflects the wantonness — the meaninglessness — of the online universe. While the Internet is democratizing access to information like never before, it is also leaving too much to be desired and too many questions left unanswered. We have to ask ourselves, now more than ever, how else will online media change the landscape and how are we to take it all in?
With all the noise Kalyeserye churns out, love becomes a sorry excuse for its story’s coming together. #AlDub is a mass media tour de force; a message which says that the Internet is a force to be reckoned with; a warning for those who still believe that going online isn’t the way to go. Times are changing. Now, we have a Janus-faced screen in front of us, a panel for each eye, to satisfy our noontime cravings.
