FaithfullyYours

Querrer, D.C.T (2017). Faithfully Yours: A Critical Study of El Shaddai Radio. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Diliman

This paper is a critical study on DWXI, the radio station owned by El Shaddai religious organization. It is a qualitative study that aims to identify factors affecting the broadcast programming of DWXI. Through the methods employed, such as interviews and textual analysis, the study presents how the ownership affects the operations of the station.

The study takes into account the insights from station’s key people and a sample content of the station. The study uses the frameworks of Louis Althusser’s Theory of Ideology and Vincent Mosco’s Politcal Economy framework to find out how the control derived from the ownership influence the programming of the station. Furthermore, in the study, DWXI is seen as an apparatus for ideology propagation by the religious organization.

It was found out that several factors contribute to the broadcast programming of DWXI such as the station’s origin, its target audience, mission, labor and commercial placement policies, funding policies, its affiliation to an external regulatory body, and being by nature, a state apparatus – ideological and repressive. In addition, the study revealed that the factors affecting the broadcast were all rooted on the fact that the owners played a very vital role on the programming of the station.

The study concludes that the station is a direct extension of the religious organization, which serves a venue for propagating the group’s teachings and beliefs. The station serves as an instrument for the articulation of the ideology of El Shaddai, which works through the system of reward and punishment.