Yahoo! Forum Features Social Media’s Role in the 2010 Elections

Social media awareness was the topic of a forum at the Hotel InterContinental Manila February 16.

Yahoo! Southeast Asia organized the forum dubbed “Tapping the groundswell: How social media will change the way elections are covered.”

Journalists, bloggers and web-workers spoke about social media, which includes websites allowing users to share content online.

Yahoo! Philippines General Manager Jack Madrid gave examples like Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo!’s recently launched Meme.

He said communication has changed. This was why Yahoo! introduced their “Purple Thumb” advocacy, to engage people in the upcoming elections through social media.

Managing Editor of Yahoo! Southeast Asia Alan Soon talked about the “Now Revolution,” pertaining to the modernization of news. In the past, news was what happened. Today, news was something that happened and was made available to everybody.

Simply put, Soon said, “If news is important enough, it will find me.”

Ethics could not be set aside in social media, said Yahoo! Southeast Asia Social Media Editor Joey Alarilla. He said online and print media followed the same journalistic ethics. This included telling the truth, citing sources, never plagiarizing, and not accepting bribes.

Another speaker for ethics was Vera Files writer and political blogger Ellen Tordesillas. Social media, according to her, blurred the line between public and private activity.

She gave actress Gina Alajar’s Facebook wall post against starlet Krista Ranillo as an example. Alajar may have considered her post private, but Tordesillas believed one had to assume everything one wrote was public, no matter what privacy tools one used in social media.

The last speaker for the morning was GMANews.tv Editor-in-chief Howie Severino. He discussed how social media was integrated in the newsroom by citing four instances in recent Philippine history.

In May 2009, GMANews.tv aired the videostream of Hayden Kho’s senate hearing, after he was involved in a sex tape scandal with actress Katrina Halili.

In July, GMANews.tv also aired President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address in real-time.

In August, GMANews.tv aired a live videostream of former president Cory Aquino’s funeral. GMANews.tv also integrated Facebook Connect and Twitter into their website.

During typhoon Ondoy in September, GMANews.tv provided an interactive map of people who needed help.