University of Santo Tomas

The Graduate School

Jose P. Mojica October 26, 2019

PhD in Literature Seminar in New Media

Instagram Art and National Identity

With around 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram, a social media site known for uploading
and sharing photos and videos, became a site for professional and beginning artists to share
their work in a larger audience. In the Philippines, there are 14,759,000 Instagram users in
which accounted for 13.5% of its entire population, and currently, there are 935,000 posts
tagged to the leading Philippine art hashtag #ArtPh. Given the amount of artworks present in
the said hashtag, the study aims to establish how Instagram art contributes to the formation of
Filipino national identity. The study will first argue how media and popular culture serve as
factors in the formation of national identity through Benedict Anderson’s theory of imagined
communities and Raymond Williams’ definition of culture. It will then be argued that
established art galleries and Instagram, a more democratized network, share the same intent of
showcasing works that represent Filipinos as people and as artists, and what they are as a
nation. Pursuing this study will first contribute to the lacking studies relating popular culture
and national identity. In addition, it will put Instagram as a valid space for the production of
culture. The study wishes to argue that art is not only valid when inside galleries, but also the
art that could be seen on Instagram like #ArtPh is part of Filipino’s national identity.

Keywords: Instagram, Philippine Art, National Identity, Pop Culture, Galleries

 University of Santo Tomas
The Graduate School

Jose P. Mojica October 26, 2019

PhD in Literature Seminar in New Media

Face-tuning Apps and the Loss of National Identity

Face-tuning apps (applications) are one of the most popular apps among the youth today.
These apps can make the skin smoother, whiter, make the nose sharper, color the hair blonde,
add facial hair, and many other facial enhancements. In the Philippines, there are about
74,850,000 Facebook users and a fraction of them use the said apps and share the edited
photos on their social media account. The study aims to establish how these face-tuning apps
subject the Filipino youth to the white supremacy ideology and how it creates a false
perception of reality. Constant production and consumption of these face-tuned images, as will
be argued, diminish the sense national identity. The study will use Roland Barthes’ concept of
mythologies as a ground to establish how face-apps are like advertisements that lure users to
the myth it wishes to create. Media logic theory will also be applied to analyze how media users
develop false identity as an effect of their heavy media usage. These concepts hope to re-
establish one’s sense of reality, that many of media contents, especially by users are fabricated.
It will also explain how the media shapes our perception. More so, this study will explain one of
the major factors about why we lose our sense of national identity as Filipino youth today.

Keywords: Face App, White Supremacy, Youth, Media Logic, National Identity