Landmarks and Nation-Building Show Evaluated: Landmarks Schedule/Channel: Sunday, 5:30 PM (Net 25) Host: Faye de Castro Running

Time: 1 Hour Boring weekends may be spent for a lot of things, one of which of course is gluing your eyes on the television set, trying to swim the sea of trash most of the television networks offer the audiences. But some at least stand out as alternatives. Landmarks is a weekly travel show produced by Net 25 that raises the importance of retelling community histories....and helps become more appreciative of the vital 'landmarks' and places in the Philippines. As claimed, it is the first Filipino travel show shot in High Definition (HD) format. Its host, Faye de Castro, serves as a guide in the different places the team explores each episode. Unlike other travel programs, it gives high emphasis on history. Historians are often invited to talk of anecdotes related to the featured place for each episode. But nonetheless it also takes note of business establishments, scenic places and food encounters as one would expect on a typical travel show. But can we imagine a travel show such as Landmarks can contribute to nation-building? This task may seem to be difficult but trying to see the show in a sociological perspective may give us a sight of the work that can be done. Josephine Dionisio in the book Nation, Self and Citizenship argues that

the Philippine nation in its current state still needs to be achieved. As none of us are born nationalist, we often do not acquire the concept of nation until we grew up, first within our families, then to the schools and later on to the other 'institutions' in the realm of our social life: religion, economy, politics and mass media. At school we are trained in our Makabayan (social sciences) classes of the country's history; who are the heroes that contributed to the achievement of independence, important places and events, including special dates. However, as Dionisio argues, we do not have a glorious history of Filipino nationalism that can sustain acts of heroism in our daily lives. In as much as we cling to our identities every Independence Day or when Manny Pacquiao wins a boxing match, there is a certain failure to provide any reason to stay as Filipinos. If history would be used as a tool in promoting a national identity, there are certain strings associated to it. Renato Constantino argues of having a concept of a 'usable past', a view of history not as a celebration of glorious events but as a lens of how we can solve the problems of the present. Randy David also argues of a history that is critical. Quoting Nietzshce, he imagines history as something that should be always interrogated even if it could bring us a lot of pain. In this way, we could free ourselves from the systems that constantly shackle us. In the achievement of this identity, mass media has big, if not the biggest role. Media serves as the distributor of images that later on becomes

the community's 'collecive memory', as what Benedict Anderson argues. Since the members of the nation are more often that not impossible to know one another, media serves as a relay of the events that will become the talk of the town, and later on our emotional bond. In a weekly travel show like Landmarks, is it feasible to pursue a model of media contributing to national development, as what the KBP Code of Ethics promotes? Yes, it is possible, and knowing that broadcasting is conceptualized as a public resource, it is the responsibility of media entities to pursue this goal. But so far most of them seem to be steered out of this objective. Landmarks as a program is commendable for a concept that combines entertainment with social relevance. The mixture of travel and history gives its audience a sense of connection with the nation, that as what my History professor told us, History can be found anywhere, even in the streets. But to achieve a sense of nation, we should not focus on dates or places but on reflections and identities. This is what seem to be lacking in the travel show. Much of its airtime are focused on the explanation of dates but not much on the reflection of the relevance of these events. Landmarks, like any other show, still as a room to grow; in this case promoting a sense of nation that is not focused on daydream, rather on cautious pondering to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. References Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. Print.

David, Randolf. "Why We Remember." Nation, Self and Citizenship. Pasig: Anvil, 2004. 24-26. Print. Dionisio, Josephine. "The Project of Nationhood." Introduction. Nation, Self and Citizenship. Pasig: Anvil, 2004. 3-22. Print. "NET 25: Landmarks." NET 25: Feed Your Mind. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.