A Sunday Fiesta
To conduct my interviews, I visited The Original Barrio Fiesta of Manila, in North Hills, California.
While there, I struck up a conversation with another young couple sitting next to me. Chrysostom (Chrys) Macaraeg was 10 years old when he moved to the United States from the Phillipines. He is now 22 and has been unable to visit since he was in high school. When asked about his media habits and if they include Filipino media, he stated that he does not generally keep up with ethnic media. His visits home to the San Gabriel Valley are where he most commonly views ethnic media. According to Macaraeg, “my family often watches The Filipino Channel (TFC) on television.” Delving a bit further, I inquired on his family’s media habits. However, Macaraeg does not believe his parents read Filipino news outlets based in the U.S. He also went on to say that Facebook is a large news proponent in the Filipino community and keeps families connected. “We have always relied on some form of social media to stay in touch,” he said. “Prior to Facebook there was Friendster, I remember that from my childhood. My dad would always use that for family.”
To my surprise, the waiter I had was also unfamiliar with local Filipino publications. However, unlike my previous interview, Jose Abresinos does interact with ethnic media. Turning to the Filipino equivalent of NBC or CBS, Abresinos sticks predominantly to the ABS-CBN network for his news. He also watches TFC and uses Facebook.
After finishing dinner, I walked to SeaFood City as it is located within the same shopping plaza. Inside, I found my way to the newspaper racks and was surprised each publication was free of charge. As it was near closing for the store, a woman was tidying up the section for the day. Rona Mercado is a first generation Filipino-American. Although she works with the publications on a regular basis, she rarely reads them. Usually on the clock when she sees the publications, “I will look at the titles on the front page, but it is rare I am interested enough to open the paper and read the story,” said Mercado. A young woman, Mercado stated that despite wanting to visit the Philippines, she has no connection to its media. Her mother is an avid TFC viewer, but aside from that, she was unfamiliar with other medias.
For community outreach, I intially emailed the CSUN FASA faculty advisor. However, I never recieved a response. I then decided to pursue the Filipino Chamber of Commerce. My first time calling a woman answered the phone but was unable to provide me with much assistance. She did know of two publications, but both were already on our media list. However she was interested in the work our class is doing, and thought a compiled list of Filipino media was a great idea. She gave me a contact that may be able to help. I am trying to set something up with her contact.