Blessed are the Poor: Fantaseryes as Ideological State Apparatus

Abstract Katigbak, K.F. (2015) Blessed are the Poor: Fantaseryes as Ideological State Apparatus, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication

This study seeks to analyze how selected fantaseryes from 2009 to 2014 maintain the status quo of poverty in the Philippines. The study will discuss two significant concepts in the Filipino context - poverty and religion. The hierarchy between the recurring conflict between the rich and the poor made it necessary for the analysis to be guided by poststructuralism to identify ideologies and contradictions within the texts. The findings will be supplemented with interviews with broadcast practitioners who specialize in programming, production, program conceptualization and audience research. The researcher will be guided by the Marxist ideology of the State (or the television producers, in this case) as repressive apparatus that ensures domination. Hegemony, which is described as the subordinate group’s conformity to the naturalized ideologies of the dominant group, takes place in fantaseryes. This happens when fantaseryes reinforce the idea that it is good to be poor. Thus, the study works on the premise that fantaseryes function as an ideological state apparatus.

Keywords: Fantaserye, Ideological State Apparatus, Ideology, Hegemony, Poor, Poverty

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