Man is a social animal that thrives on interaction, and the advent of the Information Era has amplified this disposition. Rapidly growing in number are new and democratically accessible Information and Communication Technologies, or ICTs that have spurred the Filipino people’s appetite for being in the know—and letting others know.
The traditional communication models have been transformed by new media and other ICTs from being a one-way, messenger-receiver relationship into a network of audiences that serve as content providers themselves. While new media tools such as the Internet and SMS have not yet attained penetration rates that most developed nations enjoy, they can, if applied to the Philippines’ local conditions, maximize a communicator’s reach to an extensive segment of the population. Social movements in the Philippines have only recently begun to acknowledge the significance of new media as a channel of communication for their advocacies, and tibaks, or grassroots activists, in the Philippines, are starting to tap this potential.
In its effort to provide technical support to progressive causes and campaigns in the Philippines, the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU), in cooperation with its network of cause-oriented and nongovernment organizations, recently organized “AOM 2.0: Integrating Info-Activism in People’s Campaigns” in Cebu City, on July 30—August 1. Arguably it was the first national workshop on Info-Activism, or the use of ICT tools in socio-political campaigns. Participants were introduced to the basic theory of new media and to ways of applying them in getting their messages across. Among its co-organizers is DigiActive.org, an international organization of volunteers dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world in using new media to increase the impact of their advocacies and campaigns.
The first day saw the sharing of the best campaign practices of invited resource organizations, such as consumer advocacy group TXTPower’s Action Center, BAYAN Bikol’s Ban Balikatan Campaign, and the Kilusang Mayo Uno’s International Solidarity Affair. These were run through workshops where the campaigns were incorporated with suggested new media tools that could be used to improve their practices.
The second day focused on the basic concepts behind the use of blogs, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, web portals, visualizations and other tools and skills that comprise the recipe of a good digital campaign. Ibon Foundation’s People’s Education Resource Center (PERC) shared the importance of advocacy research in campaigns and MASAI Inc. provided a short introduction on project management. Participants later attended laboratories where they were trained in the technical know-how of these tools.
The last day focused on web-based video production and web security and privacy. Mary Joyce, co-founder of DigiActive.org, presented the strategies utilized in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, where she served as the new media operations manager. CPU also shared a theoretical look into the dynamics of social movements within social networks such as Facebook and Friendster.
A clear analysis that emerged from the workshop was that new media and ICTs had their limitations and must not be treated as a panacea to the problems of social movements. The trend of having deregulated and privatized services, for instance, equates to having Internet and electricity accessibility limited only to those who can afford them. There also remains the problem of translating online gains into the offline: in other words, the challenge of enabling the transition from the ease of cyberspace into the inevitable sacrifices of participating in real-life action. These are fundamental problems where technology can only do so much to help.
New media and ICT, despite their limitations, remain viable tools for people’s campaigns. AOM 2.0 demonstrated how it is fundamental for a campaign to be people-centered in orientation and sharp in social analysis, for regardless of what medium is utilized to deliver an advocacy’s message, whether or not it addresses the concerns of the majority of the Filipinos will still be the gauge of a campaign’s success. Such can be likened to the concept of advertising: it will only work if the product delivers what the message claims.
For social movements to be part of the new media is inescapable. Testament to its universality is the fact that even activists are naturally drawn to social networking sites and other ICTs, albeit more for their personal use than the political. There remains a basic question: Is there even a divide to begin with? The virtual has long been perceived as a separate entity from reality, when it is in fact an extension of the social space we people traverse. The comprehensive tibak must then consider it a necessity to propel himself into the Information Era, and must treat cyberspace as another venue to expose social ferment and advocate social change.
Jose Leon Dulce is a volunteer of AGHAM. He is currently a Visual Communications Major at the UP-Diliman College of Fine Arts and Head of the Data Visualization and New Media Team of the Computer Professionals’ Union.
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