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1000 BCE
Pre-Colonial Traces
The earliest existence of a language system in the Philippines can be traced to the ancient Philippine alphabet called alibata or baybayin. Moreover, the earliest broadcast system of information dissemination could be traced to the existence of t he umalokohan or the town crier. -
The Print Industry and Filipino Freedom
Ancient colonizers introduced the most common media such as books, magazines and newspapers to the Philippines. However, these media are not accessible to everyone which kept a lot of people in the dark about their ruling. This is the reason why the very first newspaper, Del Superior Govierno, was written in Spanish. In addition, the very first newspaper, La Solidaridad, sprouted during the time when Filipinos were beginning to free themselves. -
The Broadcast Industry
In the late 1800s the British company Eastern Extension was granted permission to place submarine telegraph cables from Hong Kong to manila via the province of Bolinao in Pangasinan. Thus, in 1890, the first telephone system of the country began its operations, and the whole archipelago enjoyed this system of information and communication exchange. This marked the start of the broadcast industry in the Philippines. -
The European Film Import
Another media Europeans introduced to the Philippines is the film media. Film watching has become a popular for of entertainment in the late 1800s because of our very own musicals shows such as the "zarzuela". -
From Globalization to Glocalization
With the rise of the Philippine media comes Globalization, which is defined as the processes by which a company or organization expands to operate internationally. This mean that a local Filipino company could expand internationally. However, this is not often the case since the ones that are expanding their companies are those which are already rich and came from developed countries. The emergence of American music channel MTV Asia in the 1980s is the proof of this. -
Local Online Media
March 1994 marked the start of online media when the Philippines officially connected to the world of the internet through the efforts of PHNET. Most of the country`s internet access before was enjoyed through the existence of internet cafes, which are known as a shop where you can rent a computer set up to connect to the internet. Moreover, it was still quite a struggle for people in the provincial areas to connect to the internet hence internet cafes still thrive up to this day. -
The state of Media Today: The local Landscape
A lot has improved about the current media in the Philippines today. However, the media of the current Philippines is still Manila-centric since almost all media outlets, production stations and head offices are based in Manila. This has been an ongoing issue for a long time and over the years, changes are being made. In print, the Philippine Daily Inquirer already established regional offices called news bureaus or news desks in different regions.
