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Issues In Philippine Cinema

1. What is your assessment of the state of media research in the Philippines? Choose a particular form of mass media and identify three (3) major issues and concerns besetting it. To what extent has research been made on such issues and concerns? Cite concrete cases to prove your point.

The Philippine film industry, considered by many critics, producers, directors, movie workers, is either slowly but surely dying or is already dead. Notice the use of the term "Philippine film industry" instead of "Philippine cinema." This is such for the main reason that the people who deem filmmaking in the Philippines dead, qualify their assumption based on box-office returns and the profit their movies make. Hence it is more apt to use the term film industry since what they are describing not the film medium per se but that of the commercial side of filmmaking.
Not discounting that movie-making is also a business in which most mainstream producers are more interested in making money rather than making movies of quality, and to the fact that any business' survival highly depends on revenue, it is also worth taking a look at an issue that is plaguing the film industry.

Piracy
There is a consensus among local producers and film outfits that there are two main reasons why they consider the industry dying – unreasonable high government taxes and the proliferation of movie piracy.
It is imperative for the government to impose taxes on almost everything vital and important for a citizen, in this way they keep themselves alive. The Philippine movie industry is the most heavily taxed business sector in the Philippines. A released movie is imposed a 30% amusement tax, translating to a formula that a movies have to gross three times the capital for it to just break even. So a 10 million movie must earn more than 30 million at the box-office otherwise it would all have been for nothing. Although "pito-pito" films try to find a way around this "formula," the downside however is...