Managing conflict between pro-Duterte social media bloggers
MY column last Thursday was an honest attempt of to be part of the so- called social media community supportive of the President, albeit a minor one, to give what I thought were fair suggestions. It was not even Communications Operations Office ( PCOO), but a sincere effort to contribute my modest thoughts on how to move forward in harnessing the enormous power of social media to become part of the President’s communication infrastructure.
Two things have inspired me. First, there is now a social media unit within the PCOO, which is a tacit recognition of the role that social media plays in promoting the President’s policies, programs and pronouncement to the larger public. And second, I have on several occasions been involved in PCOO activities. No less than PCOO new media undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy has personally reached out to me to hear my thoughts on certain issues. I was involved in the initial consultations on the proposal on social media accreditation, a plan which has since been set aside for further study.
In all of these, I come as someone whose area of interest is in political culture and communication. Any political sci and a student of politics. We propound our positions on issues and offer suggestions on strategies clearly conscious that politics is not a dreamland. It - tic platitudes, but in the final analysis politics is a game of power, self- interest and political survival. It is also a game of addition. This is precisely why I civil social media community supportive of the President is an indispensable element for successful governance, more so
Unfortunately, UsecBadoy, in her response to my column saw my ideas in a different light. Instead of being open to the possibility of it being a trigger for a healthy conversation, something which she was planning to em - tically diminished the points I raised. She effectively shut down any room for dialogue, insisting on her contraryviews about politics and political communication. By posting her reply on social media, she served notice that there is no way she would listen to me.
She even had problems when I pointed out the inevitable fact that the President will be a lame a neutral terminology that we political scientists use without malicious intent.
UsecBadoy unfortunately misread my position. She insists interfere in the current social media wars among pro-Duterte bloggers. Had she just been less defensive, and more open, she would have realized that I am - diators on the current battles. In fact, what I emphasized in the last paragraph of my Thursday column was for the PCOO to sure that it remains impartial.
What I have in mind is for the social media unit of PCOO under her jurisdiction as Usec, and for which she wanted me to contribute my ideas anyway, is to develop a support mechanism that would operationalize the all other communications agencies under the PCOO, where there are personnel doing line and staff functions, the social perform social media-related line functions. These functions are now practically being performed by the social media community who are largely unpaid volunteers, advocates and activists.
much if UsecBadoy and her unit establish a mechanism where support systems are provided to us who are at the trenches. I am here, but simply being provided access to information, training