BREAKING THE SILENCE: THE USE OF COLOR BARS

Abstract

Test patterns or “color bars” as used by engineers in the television broadcasting industry to check the quality of colors a TV station in broadcasting has evolved in usage and meaning online. In 2017, Facebook timelines of TV5 Network, Inc.’s current and former employees were inundated with color bars. The color bars became signifiers and symbols of varied emotions as a visual graphic in the online space. Survey and interview of current and laid-off employees of TV5 were utilized to describe the evolving meaning of transcendence of emotions as displayed by visual graphics in the online space. Raising the questions: 1) Are “color bars” the new symbol of freedom of expression that connote to struggle and resistance against oppressive broadcasting industries in the online space?, 2) Are these “colors bars,” as displayed demonstrates assertion of rights in the offline space?, and, 3) If this visual graphic is the new form of resistance, is the broadcasting industry in the Philippines listening? Findings showed that “color bars” were used as a form of protest of employees to show their emotional state when they learned that they were laid off from the company.  The respondents inadvertently presented these “color bars” as signs of grief and solidarity in the online space to display resistance against such company decision. This represented the power resistance and visual communication on meaning expectation and resolutions between and among employees and media organizations.