영어신문 칼럼4호 Hope or Fancy?

 

Hope or Fancy?

 

Do you know the legend of the Dutch boy, Hans Brinker? One day, Hans passed dyke on his way of the errand. Accidentally, he saw that there was a hole on the dyke; water was leaking. Moreover, the hole was little by little getting bigger. He didn’t ignore what he saw. He put his finger in the dyke to prevent a flood for whole night. Finally he saved not only his town, but also his country.

 

It is very simple logic. If there is a hole, we should fill it up to prevent problem. However, I can see that some media practitioners in the Philippines are making a hole bigger instead of fix it. I am not sure that the media practitioners in the Philippines are aware of what they are doing to the people because even people don’t know what happen to them; it happens too slowly and unconsciously. People are cultivating; definitely, it is a big problem.  

 

Since a decade ago, there is a media trend in the universe; that is quiz-show boom. Quiz show is not just a program, now it can be considered as a social phenomenon. Quiz show tempts people that anyone can be winner to get the big prize that’s why people are crazy in quiz show. People might think that broadcasting company will cost a lot of money for the prize of quiz show. However, company will have more income than its cost.

 

The game show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” is one of the most popular quiz show in the world. According to American Broadcasting Company (ABC), when it was aired 13 episodes in the U.S, company spent only $ 1.4 million. It is not a big deal for ABC because if company produces one episode of program in prime time, they need to spend more. For example, Fox TV cost $ 3 million for only one episode of X-File because of the performance fees of actors. And 22 million people watched the last episode of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” then.

 

In addition, it is the basic format of the edutainment which is combination of education and entertainment; company can use the format of quiz show as long as company wants. Also it promotes participation of the audiences so it can be friendlier to the audience; Audiences can put themselves into participator’s shoes easily with intimacy.

 

Quiz show’s commercial value was already proven for past decade. That’s why now there is war among quiz shows to get the attention of audience. How many quiz shows are in the Philippines? There are “Game KNB?”, “Wheel of Fortune”, “Singing Bee”, “All Star K”, “Tok Tok Tok 1 Million”, “Go Bingo” and “Wawawe.” Really a lot!  

 

Traditionally, quiz show had known as a contest of intelligence. It gives enthusiasm to satisfy intellectual curiosity of life to the audiences and audience can feel catharsis when they get the answers which participants cannot answer. The reason is that psychologically, audiences set themselves in the quiz show as participants; when they see the question, automatically they try to look for the answer. Although quiz show is quite old format, people still like it.

 

However, nowadays quiz shows in the Philippines are no longer a contest of intelligence; it is contest of measuring fortune like gambling. In the quiz show, we can see the beautiful women who are almost naked to make good the visual views like in the casino and when participants choose the box which contains money, the audiences are so quite like the time when they bet the money.

 

I think, some game shows in the Philippines give harms to the mentality of audiences. There was the opportunity to watch “Wawawe” with my friend. I still remember that what my friend told me when participant got the 30,000 pesos. She said, “Oh! Only 30,000 pesos?” That time, I really felt awkward. Even for me as a Korean, that is not small money. But audiences are already treated that money as a small prize. This kind of quiz show makes people desire to earn money in easy way like once-in-a-life-time chance as gambling. These kinds of quiz show never ask the meaning of life, they ask the meaning of money in life using the most impulsive way.

 

According to psychologist, when people answer the question, they are nerves, so in the human nerve system releases epinephrine which is known as adrenaline. This substance makes people feel pleasure if they get the answer but if not, they feel depression. This is almost same situation when people are doing gambling.

 

 I am sure that there are people who don’t agree with me because I already asked some of my friends’ opinion about these quiz shows, some of them answered that they don’t agree with me because they cannot find any harm from it. Even they told me that quiz shows give hope to the people. People are already accustomed themselves to these kinds of quiz show; they are cultivated by media. Hope? What is the meaning of hope? Can we call the expectation of the chance to earn money without effort or by fortune as a hope? No way! Although people cannot feel the harms of those kinds of quiz show now, in the long run, surely these quiz shows will affect on the mentality of people and it never bring positive result in their life and country.

 

One more thing I concern is the target audiences. Surly target audiences are family. How could people let their children be exposed by those gambling and sexual images? They are the future of the country. If their mentalities are spoiled, there will be darkness of the country. For the adults, they are matured enough to detect a harm, but for children, they are easily influenced by environment. If building is destroyed, we can fix it easily however how could we fix the mentalities of children? Although there is a way, it will take quite long time.

 

The most popular TV program In Argentina is also quiz show. But the prize of this quiz show is not the money, it is a job. The reason is that, the most serious problem in Argentina is a getting a job. How about in the Philippines? Most people’s concern is money because the Philippines is suffering by poverty. These kinds of programs touch the most sensitive part of its audience to get the attention. Broadcasting companies don’t care of audiences. These kinds of quiz shows never help people; they just give fancy to the people with harms.

 

Quiz shows are evolved. The FOX TV’s quiz show, “The Moment of Truth” is combination of quiz show and reality show. The participants ware a lie detector and they should answer the private and embarrassed questions such as “Have you upload your sex video in internet?” and “As a health trainer, have you unnecessarily touched woman customer’s body?” There are 21 questions and if participants answer everything without the alarm of lie detector, they will get half million dollars. We don’t know that sooner, you are the one who answer those silly questions in front of millions of people to earn money. Someone says that the first quiz of history is the quiz of Sphinx. According to legend, if people cannot answer the question, Sphinx kills the people. Now our mentalities can be killed by the Sphinx which mane is quiz show.