A reporter of The Filipino Times has been selected to present his undergraduate research at the 2018 ACMC International Conference to be held at the National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan.
Neil Mercado, 20, who took up Development Communication in the University of the Philippines Los Banos, will be presenting his paper titled, “Ang Tipo Kong Babae (My Type of Woman): (Re)production of Archetypes of Women Based On Their Portrayal In Filipino Primetime Advertisements,” at the parallel sessions of the prestigious conference on October 27 to 29.
The study used transformative-mixed methods to look at how women are depicted in television commercials and how they are perceived by the public.
“The researchers employed content analysis to identify the portrayals of women by looking at the manifest content of the advertisements, and textual analysis to generate themes and patterns of womanhood from the advertisements,” the thesis’ abstract read.
Mercado gathered a total of 169 unduplicated commercials which were aired from September 4 to September 20 2017 in the three leading television giants in the country, namely: ABS-CBN, GMA and TV5. These commercials featured 227 female characters.
The study finds that, “The different patterns and themes of womanhood that emerged in Filipino primetime commercials include beauty and physique, traits, dependence and independence, false empowerment, and hard work and vision.”
Although the women are portrayed as empowered figures on television, his analysis suggests that they remain “largely domesticated” which means their roles are confined in homes.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Examining the Socio-Political Economy of Communication.”
Mercado will be presenting his study along with his undergraduate thesis adviser and co-author John Mervin Embate.
