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Lesson from Obama: It’s the message that counts, not the Internet
By Sheila Coronel
GMANews.TV – August 26, 2009
For politicians who want to copy US President Barack Obama’s campaign strategy of using digital media in next year’s elections, a prominent Filipina journalist has this tip: create your message for voters first, and make sure it’s genuine.
In a speech at the annual Teodoro Benigno Memorial Lecture organized by the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines, multi-awarded journalist Sheila Coronel said Obama combined digital and mobile phone technology with grassroots organizing and money to win the presidency despite being a dark horse early in the race.
Coronel said Obama provided the “digital template" that many politicians are likely to follow in the 2010 presidential elections. However, she stressed: “We tend to think that technology is everything but it’s not … what matters is, the message you deliver is you."
During the campaign, Obama was seen as a genuine and sincere political leader who managed to overcome racial and family struggles to achieve success in life, she said.
Obama raised $500 million online, amassed five million contacts in his Facebook page, sent personalized messages to 13 million names in his e-mail database, and even had his own specialized application on the popular gadget iPhone.
“More important than all of that, Obama had a message: change," Coronel said. “Message, authenticity, and narrative are important," she added. She compared Obama’s life story to the tragedy suffered by former president Corazon Aquino that caught the imagination of voters in the elections held three years after her husband’s assassination.
Coronel is currently the director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University in New York. She won the 2003 Ramon Magysaysay Award for journalism, literature and creative communication arts and is one of the founders of the prestigious Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Although broadcast media remains dominant in the Philippines, she said new media such as the Internet can be a “leveler" for candidates, making it possible for those who do not have money to campaign effectively without spending millions of pesos on TV ads.
“Our demography favors new media," Coronel said. She noted that 70 percent of the voters in next year’s elections are under the age of 45, who also make up the bulk of Internet users. Coronel cited the Youbama video sharing site created by Obama supporters in the US that was geared toward younger voters.
'Journalism of amateurs' Even as the Internet has revolutionized the media landscape, Coronel said its impact on the journalism profession remains uncertain.
“One prognosis is that it will become a journalism of amateurs," she said. “Right now, everybody is a journalist," using tools such as blogs and Twitter to send out citizen’s reports from various parts of the globe.
“It’s decentralized. There’s no editor that says, verify this first," Coronel said.
By 2012, Internet users are expected to generate about 70 percent of content on the web, she reported. She added that an estimated one-fourth of the world’s population is now connected to the Internet while two-thirds have mobile phone subscriptions.
During the open forum, Coronel fielded questions from mass communication students from various colleges, who expressed keen interest in the future of new media.
She advised the youth to diversify and develop various talents such as putting up websites and becoming more entrepreneurial in their field, while creating a system that will help them filter the information they get from the web and counter-check false reports.
“I think citizen journalism is here to stay," Coronel said. However, professional journalists will still be needed to verify data and explain the meaning of the news to the public, she added.
Traditional politics Even as the Internet is gaining a strong foothold in the country, Coronel cautioned digital media users about the limits of citizen journalism in the Philippines, where violence remains a constant threat especially in the provinces.
She cited the case of Maguindanao province, where election cheating has become entrenched. “What do you do (if someone) is pointing a gun at you? Do you take his picture with a cell phone?"
Traditional practices are also difficult to overcome in the country, Coronel said, citing a survey done by the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms in 2003 that showed voters still influenced by the public servant image of candidates, political machinery, popularity, and endorsements from family and church affiliations.
However, she remains optimistic in the country’s political future. “There is a wellspring of belief in democracy in this country," she said, as seen in the recent outpouring of gratitude for the late former president Corazon Aquino.
“I think our problem is we ask the politicians to save us from our misery when they are the cause of our misery," she concluded. - GMANews.TV
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