A-LIST FILIPINO POLITICAL BLOGGERS AND THEIR READERS: WHO THEY ARE, WHY THEY ACCESS

BLOGS, & HOW THEY PERCEIVE, AND PARTICIPATE IN, POLITICS1

By Mary Grace P. Mirandilla-Santos

Background: Internet, Blogging, and Politics

 Internet has changed nature of political communication and landscape of political participation
 new public sphere (Habermas, 1989), where people can discuss political issues
 new electronic republic (Grossman, 1995), where people participate through new media
 Web 2.0 offers low-cost, user-friendly, and personalized applications enhancing social networks
 Blogs touted as a promising democratic tool for providing information, facilitating political
communication, and influencing nature and level of political participation.

What we wanted to find out

Explore and investigate:
• A-list Filipino political bloggers: (i) profile, (ii) motivations for writing about politics; (iii) how they
participate in politics, and (iv) how they encourage readers to participate, online and offline
• Political blog readers: (i) profile, (ii) motivations for reading political blogs, (iii) how they perceive
politics, and (iv) whether and how they participate in politics, online and offline

How we investigated
• Online Survey 30 A-list Filipino political bloggers (June-Oct 2009) and 64 readers (Feb- May 2009)
• Interviews with top political bloggers, ICT4D and communications experts
• Focus group discussions (FGDs) in Manila (20 Feb 2010), Cebu (22 May 2010), Davao (29 May 2010)

What we found out

A-list Filipino political bloggers and their readers share a similar profile.
• Majority are young males (25-34 years old) who have the resources (college-educated, employed,
high-income; veteran internet users; regular broadband at home & work)
• Mostly located in country’s political capital (Metro Manila)

A-list Filipino political bloggers started to blog to “keep track of their thoughts” and to “inform others”
of the most relevant and recent information. They continue to blog “formulate new ideas.
• Continuing to blog could lead to more vibrant discussions and meaningful deliberation, and support
democracy by allowing expression and enouraging participation.

Bloggers promote mostly expressive, conventional, and legitimate forms of participation offline, such
as “announcing an event”, “voting”, and “attending a peaceful demonstration”. They encourage
readers to engage in neutral, conflict-free, networking-related modes of participation online.

Blogging did not significantly change political participation among bloggers before and after blogging.
• But, need to qualify that some activities, like voting, are time-specific

Readers visit political blogs mainly to “keep updated; gain awareness and more information”. They

1
This work was carried out by independent Filipino ICTD researcher, Mary Grace P. Mirandilla-Santos, from February 2009 to August 2010 with
the aid of a SIRCA (Strengthening ICTD Research Capacity in Asia) grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa,
Canada, and administrative support from the Singapore Internet Research Centre (SiRC), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The
project was managed under the Centre for Research and Communication in Manila, Philippines.
 also consider “being informed” as the main benefit of reading political blogs.

Reading political blogs did not significantly change political participation among blog readers.
 But, some evidence indicate that reading led to starting one’s own political blog

Readers are highly cynical, associated with “competence of candidates who win the elections” and
belief that “many politicians are under control of vested interests” and most “are out to gain
something for themselves”.

Readers are moderately efficacious, associated with “having a say about what the government does”
and belief that there are “ways to have a say other than voting” and they “understand what is going
on in politics and government”.

• Bloggers and their readers feel that blogging is “a form of political participation” that has led to “an
exchange of ideas among individuals even in the real world.”
• After acessing blogs, both feel “much more” informed about politics, but only “somewhat” sure
about their influence on politics or political discourse.

Some Observations
 Bloggers and readers believe: “credibility is currency” in the blogosphere
 A-list political bloggers show antagonism toward bloggers who get paid for writing
 Readers look to credible bloggers, with established reputation offline or in mainstream media

 Bloggers and experts assert: political blogs have yet to create tangible macro-impact on participation
 Current contribution limited to information-sharing, but raises awareness and benefits discourse
 No influence during “politics as usual”; value-added during urgent political issues or a “crisis”
 Gain traction when it goes viral, get picked up by mainstream media, and/or attract attention of
“gatekeepers” (people who have direct access to politicians and decisionmakers).

Notes on Sampling Method

 Search in Google and Yahoo! using key terms: “Philippine” “political” “politics” “blog”
 Results filtered using selection criteria (e.g., author is private individual, not in politics, Filipino, 18
years old or up, blog 1 year old or up, two posts on politics per month, means to contact blogger)
 A-list Filipino bloggers are established and popular2. Independent ranking of blogs also undertaken.

Suggestions for Future Research

 Catalytic effect of SNS (Facebook) and micro-blogging sites (Twitter) in mobilizing netizens
 How blogs, micro-blogs, and SNS help shape and influence political attitude vs. traditional media
 Content analysis of political blog posts and comments thread
 New governance approach using social media for direct political communication

See forum presentations at http://www.scribd.com/gmirandilla.

For queries, please contact Grace at: mg(dot)mirandilla(at)gmail.com, http://www.linkedin.com/in/gracemirandilla,
http://gracemirandilla.tumblr.com/, https://twitter.com/gracemirandilla.

2
“Established”—enduring, with online presence at least 1 year—and “popular”—reputable, widely read prevalent in blogrolls, and high traffic
(hits from pageviews).