Today on Blogwatch.ph, 100ARAW’s Tonyo Cruz shares his views on possibilities for citizen media engagements and cooperation in the 2010 elections.
The essay is a call for citizen media initiatives to do great things together.
Here are excerpts:
We would eventually directly compete with mainstream media going midway and in the homestretch of the coverage. Perhaps the challenge is not to always beat the mainstream media in breaking news events. Better be late than sorry for inaccurate reportage that could harm persons and entire communities, and ruin candidacies. But the bigger challenge is how to focus our and our readers’ attention on persons and entire communities, and candidacies that are routinely ignored or under-covered for whatever reasons.
We must also realize that the new media are not perfect. In 2009, Internet World Stats placed at 24 million the number of Filipinos who have regular internet access, or roughly one-fourth of our total population. This is already big compared to 2004, but the fact remains that the other three-fourths remain without access. We must also do our share in pressing for expanding Internet reach and usage to be able to reach more people and be even more effective as new media. (And we have yet to talk about the speed and quality of the connections.)
Elections and poll coverage are a political combat sport. We must be wary of those who seek to (mis-)use new media for traditional political (read: trapo) ends. We must reject payolas or pay-offs that could turn new media into the bad media we reject. If we have political affiliations, let us learn to use disclosures as a sign of respect for ourselves, the politicians we support and the public we swear to serve.
Read the essay, which was first published in the PJR Reports, at Blogwatch.