Dinggin: An audio-documentary pilot episode

• Main Authors: Casipe, Angelo Nico R., Zarcal, Marie Gabrielle F., Ching, Justine Patrice G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Sound recordings; Storytelling; Documentary films; Other Communication
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_comm/20; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=etdb_comm
• Institution: De La Salle University

This project is a 19-minute audio-documentary episode centered on the events of the 2021 State of the Nation Address as an establishing narrative of the actual state of the nation. This audio-documentary series entitled, “Dinggin” uses a story-telling narrative that highlights social issues and key events that took place under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration — what they had promised, stated, and accomplished throughout their tenure in office, as discussed by the President himself in his last official State of the Nation Address within his six-year term of presidency. The proponents encapsulated story-telling of the event of the 2021 State of the Nation Address through the use of actual sound bytes, authentic vocal narrations, sound effects, and dynamic scoring in association with the topics at discussion per episode in highlighting the President’s speech from the 2021 SONA. The thesis production was built around the core ideas of two theories. The first is Kunreuther’s “Sound of Democracy” in which the discourse of voice and transmission of sounds commonly associated with democracy and a political scene can function as metaphors for representation to make any relative message heard. The second is the New Media theory by Bimber and Dahlgren on how the online public sphere through social media is an effective platform for discourse and influence, especially for political gain and cultivation, most especially in reaching the production’s target audience of Generation-Z and Millennials from the social class B and C demographic. The 2022 Philippine National Elections served as the main inspiration for conceptualizing this audio-documentary series. The proponents believe it is important for Philippine society, the Gen-Z Youth, to reassess the past decisions and actions of the Duterte Administration in pursuit of learning from its outcomes with the hopes of influencing their engagement and stance in the Philippine political landscape, in an opportunity to change the future of the Filipinos. The pilot serves as the establishing discussion as the remaining episodes will be broken down into the social and national issues that have been brought up in SONA 2021. The proponents embedded themselves in a research and design process that involved but was not limited to: interviewing participants — a human rights lawyer, a field photographer, and a student leader, watching the 2021 SONA, reading the full-text transcript of the 2021 SONA, listening to different public speeches across President Duterte’s tenure in office, researching and listening to different sound bytes and effects, and creating original dynamic scores for production use.