At Home Elsewhere: The Transnational Kapamilya Imaginary in Selected ABS-CBN Station IDs
Article

In this era of globalization, “transnational television” has become pivotal in mobilizing cultural representations on a local and global scale. Transnational television expands its contours on a global scale and re-creates a sense of home by bringing “home-grown” programming to diasporic communities. ABS-CBN, an information and entertainment multimedia conglomerate in the Philippines, represents the operation of transnational media. Through its flagship The Filipino Channel (TFC), ABS-CBN is able to reach audiences worldwide via cable, satellite, online and mobile, and through its international subsidiaries and affiliates. Framing transnational television as a “field” in cultural work or practice, this paper critically inquires the reproduction of various capitals and misrecognition of symbolic violence and legitimization of social structures and profit-making in a globalized culture. Through an investigation of selected ABS-CBN Christmas Station IDs as a symbolic form in the media field, mediation of capitals – symbolic and network capital – is celebrated in transnational Kapamilya experience and interplayed with ABS-CBN’s quest to serve the Filipino worldwide.