CRISTOBAL, Ayla Monicca C. SEM1

4POL1 November 8, 2014

An Assessment on Poverty Porn as a Political Strategy and Higher Education as a

Privilege

On Poverty Porn

Over the years, there has been an objectification and exploitation of human

beings—especially of the poor—for the purpose of one’s personal gain. This is a

practice that is evidently witnessed in the society nowadays. As the period of elections

approaches, which will be on year 2016, a lot of candidates for politics and some

incumbent politicians are practicing what is known to be “poverty porn” as a political

strategy in order to generate profit, gain public sympathy, and most prominently, public

vote. Concomitantly, commercialization of education has also been happening in our

society today. In a sense, it has added a financial element to the qualifications of

attending private and public schools and universities. Instead of education being a right

or a privilege, it becomes a commodity due to its commercialization. This paper aims to

assess the impact, as well as the issues and challenges of both poverty porn, used as a

political strategy, and the implications of the commercialization of tertiary or higher

education.

Last September 22, 2014, the class of 4 Political Science 1 (4POL1) organized a

seminar regarding poverty porn, used a political strategy in the eve of 2016 elections.

The program started at around 9-9:30am, which was supposed to start at 8am, since

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there the speaker and the reactors arrived a little later than the intended time for the

program to start. The seminar’s main objective was to impart knowledge and

information on how poverty is used by the media and the politicians as an effective

marketing strategy, exposing Thomasian students to such realities.

Poverty porn has come under criticism for exploiting circumstances of poor

individuals. In a technical sense, poverty porn is any type of media, be it written,

photographed, or filmed, which exploits the condition of the marginalized with the

purpose of generating necessary sympathy for advertisement or increasing charitable

donations or support for a given cause (Collin, 2009). According to an article by Emily

Roenigk (2014) in Hufftingtonpost, there are 5 major issues with the common practice of

poverty porn namely (a) poverty porn misinterprets poverty, (b) poverty porn leads to

charity, not activism, (c) poverty porn misrepresents the poor, (d) poverty porn deceives

the helper and the helped, and (e) poverty porn works.

Poverty is a result of both individual and systemic problems, concerning not only

personal situations but the social and justice systems in place that either operate to

empower the poor or exploit them with the use of their condition. Organizations, in most

places, have a hard time persuading Western viewers that real poverty exists outside

their lives in a culture that is completely saturated by these images. This practice does

almost nothing to address the real structural problem of poverty happening in reality.

In a different view, poverty porn leads to charity and not activism; donors and not

advocates (Roenigk, 2014). This issue fails to produce both a deeper comprehension of

the real issue of poverty and the essential structural changes that must occur to

effectively address it. As an alternative, poverty porn states that material sources are

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the problem and the solution where poverty itself can be addressed through donation.

This kind of understanding of the issue has the potential to make significant impacts

once a system or an organization that address it in a maintainable way has it. However,

the notion that it perpetuates perilous ideologies along the way do more harm than any

good is inevitable.

In such images of poverty porn, poverty is interpreted as dirt, rags, and helpless.

However, poverty should be depicted as holistic, affecting and influencing the whole

person and not just what is seen. People should be more open-minded and analytical to

what it really is and not use the ones that are only seen as their basis for their

understanding what poverty is.

Furthermore, one of the biggest problems with poverty as an issue is that it is

incredibly successful at empowering the wrong person (Ibid.). First, it is mainly because

poverty porn tells contributors that they have the ability to be liberators in vulnerable

communities they might know nothing about because of their position in the society and

their resources. Second, poverty porn incapacitates the helped. It objectifies its

subjects, characterizing them by their suffering and stripping them of the fundamental

components of life—agency, autonomy, and unlimited potential. These exploitation in

advertisements and marketing materials depicting the sufferings of the marginalized and

soliciting financial support may inadvertently direct subjects that they are, indeed,

helpless beneficiaries, who are dependent on support of the wealthy in order for

transformation to occur.

Lastly, poverty porn works. When it comes to profitability, poverty porn, is in fact,

effective. Researches show that audiences are more likely to be affected and make

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financial donation when an ad presents a child that is suffering rather than happy and

healthy. According to Emily Roenigk (2014), if we want to truly transform communities to

become economically and socially just, we have to create avenues for the voices of the

citizens to be heard thus, we cannot impose our constructs on them.

On Commercialization of Education

Students of 4 Political Science 2, on the other hand, presented a seminar last

September 30, 2014 that discussed the commercialization of tertiary or higher education

in the Philippines. The main objectives of the seminar was to raise the awareness of

college students on the implications of the commercialization of education occurring in

the country. The event was also to educate the students on the political and economic

insinuations of the said issue.

Over the years, there has been a trend of education from being a right and a

privilege to being a part of business and commodity in order for private institutions to

gain profit. There has also been a constant battle for state universities to keep the

government in doing what it is mandated to provide: to protect and promote the right of

all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make

education accessible to all. However, the government keeps presenting the same

excuse—the budget for education is limited. Though unacceptable, this has always

been the case occurring in the country giving the reason that limited budget means

limited priority, making education not exactly the top priority.

In a technical sense, commercialization of education, carried out by corporations

and private institutions, is a practice of disrupting and shifting teaching and learning

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process in schools by introducing advertising and other commercial activities with the

intention to gain and increase profit. The growth in number and types of partnerships

between schools and corporations has been increasing and this presents a challenging

conundrum for educators.

Recently, the University of the Philippines was changed from being a state

university to a national university. This means that the responsibility was transferred

from the state to the university in sustaining activities and operations of the university. In

relation to this is the supposition, as already said earlier, education is slowly beginning

to become a commodity instead of a right/privilege wherein the financial status of a

student has more influence to the institution instead of his or her talents and potentials.

Recommendation and Conclusion

Both seminars obviously needed more preparation and attention. Problems are

inevitable especially in events like these however, it can be prevented if both sections

just allotted more time in the preparation of their seminars. Nevertheless, it can be said

that the two proponents were still able to impart knowledge to their audience and were

still able to address their projects successfully.

It is an important that one is aware of what has been occurring in the society.

Both seminars did a great work with regard to the objective of increasing and spreading

awareness on the issues at hand. It is important to have a broader and large number of

audience in order to keep an open mind in formulating a stand with regard to the said

matters. Preparation of the seminar itself should not only be the matter, but also the

promotion of the event in order to gain more attention.

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Guest speakers play the most vital role in conducting seminars. Organizers

should choose the ones who are knowledgeable of the issue and topic that will be

talked about and he or she should dress and look presentable in order for the audience

to listen to him or her well. What the audience’s impression of the speakers and what

the speakers say greatly influence the mindset of the audience hence, it is important to

validate their credibility in addition to their professionalism.

Speakers should also not be biased on the topic or the issues at hand. A speaker

is expected to present his or her topic in a professional manner without trampling on the

side of the other. Despite of the said shortcomings from the two sections, it can be said

that they were still able to deliver a successful event. The objectives were met and the

issues were very timely. Awareness among the students were indeed increased by the

proponents of the two seminars.

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ReferencesCollin, M. (2009, July 1). What is 'Poverty Porn' and Why Does it Matter for Development.

Retrieved November 6, 2014, from Aid Thoughts: http://aidthoughts.org/?p=69

Roenigk, E. (2014, April 16). 5 Reasons 'Poverty Porn' Empowers the Wrong Person. Retrieved November 6, 2014, from Hufftington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emily-roenigk/poverty-charity-media_b_5155627.html

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