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“All the speed he took, all the turns he’d taken and the corners he’d cut in Night City, and still he’d see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void…”

— William Gibson, Neuromancer

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“Things don’t have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What’s the function of a galaxy? I don’t know if our life has a purpose and I don’t see that it matters. What does matter is that we’re a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

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Today marks the first day of Pride 2020.

It also marks the seventh day of protests held in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. It’s been 634 days since Botham Jean was murdered by a police officer, 233 days since Atatiana Jefferson was fatally shot by a police officer, 2,123 days since Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer, and 2,146 days since Eric Garner was choked to death by a police officer. 

It has been five days since Tony McDade, a Black trans man from Florida, was shot and killed by a police officer.  

At the time of this post, it has been almost 19 hours since David McAtee was shot and killed by the authorities. 

This week has served as a stark reminder that those who have power in this country wield it recklessly and violently against Black people, non-Black POC, and trans people. For some, the power is found in their badge. In others, it’s their skin tone, their socio-economic status, their cisgender privileges, or any other number of privileges one can have. In 2018, with at least 26 trans people who were murdered, all but one was a trans woman, and all but one was a person of color. According to data collected by Human Rights Campaign, this pattern is all too common. It should also be noted that the number of trans people who are murdered is grossly underreported, with many families and newspapers often misgendering those who can no longer speak up for themselves. 

On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall riots began as a response to the constant police raids of nightlife establishments frequented by the LGBTQIA+ community. That night sparked a revolution, with many eye-witnesses crediting Black and Latinx trans women for being brave enough to ignite what would become one of the most pivotal nights in LGBTQIA+ history. Without Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, there would have been no uprising. Without them, there would be no Pride. 

At this moment, it would be tone-deaf and insensitive to commemorate Pride in the same celebratory fashion we usually do. Instead, we’re asking you to make the commitment to better the lives of the oppressed. Do the work to become actively anti-racist if you are not Black. Spread the word that Black lives matter. Spread the word that trans people deserve to feel safe wherever they go. Reblog this post, make your own, or find someone in your life who doesn’t understand and do your best to make them understand. Donate if you can. 

The first Pride was a riot. We stand with you.

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A post shared by Christelle Alynna S. Agustin🌙🤎 (@xtellea94) on Mar 18, 2020 at 2:31am PDT

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as if staring intently can save the world (at Mariano Marcos State University) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8EC7zKp1rS/?igshid=zu4akisdalbx

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Purpose and Target: A reflection on SocMed Campaign

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin

BA COMM II (COMM 120)

No one has ever taught me that it’s always purpose over the target, and these two are different variables.

I learned it this way.

Gathering an audience and covert them as active or visible followers is probably one of the most difficult outcomes to attain in a social media campaign especially to us students who haven’t established total credibility yet.

First, we honestly had a hard time deciding about the central topic for our campaign due to a lot of choices which we think are all equally important, but as a result, we ended up looking to what we think is alarming. We know how environmental complications became a massive lump of humanity’s problem that critically affects everyone’s survival. Floods and deforestation are just few to mention when it comes to specifying the climatic consequences we are all experiencing today. Thus, we came up with trees as the topic.

Going through the construction of our own concept, it’s really a vast challenge to produce an original, eye-catchy and trendy notions in creating our own brand. We tried to formulate terms that will automatically contain or carry the idea of the campaign so we were able to invent our first word belonging to our hashtag collection which is #ConTREEbute; this seeks to encourage participation and contribution of acts from people to help the environment. Hence, we arrived with the knowledge of why not make an agreement between people and the nature, so we had TREETy (treaty) as the official name of our campaign which will be used to our social media platform.

The next steps followed; having #TREEtyforHumans and #AgenTREEsaves as an addendum to our official hashtags. While the logo itself figuratively emphasized the message of the campaign.

On the other hand, what really became the greatest challenge was when we are already on the actualy manifestation of the campaign through the utilization of social media particularly on Facebook. After creating it, we invited our FB friends to Like it. A lot complied but I’m also sure that some failed to respond.

When it comes to the posts, at first, we tend to depend on what we can share from the internet like facts and videos. But then, we know that original posts are what should be prioritized and that’s when we started to post status, infographics and a PSA.

Unlike the other Facebooks pages (school-related) that I’m an admin of, this page for our campaign is lesser in everything. Probably because it’s new and still on the stage in propagating engagements and connections from the people – and this actually is the most recognized struggle we have encountered. It’s honestly like offering a bunch of bond papers and only few are willing to accept it and write there.

However, this activity introduced me to a wider spectrum in taking advantage to social media’s power to reach an audience and influence others. I know that I can use this experience someday and I’ve learned which and what are the necessary measures to do, that the purpose will be the driving force to essentially satisfy the process in achieving the target which is to make the campaign look beneficial and resounding.

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Cultural Studies of Stuart Hall

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

I have to say this. Media is the fourth estate of the nation but will never become friends with the rest of government’s branches.

During Rodrigo’s campaign season for the 2016 Presidential Elections, the media have shown frames of him gathering huge supporters especially when thousands show up for his Grand Rally in Davao around March 2016.

After winning the election and proceeded to his job as the Republic’s President, massive issues started to blow up because of his Anti-Drug campaign also considering how Extrajudicial Killings became a resounding talk between people who are totally against it. As expected, media has reported cases about this until it appeared that this campaign no longer screams a just system in eradicating drugs in the country and as what the majority says; it has no difference to the late Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law.

For instance, the case of Kian Delos Santos who was fatally shot by police officers conducting an anti-drug operation in Caloocan City around August 2017. The news reported quantum of information that led people to think in confusion while having a hard time in believing which is right about what really happened.

Media really has the control to lessen, fabricate or redesign information and even has the power to select which is to be presented to the public. That’s why this is what the Cultural Studies trying to signify, it is a study to raise our consciousness of the media’s role in preserving the status quo. It is a Neo-Marxist  critique that sets forth the position that mass media manufacture content for dominant ideologies.

The truth underlying beneath the Pessimism of the Intellect is that, in this society, people can change but they can’t, they probably can but they are not agents for change.

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Critical Theory of Commuication in Organization by Stanley Deetz

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

I’ve always been telling myself that if I would work someday, I’ll always pray for a workplace that prioritizes no unnecessary and degrading hierarchy of power or authority within the organization.

My aunt who’s been working in Canada in an IT company for years now have told me instances where she really reached the point of giving up her job due to the disarrayed structure of the work’s corporate aspect. It’s because of the system where her job hours are not properly followed, there are several times when she got to work extensively during her off hours, the cancellations of activities after she’d done preparing for it and the rejections of group proposals for a project.

She said that it looks like a ride in an amusement park where there are segments that shakes her inevitably. But after staying at it for years being familiarized and well-immersed to the work’s nature, she got to dwell with the gradual changes that poured into the workplace, and that made her to love the job even more.

For the first time, she mentioned that she’s previously felt encouraged to participate in work meetings productively. As indicated in the Critical Theory of Communication in Organization, Codetermination was being demonstrated as collaborative decision making became a tool to catalyze participating democracy in the workplace.

Within this theory, managerialism or the systematic set of routines, practices and ideology that values control over all other concerns serves as the extended way of looking into a wider view of the organization. Involvement as known as the stakeholders’ free expression of ideas that may or may not affect the managerial decisions can possibly encourage workers to get connected. I guess, this concept from the theory appeared to be the factor why my aunt chose to stay on her job.

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Semiotics of Roland Barthes

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

William Shakespeare’s writings are full of puns, Edgar Allan Poe’s works are meant to attack the emotions while even the authors we see in Wattpad are using trendy signs circulating among people’s general knowledge that can be easily understood by the readers. Taking advantage with the easiest way of communicating today, emojis are as real as our emotions, they basically serve as the signs we additionally consume to accompany the meaning of our words.

They say that real friendships stay the same despite not being able to talk every single day or even for a long time; me and my bestie who studies in Manila is just one proof of that. We don’t frequently talk, but sometimes we reply to each other’s messenger story once a week and that’s usually the beginning of our productive interaction.

In between the exchanging flow of our conversation is one amazing thing; we never fail to determine that there’s something wrong as embedded in our messages. Big help to the existence of emojis that we always use because they can also be decoded like symbols that explain unspoken things. 🙄 means she’s pissed off, 😑 tells she’s disappointed, 🤔 makes me know that she is suspicious about a thing, she uses 😩 whenever she’s tired in reviewing, 😭 means she’s at the verge of crying again over something and she usually delivers 😨 when she’s afraid.

Getting along with all these matters with my bestie, comes with the significance of Semiotics which is the study of signs and symbols in particular as they communicate things spoken and unspoken. We used emojis as the signifier which is an image or physical form that represents letters while the meaning we acquired associated with the sign is called signified.

Moreover, among the three different types of signs, the emojis are considered as iconic wherein it gives the physical resemblance of our emotions and they are apparently the same. Integrating semiotics in long distance communication is very helpful, these signs are tools in expounding someone’s message because it broadens the meaning of something to have a better understanding inside a conversation.

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Muted Group Theory by Cheris Kramarae

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

I watch cartoon series when I was a kid and I admire female characters. And now that I know how to write, I can change the word “admire” to “appreciate”. Females are really more than those figures.

Growing up, I gradually realize how women usually becomes a muted group in public communication and the ideas they provide are often overlooked. In connection with this, the Muted Group Theory maintains the assertion that language is literally a man-made construction as portrayed in various means we see evidently see in the society.

Back to me who was then a cartoon series viewer, I came to understand that women in these series are usually depicted as emotional, apologetic and just plain wishy washy. Rest assured that male dominance is just one of the many ways that women are rendered.

The theory also gave a list of female’s back channel routines they use to discuss their experience and most of them are practically present in my own system namely; writing on journals, appreciating and adapting art, making letters and poems and even listening to music. These are just the few ways I can mention whenever I try to express, console and comfort myself.

In a different context, I honestly loved the way how the supporters of Hillary Clinton came for her after losing the US Presidential Election to Donald Trump way back 2016. It’s a good index that despite men’s political dominance, the free expression of a woman in politics can not be possibly impended.

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Face Negotiation Theory by Stella Ting-Toomey

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

The environment where you literally grew up shapes you and usually directs how you should act.

My cousin who were born here went to the US when she was five and grew up there with her parents. Whenever she comes home for a vacation, she would invite her old friends (her playmates when she was kid) to hangout and most usually, they spend time drinking alcohol and go around places they like to visit anytime they want.

One day on her second week here, I noticed that she and one her friends are not in good terms. I had a clue that they argued the night before that in an unknown reason. By means of observing her actions towards the situation, I came to conclude that she is an individualistic type of a person. She appears like she isn’t affected and maintains the face signifying that she only cares about not being transparent in between the conflict the have created, as if she’s trying to preserve her own self.

Up to this day of knowing that she actually grew up in a western country where individualistic culture is being widely practiced and reflecting through this culture that shaped her in long years became her approach in negotiating or managing the conflict. So, on this manner, my cousin’s response showed about self-preserving.

The Face Negotiation Theory holds up the idea of maintaining a face according to their cultures; depending if they are collectivists or individualists. This saves the face when conflict arrives. People from collectivist culture who are considered as high context culture usually avoid or integrates the conflict whole individualistic people as low context dominates the conflict as to maintain an independent face.

Forming relationships are what makes life more meaningful but conflicts are inevitable, and this theory explaining how cultural difference in people influence in holding conflicts and how they are managed. This broadly applies across cultures.

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Standpoint Theory by Sandra Harding and Julia Wood

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

No gold has ever felt about how hard it is to be a mud; loathed by the people, neglected by the system.

The first time I went to Divisoria around 2016, I honestly hated the place and told my mom that I’ll never ever come back there again. It’s because of the huge crowd, hot weather and unpleasing environment.

But I’ve seen the struggles of the people there, and that’s something I’ll never want to witness again.

It’s around July this year when newly-elected Manila Mayor Isko Moreno ordered for clearing operations in the city particularly at Divisoria and relocate the vendors as a major part of his Bagong Maynila project. This automatically became a gigantic issue in the country again and collected a lot of different perspectives which are either concerning about how it will negatively the vendors or how it will be a way to make the place look physically better.

I’ve read articles covering the reactions of the people there saying their livelihoods are being affected and how hard would it be to survive each day knowing that they have children who are attending in school too. Worst thing was that, the relocation plan by the city government was not able to operate immediately so people asked for another chance to stay there giving their potential to follow the given rules and regulations.

The people who are actually living their lives well know more about the current problems this country is facing due to poverty. They have a clearer eye in viewing reality in and those in authority will never have the same lens in to look through it, unless, they want to soaked in themselves in their situation and have the similar understanding. This is what the Standpoint Theory tries to imply, its perspective about social position gives voice to the marginalized people by allowing them to challenge the status quo.

August this year when I went to Divisoria again to accompany my mom in buying something. I’ve seen changes in the place, but never have my thoughts about the affected people has ever changed. My trust in their ability to voice out will always remain as long as they are fighting it in good intentions.

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The Rhetoric of Aristotle

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

Logic. Values. Emotions.

I’m an avid fan of good speeches. I love listening to good words, the challenging ones with high altitude of convictions are my favorites. I love how a speaker gets my attention and take me to another world or even actually putting myself in a constructed place of the story I’m hearing. And at the end, I know that persuasion lies in between the lines.

During any events, it’s always been my practice to listen to speeches. I always check on these things; the speaker’s posture, the art of its voice, the convincing factor of its tone and most importantly, the overall substance of the talk. I’m not an established judge, I just simply do this practice to embed something to apply and learn for myself.

Aristotle regarded that a speaker’s use of knowledge is an art, and I have observed this for frequent times already in different kinds of people. You can determine how intellectually equipped someone is by just listening to its flow of ideas given with an impact. Aristotle also named available means of persuasion; the artistic and inartistic.

Inartistic means the speaker provides proofs from documents and testimonies of witnesses. I’ve heard a lot of this from the Pastor of the church I’m attending at Batac. He narrates stories and experiences from people as a way of supplementing the messages of the Bible verses. While I’ve heard speakers from academic seminars with their artistic means as their way of presenting internal proofs showing marks of logic, ethics and even emotions.

Rhetoric, in all its structure, means discovering all means of persuasion and this aims to set a high probability of encouraging or convincing the audience. However, intentions must also be something than can give benefits to both of the speaker and the listener.

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Agenda Setting by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw

Christelle Alynna Marie S. Agustin BA COMM II

“#SeageamesFail”

“Breakfast of Champions = kikiam and egg”

“Fact or Fiction?”

“Nakakahiya ang Pilipinas!”

Sometimes, social networking sites are really becoming a faucet of producing unhealthy water which is dangerous to take.

Before the official opening of the SEA GAMES 2019, twitter hooked me up with the trending hashtags and tweets about it which led me to depend on media to know what is happening. The big athletic event previews released by the media are full of severe attacks pertaining to the country’s huge budget and adverse impressions in accommodating the foreign athletes including insufficient foods.

Even myself, after reading numerous news articles from credible media outlets, made me reach the point where I almost believe everything about what media has been delivering for days. The information being brought up to social media site became tools in going against the Philippine government that potentially encouraged a lot of users to join the movement in “bashing”. Netizens were calling out the media and the assigned organizers about being unprepared, source of embarrassment and even threw allegations of corruption.

In essence, I know that media has successfully shaped public opinion.

However, few days after the official opening, many have proven that the information released by the media are mostly fake and fabricated, in other words, they were only publishing stories covering only the negative sides that raised up the peak of controversies.

The media, according to the Agenda Setting Theory, has the ability to influence the importance that’s is placed on the topics of the public media. Mass media has the ability to transfer the salience of items on their news agencies to the public agenda. By all means, media has a great influence to their audience by instilling what they should think instead of what they think.

With this issue obtained by the SEA Games, it is a clear picture of the theory’s assumption which states that press and media do not reflect reality, they filter and shape it. Lastly, framing also happened, it was when people voiced out their sentiments, and this is because media can direct how people think about an issue.