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IT’S generally recognized that the media
have “powerful effects” on politics. How and how many the
effects are, are pretty much hard to tell beforehand,
especially if the medium is new.
Television’s impact on electoral politics,
for example, wasn’t recognized until the famous Nixon-Ken-nedy
debates in the United States in 1960. Former US Vice
President Richard Nixon came to the debate looking surly and
unshaven. On the other hand, the handsome John F. Kennedy
projected coolness and youthful vigor. The television debates
probably made the difference in Kennedy’s close victory. Ever
since the Nixon-Kennedy debates, no politician running for
public office dared faced the cameras without having
makeup.
Satellite television helped former Moscow
Mayor and Russian President Boris Yeltsin defeat an attempted
military coup by helping him quickly mobilize international
support. In the subsequent election, Yeltsin, although
reportedly in poor health and suffering from drinking
problems, projected himself healthy enough on television to be
elected president.
We Filipinos have also made media and
political history by using mobile SMS (short messaging system)
technology or texting in helping bring down former President
Estra-da. The power of communication networks was demonstrated
when people massed at Edsa after the Senate voted not to open
the envelope that would supposedly prove that former President
Estrada was “Jose Velarde.” True to the nature of networks,
the mass action had no centralized guidance, but was the
product of diffused, but connected people. An American
media and technological philosopher has called this phenomenon
of groups of people undertaking common political activity with
the use of communication networks, “the intelligent swarm.”
It’s possible that Filipinos will make media
and political history again with the coming presidential
election in 2004. The Philippines is the texting capital of
the world and when it comes to mobile data usage, the country
is far advanced, even more so than in the United States where
they use mobile phones for nothing more than voice calls.
The mobile phone, rather than the Internet,
would again probably be at the center of any significant
impact on electoral politics in 2004. With less than a million
Filipinos enjoying Internet connection but with many Filipinos
abroad keeping abreast through the Internet, the Internet’s
role would be more significant for the OFWs who have regained
the right to vote.
On the other hand, there are at least 20
million Filipinos who have mobile phones. It is projected that
the mobile-phone-carrying population would soon hit 25
million. With reloads now possible for as low as P30 and the
price of handsets continually falling, even the C and D
classes are joining the “texting generation.”
It will be fun to speculate how mobile
phones will be used in the presidential campaigns. Will the
candidates spam mobile users with their names and their
campaign slogans? Will sample ballots go the way of vinyl
records, to be replaced by texted sample ballots? Will the
black-propaganda team of each candidate text juicy details of
a candidate to selected “superspreaders” and hope their black
propaganda reaches the masses?
The growing number of MMS (multimedia
messaging system) and GPRS-enabled mobile phones make for
interesting speculations on how they will be used in the
campaign. For example, a candidate can send his picture, which
would be like an electronic campaign poster, via MMS to all
those MMS-enabled phones.
A candidate could have his campaign jingle
formatted into a ringtone to be downloaded free by his
followers. A more media-savvy politician should have his own
wapsite (wap stands for wireless application protocol), which
is a form of the mobile Internet, and let GPRS-connected
mobile-phone users download pictures, ringtones and data about
him or her.
Although the new media like mobile telephony
will have an impact, the old media like television and film
still can’t be ignored. The fact that TV and movie
personalities like Noli de Castro, Loren Legarda and Fernando
Poe Jr. are high in the polls attests to the power of
television and film. So powerful has the impact of the media
on politics become that old political families like the
Macapagals, the Aquinos and the Cojuangcos have allowed
members of their clan to enter show business.
Even in the United States, film celebrity
status represents a political advantage. In the California
recall elections, polls show that the “Terminator,” Arnold
Schwar-zenegger, is the most popular choice to replace
California Governor Gary Davis.
The 2004 presidential election would be a
most interesting laboratory for the creative use of the
old and new media in politics. | 
