Category Archive for: social media

komentaryo

Is silence Andanar’s communications strategy?

Four months in and it is clear that there is nothing in Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Martin Andanar’s plan that is about (1) protecting, defending, helping out President Duterte given his daring, controversial proclamations, and (2) informing the public with important, critical, historical data when it is urgently needed.

A major problem is that Andanar believes government does not need an official one-stop portal of a website. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Because no matter what he believes about Facebook, no matter the number of Duterte devotees who like posts on social media, FB accounts cannot take the place of an official Philippine government website that the public can depend on for official government news, responses, and data. Social media is, and has always been, for information dissemination and community engagement. (more…)

komentaryo

Media, gov’t comms, #LawinPH

One of the questions that dominated the discourse pre-Typhoon Lawin was: what the heck is government doing?

The truth was, we weren’t hearing much about what was being done, who was doing what, and whether government was prepared at all. It didn’t help that too many members of the President’s Cabinet –including the heads of communications – were with him in China, and so there was absolutely no sense at all that there was anyone in control of delivering information about the typhoon, one that was said to be akin to Typhoon Yolanda of 2013.

Here’s the thing: when you come from an Aquino government that had three communications offices, having no functioning communications office for President Duterte is nothing but a liability.

For the public and the government itself.  (more…)

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Brutal: the police and the President’s public

Early this month, I had wondered about the missing apology from Duterte supporters given the uncalled for, unfair, and absolute harassment of media workers in relation to the President’s failed ironic claim to the analogy between him and Hitler. It seemed important to point out that there was a need to rein the President’s supporters in, especially when the President himself apologizes when he makes a mistake.

That is extraordinary because we came from a previous government that refused to apologize for anything at all.

It is ruined by the fact though that too many of the President’s followers seem to think they can make no mistakes, and that always going in for the kill — looking at biases, dismissing criticism, questioning allegiances — helps the president and this government at all. Often it only reveals that too many of them who scream at the top of their lungs, behaving badly, thinking they’re defending the President, actually end up becoming his liability, too.

(more…)

komentaryo

Rein Them In

I used to love being able to say that President Duterte’s followers, at least the ones that I deal with on social media, have been better than Liberal Party loyalists. Those from the latter group who I’ve had the good fortune of engaging with tend to be rabid and angry, and absolutely defensive to the point of blindness. They think when you say “Daang Matuwid peeps” you mean them all, even when you’re obviously pertaining specifically to those who served with the previous government. They take offense at anything you say at all against VP Leni Robredo even when, truth to tell, you have yet to see her doing anything substantial.

A friend told me once: the yellow supporters getting angry and trolling you, that’s a badge of honor.

I don’t know about that, but it sure felt like an achievement surviving President Duterte devotees. (more…)

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Media madness #DuterteSONA2016

It was hilarious actually, watching media make a mess of their SONA 2016 coverage — and we’re not even talking about those “power shots” of the President’s nostrils and hands.

In fact, I’m not even talking about the SONA itself — for how can media mess up that coverage when we were all stuck with video from Brillante Mendoza? I’m talking about the pre-event coverage, when our congressmen and senators arrive at the Batasang Pambansa. In the past, this was the time and place to talk about what the women of Congress and the Senate are wearing, an opportunity to talk designers, a veritable fashion show.

But with the directive that guests wear “business attire,” it seems the media got the red carpet pulled from under their feet. Because what do they now talk about? What questions do we ask? What stories can we spin, with no clothes, fashion, designers to talk about? (more…)