QUADERNS ISSN: 1138-9761 / www.cac.cat DEL CAC Grassroots Organizations Go Online: The Case of Party-List Winners and New Media Technologies in the 2007 Philippines Elections KAVITA KARAN JACQUES DM GIMENO Assistant Professor at the WKW School of Communication and Graduate student at the WKW School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Information at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore [email protected]. EDSON TANDOC, JR. Former graduate student of Nanyang Technological University, currently works as a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer Abstract Resum This study will look into the differences between the strategies Aquest estudi analitza les diferències entre les estratègies de of the Internet campaigns during the 2007 Phillippines elec- les campanyes per Internet durant les eleccions filipines a tions by the two groups that used Internet as an campaign meitat del mandat del 2007 dels dos grups que van utilitzar tool: Gabriela (a women’s group) and Bayan Muna (a militant la xarxa com a eina de campanya: Gabriela (un grup de do- group), both claiming to represent the poorest, disadvantaged nes) i Bayan Muna (un grup militant), els quals afirmen repre- and marginalized members of the society. Both party-list sentar els segments més pobres, desfavorits i marginats de la groups won seats in Congress and where Bayan Muna’s stra- societat. Ambdós grups van obtenir escons al Congrés, però tegies were more effective than those of Gabriela’s. Drawing les estratègies de Bayan Muna van ser més eficaces que les from theoretical concepts of Personal Influence by Gitlin de Gabriela. A partir dels conceptes teòrics de la influència (1978) and from Grölund’s understanding of the same, this personal de Gitlin (1978) i de la seva interpretació per part study, through content analysis and in-depth interviews with de Grönlund, aquest estudi, a través de l’anàlisi de continguts members of the party, looked into where Bayan Muna had i d’entrevistes a fons amb membres del partit, va analitzar on done right where Gabriela evidently fell short. The researchers l’havia encertat Bayan Muna i on Gabriela evidentment es va address the following questions: Were the core supporters of quedar curta. Els investigadors van tractar les qüestions both parties ready for the new style of campaigning? Did the següents: els partidaris principals d’ambdós partits estaven parties effectively send the message to their supporters preparats per al nou estil de fer campanya? Els partits van through the Internet? Will there be more active campaigning aconseguir transmetre el missatge als seus partidaris per mit- on the Internet in future Philippines elections despite the set- jà d’Internet? En el futur hi haurà una campanya més activa backs? per Internet a les eleccions filipines malgrat els fracassos? Key words Paraules clau ITC, political communication, Phillippines, Internet. Noves tecnologies de la comunicació (NTC), comunicació política, Filipines i Internet. Much has been studied about the emergence of new media in countries like India, Malaysia and the Philippines are creat- technologies (NMT) in political communication but most of the ing their own websites for the purpose of reaching mass audi- literature is coming from the West where the use of the ences. In the Philippines, where the number of Internet users Internet and mobile phones seems to be quickly catching on, is slightly over 14 million (merely 15% of the total population) as seen in the political campaigning leading up to the 2008 and concentrated in urban areas, the aggressive approach to US Presidential elections.1 The new administration of US political campaigning on the Internet is picking up steam not President Barack Obama is heavily engaging the Internet for only among individual candidates but also among civic and public support through its change.gov website,2 mainly interest groups vying for party-list representation in Congress. because of their successful fundraising efforts on the Web that This article presents an account of how grassroots organiza- earned him hundreds of millions in campaign funds through tions in the Philippines, specifically the women’s group online donations from supporters. This trend of high-tech polit- Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) and a militant group Bayan ical campaigning is crossing over to Asia, where political actors Muna (People First), have joined the bandwagon of political 87 Quaderns del CAC 33, December 2009 (87-94) Grassroots Organizations Go Online K. KARAN; J. D. M. GIMENO; E.TANDOC JR. campaigning on the Internet and their experimental approach a higher number of voters in past years. This said, there are dif- to NMTs as a strategy to reach more voters. To assess this, we ferences in the results achieved by both the GWP and Bayan analyzed the websites of both parties and conducted interviews Muna. with their representatives in Congress. This article is comprised of three sections. We present rele- Social Networking Sites in Political Campaigning vant previous and current literature on political communication Social networking sites are a category of personalized websites in both the Western and non-Western regions in the Overview that contain an individual’s or group’s profile with several inter- of Political Communication, which has subsections on the per- active applications that people encounter on the Internet. sonal influence hypothesis and accounts of the different NMT These are especially prevalent in elections in the West, where applications that we examined in relation to the two party-list candidates and political parties make their profiles and plat- groups and their use of these technologies. In the second sec- forms available online to the public. In the Philippines, where tion, we provide a background of the political landscape in the the first Internet service was provided in 1994, Cuevas (2004) Philippines through a brief background of the system and a explained that this new technology became prominent in poli- brief account of both the GWP and Bayan Muna is also provi- tical communication at the height of the country’s massive cri- ded. Finally, we present our findings on the use of NMTs by the ticism of the then President Estrada, as evidenced in disgrun- two party-list groups in the third section. Our findings show tled exchanges posted on message boards, blogs and political that the use of these technologies in election campaigns is still commentaries online. These activities are believed to have led at a premature stage, where we have observed both success to the ousting and subsequent arrest of the president. However, and failure due largely to the lack of public access to such tech- given the relatively young and less aggressive penetration of the nologies. However, we see a trend of increasing political parti- Internet in the country, its effect on political communication in cipation, mostly through social networking sites and discussion Filipino society can only be gauged with difficulty.3 boards on the Web and through the popular mobile phone. Political Hyperlinking One of the most important methods in analyzing candidates’ Overview of Political Communication interactions and presence on the Internet is by looking at their use of political hyperlinking (Karan, et al. 2008). Much like The study of political communication has considerably evolved connecting offline to people and groups of similar beliefs to from what once used to be a heavy concentration on the West widen one’s political network or further one’s agenda, political to one that embraces the intricacies of politics in non-Western hyperlinking has become very important to candidates. Several regions (Kluver 2007; Park et al. 2000; Takeshita & Makami studies have looked into the benefits of hyperlinking, sugges- 1995). Many election campaigns employ “attack and counter ting that they, among others, build presence and recognition attack” strategies that are often observed in the American style and provide easy access to the electorate via a network of sup- of campaigning (Diamond & Bates 1988; Elebash 1984; porters who also have online presence, as well as a more Blumler 1987; Johnson et al. 1991; Karan 1994). Earlier robust and dynamic interaction that could increase political accounts of political campaigning looked into mass and inter- participation. Political hyperlinking is a two-way process where personal campaigns that reported “partial success and partial one links to others (outlinks) and where one also receives a link failure” (Kraus & Davis 1976; Rice & Paisley 1981, Kluver from others (inlinks) (Park, Thelwall, & Kluver 2005). 2007). In the Philippines, election campaigns are generally personality-based and seldom focus on issues of reform; thus, Mobile Phones in Politics candidates win or lose by popularity or lack thereof. However, The mobile phone, with its portability and affordability, has the Internet and new mobile technologies are changing the way become one of the most sought-after communication devices in political campaigning is done in the country from the one-to- most parts of the world, especially in areas where personal many (candidate-to-electorate) model to the many-to-many, computers (and thus, the Internet) remain largely unaffordable. where members of the electorate tend to communicate more Pertierra (2005) and Steenson (2006) acknowledged that the with each other regarding the issues (Karan, Gimeno, & Tandoc, mobile phone is changing the dynamics of people’s relations- 2008). Personal influence plays a vital role in this scenario. hips, depending on the cultural structures and economy of each country. For instance, Wei (2005) concluded that the device Personal Influence serves as a double-edged sword in political communication in Gitlin (1978) and Grönlund (2001) explained personal influen- China where, on one hand, people can express their opinions ce as a process whereby people communicate directly with against the government and, on the other hand, it also facilita- each other sans gatekeepers and middlemen, and that this type tes more effective government control.