I’ve been arranging political blogger events since early as two years ago. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, a lot of bloggers here in the Philippines don’t see the value of events like these. This for me is such a waste because bloggers are now being recognized as a powerful medium for communications.
Bloggers have the opportunity
Unlike a lot of other people in the country, bloggers have the opportunity to sit down and talk to politicians for a lengthy amount of time and discuss literally anything under the sun. Even traditional press people only have a few minutes when it comes to press conferences. In blogger events we usually extend to hours upon hours. I fondly remember the blogger event with Senator Mar Roxas. It was supposed to have been a 5:30PM-6:30PM engagement, but we ended up closing discussions at almost around 8:30PM. I’ve been to blogger events with Senator Villar and Senator Escudero and it’s pretty much the same as well. We always end up extending.
Ika nga ni Uncle Ben, “with great power comes great responsibility”. Fellow bloggers, you have a voice. I urge you to use it. Stop being passive and actively take part of nation building by pushing for candidates who share the same values and agenda that you hold dear.
Bloggers are like Congressmen
Well… without the pork barrel. As bloggers sitting down in political events, you are actually representatives of your readers. You can ask questions that they can’t. You can argue, debate, agree, disagree, or whatever with the politician who’s hosting the event. If your blog is about a particular niche, then push for topics that are relevant to your readership. Try to put it into context so that you’re really speaking for your community of followers.
If you think about it, the advertising revenues and affiliate sales you get from your blog comes from your readers. That’s your salary being paid for by them and you owe it to them to represent them properly.
Bloggers should add value
I personally believe that bloggers should make a choice. I’m not saying that you guys endorse every single politician you meet in blogger events. In fact you should grill the hell out of them so that you can decide if this guy is worth pushing for in your blog. Take advantage of the events that you go to so that you can better discern and think about who you will support in 2010.
Ask the hard questions. Write about it. Later on, endorse a line-up. It’s our little contribution to nation building.
This is my personal advocacy and that’s why I’ve decided to organize even more political blogger events in the coming weeks and months. I’ll try to use all of my connections and network to get as many politicians who plan on running in 2010 to sit down with us bloggers so that we can get to know them better and hopefully we can all make our own personal decisions on who we will push for. As a matter of principle, I will not be charging a single centavo for organizing the events. All the politician has to do is to provide the venue and have his or her staff coordinate with me. If you want to help with the logistics (you know politicians or their staff) or if you’re interested in going to future events, just drop me an e-mail at oplecarlo@gmail.com.
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Your program sounds good, and I wish you the best on it.
When you have an event on Leyte or Biliran, publish it here. Until then, I have no compunction to go to Manila or other islands to hear it straight from the horses mouths.
I shall be here hammering faithfully on my keyboard hoping FV continues to evolve as the richest place to go for thoughtful commentary about the Philippines.
Most bloggers have egos, which is why they have their individual sites. FV is a community of egos, in that respect, and therefore represents the nation rather than any one individual.
Cheers.
Joe
Thanks Carlo, you know we wanted to do this last year, but did not materialize, but now that the campaign season is starting to really begin, I think more politicians will be willing to share their message…
I’ll buzz Ding when I’m in town. But I’m really glad that you are using your connections in such a positive way. Kudos to you Carlo..
Will await your advise, Nick…
By the way Carlo, you can always announce such events here on FV, just place them in the current events section.. that way, maybe our readers and bloggers who don’t have a Facebook account will be notified of these events..
Hey Nick and Carlo,
It is a noble idea. However, i am skeptical that politician will ever join in active discussions.
Just cant be in the near future. Philippine politics is occupied by lots of what they call ‘TRAPOS’ and much of this politician dont know how to use of just lazy to use Internet. And majority of these politicians are rich people, some filthy rich. They will not attend to these forums. They consider it a cheap. They’d rather spend much of their time and money to traditional connections, their compadres. These people have their own inner circles and you just cant have them here.
But we we will try to have them.
Politicians should prepare for the event by publishing a detailed platform. Bloggers for their part should demand that they do so.
In such a way, there will be a baseline around which the discussion can be grounded. There will be structure to the discussion because each point of such a platform can be highlighted and politicians will have less latitude to move the goalposts when it suits them.
The event can also be more participative across the entire blogosphere because EVERYONE will have access to a writte statement articulating the position of each politician on a number of issues.
Nice plan. Hope it works out.
But i am still skeptical. Politicians prefer to play golf with their cronies than make blogs. Also, they can never present their detailed platform because it means they are forced to lie.
Thoughts in the right direction. Who moderates and can we count that moderators will be fair with no selective editng or deleting and comment policy equally enforced across the board. Just asking?
I’m planning to go this kind of event aside unfortunately wala akong nakukuhang alerts from you
And by the way, I am not sure if all bloggers really receive proceeds from their writings.
I am sure that not all.
Well then, I’ll come out and say it. There will be bloggers that are “hired guns” but it is part of the process. And then there is the question of moderation and enforcement of comment policy, can we count on its fairness? People have different styles.
Tangama,
I think there is such a thing as “equity” you build up as you write. If your contributions are generally constructive and not name-calling or otherwise rude, you will find FV fully open to your ideas. Nick has a standard he wishes to see here, and it is a good one, to achieve a high quality site.
I disagree with the “editing” policy, as I think writing is personal and sometimes art, and ought not to be messed with. I’d rather FV just rejected whole submissions, but sent a note saying why.
But, all in all, those little nits are well worth putting up with for the value received.
Joe
Most of us are working people. Some of us are not in the country.
However, we follow the events in the Philippines. We invite Politicians and Leaders to put their opinions on the Blog. We will
comment and we will discuss. Even debate with them. We are all busy
earning a living. We are not like those indolent and irresponsible
Congress People and some Senators. Who have jobs, but just work
if they just feel like working. Anyway, their pays are assured by the
Filipinos at the end of the month.
I wonder who these political bloggers are Wauks. Do you have a list?
I am working on this too as service to blog readers. See you in tonight’s meeting.
….to say “not voting for noynoy” is a disservice to ninoy’s legacy is kinda partial. ninoy’s biggest legacy to filipinos is democracy, but it doesn’t stop there. i believe “democracy” is a means to the end, which is “progress”.
as a person given the democratic right to vote, i believe the best manifestation of this right and ninoy’s legacy is to ensure the philippines will move past this “martial law era mentality” and embrace the future with realism and a concrete plan.
i believe a vote for noynoy will make us stuck in the past. i want a president that has a believable plans to propel us forward, not dwell in the past.
Hi Carlo, Dave here of “Pagod Ka Na Bang Maging si Juan?”. I would be happy to be part of this event and support you in this cause. Bloggers should also provide a critical view of the candidates and whenever they support someone it should be based on what is best for the country. Just drop me an e-mail at 09165450452 or text me at 09165450452.
Kudos Carlo!