Dance To Your Own Beat

Just in time for Filipino Heritage Month, rising music artist SOSUPERSAM, also known as Samantha Duenas, was chosen to headline this past September at Undiscovered SF. Even though her strength as a Filipino-American advocate is through entertainment, she plans on using Filipino food as her gateway for non-Filipino individuals to promote Filipino Pride.

After reading, Los Angeles Time’s Article, “How DJs Put 500,000 Marchers in Motion,” I realized similarities and differences from Balitang America’s story on SOSUPERSAM. The obvious similarity is that both stories spotlighted deejays’ who are well-known in their community. Radio personal, Eddie Sotelo took a different approach in contrast to SOSUPERSAM. Sotelo organized a rally for pro-immigration against the federal legislation in Los Angeles. Both serve as entertainers in our society, but both individuals was able to promote two different groups in unique ways.

In another article by the Los Angeles Times, they touch base on ethnic radio. I found this very interesting because I never realized how radio was one of the main sources for communication within various ethnic groups. Of course, this story is very different to the Balitang America’s story. This particular story consisted of the hardships of various radio stations and how they resonated during the riots for individuals who have a hard time speaking English. Of course, mainstream media is very different now than how it was back in the 1990’s, but it had also displayed the power of the radio.

All three stories are very different, but all have common ground, which is utilizing subsections from either entertainment and radio. Balitang America is distinctly different than majority of the news in mainstream media because it promotes positivity for a particular ethnic group, versus publishing another story that covers immigration, LGBTQ, and other issues in that field.