Si Bantay O Si Sabadabadog
ABSTRACT Garzon, E. A. (2012). Si Bantay o si Sabadabadog?, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
At a time where almost everything in Philippine television is saturated with adaptations of foreign television series, everything is also taking the Filipino children’s attention away from educational shows that are supposed to provide them holistic growth.
However, the children’s shows should catch not only the children’s attention, but also the advertisers’ interest which rely on ratings when giving them additional budget. Therefore, the show needs to create content that will accomplish all these. Otherwise, efforts for the show will go to waste, and the production staff who also need wages, will suffer.
Through textual analysis, and with Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus (1969), I studied how GMA 7’s Sabadabadog represents the Filipino through the dominant values it imparted to the children. Using Albert Bandura’s (1989) Social Cognitive theory, I analyzed which acceptable behaviours were reinforced by the show’s hosts, and what social norms were possibly passed on to the audience.
Si Bantay o Si Sabadabadog is an exploratory paper that aims to analyse the ideologies promoted in Philippine free television’s children’s educational programs. Children’s shows have a lot of potential, and this paper aims to encourage media practitioners to constantly evaluate, and to make the program content even better than it already is.
Keywords: Ideology, Ideological State Apparatus, Acceptable Behaviours, Production, Reinforcement