Archive for the 'Politics' Category

Following on from my posts about the use of online video during the Australian elections and how blogs and Facebook are being used in Africa for political debate, I’ve also explored how blogs in particular have impacted on Singapore’s political scene recently.

Political blogs banned in Singapore during elections

During the elections in Singapore, the People’s Action Party (PAP) - Singapore’s ruling party since 1958 - banned online discussions during the campaign period, according to The Internet in Asia blog writing in May 2006. The article also includes a very useful link to other online articles about the ban of political blogs, podcasts and discussions online in Singapore.

The blog reports in June 2006 that bloggers and journalists tried to engage with the government to allow responsible political blogging:

“Singaporean bloggers and journalists have suggested that the government should engage with new media , instead of regulating it- as the blogosphere can regulate itself - for example, websites that feature wild, baseless accusations or irresponsible content will soon lose their readership and credibility, as readers move to other websites and that unfair criticisms will likely draw counter-arguments, sparing the original writer the need to respond to every comment. However, they also acknowledged the importance of bloggers being mindful of existing laws, and not breaking them. Popular bloggers Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi provided an example - the use of their slogan “prison got no broadband ” as an effort to educate bloggers on the importance of following existing rules.”

There was also some breast-beating over an audio parody sketch that may or may not have had a political agenda. The anxiety over this issue is quite a contrast to the Australian approach to their recent elections - most of the videos about the elections were satirical, irreverent and outspoken.

Unfortunately, this excellent blog from the Singapore Internet Research Centre seems to have given up the ghost around February this year so I will have to look elsewhere for the latest trends in Singapore’s uneasy relationship with political blogging.

If you’re based in Singapore, it would be great to hear your views about this issue. Since July 2006, has the government been more open to political debate online via blogs and podcasts? Do you think online debate of political or civic issues helpful to Singapore or unhelpful? Let me know by adding a comment or emailing me using the Contact form above.

Picture: thanks to news.bbc.co.uk

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This post and others in the category New Trends in International Public Relations is part of my research project for the book of the same name that I am co-authoring with business communications expert, Silvia Cambie. I am focusing on the social media aspects while she is working on the wider public relations issues.

To find out more about my research for this book, see my book wiki.

To see who has contributed to my research for the book, take a look at my Contributors List.

If you can help with my research for the book, please contact me via the book wiki contact link or email me via this blog.

Having researched the way that Australians were using social media (mainly videos) in the lead-up to the recent Australian elections (won by Kevin Rudd) and how the American presidential candidates are handling online engagement, I’m also looking into how social media is being used in the Africa political arena.

Political blogs in Africa

Africa is a huge continent and I cannot hope to cover all of it in the short book that we are working on. However, I am aiming to llook at a selection of countries to see how social media is being used there for political debate.

This is what I’ve found so far:

In Burkina Faso, journalist Ramata Sore writes (on Global Voices) in her article “Blogs Help Burkinabe Skirt Censorship”:

“In a country where there is still so much secrecy, blogs free minds. In a country where censorship reigns and traditional media live in the shadow of power, bloggers are often the only real journalists. They are the only ones who can publish information offensive to the government.”

However, on a politically sensitive anniversay, the government cut internet connections to silence bloggers. Sore gives the details: “…from October 11th to the 17th, during the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s internet connection was cut in order to prevent those commemorating the assassination from making their voices heard.”

In South Africa, the current political hot issue is the ANC succession with the current ANC president (and President of the country) Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma as the main contenders. It has been reported that there are 59 Facebook groups where the succession debate is being argued out.

The Facebook group “Help us stop Jacob Zuma becoming South Africa’s next president” has 31,529 members at the time of writing. Its wall has over 5,000 postings. To promote the group, they even have an official Zuma Group ring tone….

The Thabo Mbeki Facebook groups seem less popular with the highest membership at 227 members (”Buy Mbeki a Brain“).

Since businessman Cyril Ramaphosa emerged as an alternative, there have been two Facebook groups supporting him with 71 members and 19 members respectively.

I am curious to know how effective these groups are likely to be in impacting on the succession. Is this a new form of mobilization that is going to be the equivalent of the old-fashioned door-stepping of voters to sway them in the final voting? Or is it just a lot of hot air (hot postings?) with no real impact on the real world? Are you a South African or a Facebook aficionado - what do you think?

Are there other ways that Africans are using social media eg video, blogs, podcasts etc for political debate or protest? Please share any links or thoughts you have by adding a comment or emailing me using the Contact form above.

Pictures: thanks to news.bbc.co.uk, anc.org.za

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This post and others in the category New Trends in International Public Relations is part of my research project for the book of the same name that I am co-authoring with business communications expert, Silvia Cambie. I am focusing on the social media aspects while she is working on the wider public relations issues.

To find out more about my research for this book, see my book wiki.

To see who has contributed to my research for the book, take a look at my Contributors List.

If you can help with my research for the book, please contact me via the book wiki contact link or email me via this blog.

The Australians are not known for their reticence or their polite turns of phrases. With the Australian General Elections coming up, the Ozzies have taken their outspoken and vigorous style of public debate online. Videos on YouTube and other platforms have been the media of choice with shows by established satirical magazines like The Daily Grind and The Ministry of Truth alongside clips by outspoken individuals. The political parties have also taken to the e-waves with their own channels on YouTube.

Here is a quick romp through the Ozzie political videoscape:

Government supported satire

The satirical The Ministry of Truth has uploaded an episode on their Ning-based online platform. The video features sketches laughing at the obsession with Australianness. The sketch about the Australian barbie made me laugh out loud (possible because I’d make a good Ozzie carnivore if I weren’t already British).

It’s striking that the show is sponsored by the Queensland Government Arts Board. I can’t imagine an Asian government sponsoring this kind of satirical show on their national channels.

Party Political Broadcasts

The Australian Labor Party has its own YouTube channel. The only problem with their very slick videos is that - well, they are very slick. They feature actors playing “ordinary” Australians talking about their “lives” and negative “responses” to John Howard’s statement that “Australians have never been better off”. The series of videos are all typical party political broadcast style ads that don’t sit very well on YouTube where the millions of other user-generated videos are have more quirky, spontaneous content. Take a look at this one featuring a “housewife”:

I reckon they would be more credible interviewing a few real people with all the “ums” and “ers” and a less slick presentation.

Amateurs join the fray

This one is a satirical song featuring Elvis and animated collages of the main electoral candidates John Howard and Kevin Rudd by someone(s?) called Captain Rant and the Knee Jerk Reactions. I couldn’t find out much more about them on the net - so if you know who they are and what else they’ve done, let me know by adding a comment.

There are plenty more satirical videos of this nature on YouTube - try typing in the candidates names in the search box and then follow links and related videos to explore them for yourself.

What is impressive is the standard of the animation and satire - although many are made by amateur film-makers they are pretty watchable and also clever and funny. They seem to be made by people who are older than the usual teenagers who populate user-generated spaces like these and who have a message they want to get across. The tone is also particularly Australian, I think - there’s no earnestness in these videos though clearly many of the creators feel strongly about their nation and the issues being debated and their irreverent humour and wit is what really comes across. In contrast, the American presidential debate currently taking place online is much more serious and earnest with bloggers - rather than film-makers - taking the lead.

The year of social media

2007 seems to be the year for social media to be taken seriously in the political arena, from what we’ve seen in America and now in Australia. This will be increasingly common around the world and will no longer be “news” in itself. I think that social media has the potential to engage populations in political debate in a fresh way and hopefully, this will mean less apathy and more involvement in the electoral process. In particular, peer-to-peer discussion and debate may prove to be a very powerful way for drawing otherwise uninterested citizens into the issues.

I am also currently exploring the use of social media for political debate in Asia and Africa and will be blogging about that in the future.

What do you think? If you’re an Australian, have these videos made you more interested in the elections and/ or politics?

Share your thoughts and add a comment.

Other resources

For a great review of other satiricial videos about the Australian elections, you can check out Australia’s ABC Radio National’s Street Stories podcast. Their show notes page also gives a list of links to various film-makers featured in their programme such as Shan Jayaweera who uses John Howard and Kevin Rudd puppets.

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This post and others in the category New Trends in International Public Relations is part of my research project for the book of the same name that I am co-authoring with business communications expert, Silvia Cambie. I am focusing on the social media aspects while she is working on the wider public relations issues.

To find out more about my research for this book, see my book wiki.

To see who has contributed to my research for the book, take a look at my Contributors List.

If you can help with my research for the book, please contact me via the book wiki contact link or email me via this blog.

The speed of communications is ever increasing, especially now that online messages can be zipping round the world virally via digital word of mouth in the time it takes you to type an email message or blog post.

Now that anyone can be pundit or citizen journalist who has a mobile phone, camera, laptop or just an opinion and access to the internet, anyone out there can share their views or stories about you in moments. Equally, anyone can express an opinion or a view or tell a story without deliberating over it or checking the factual basis for it - and indeed, online social media encourages that rapid action and reaction because of the ease of uploading content easily, cheaply and quickly.

For those whose every move makes news - like high profile politicans, world leaders, celebrities and the like - this trend is becoming a huge challenge. How do you control misinformation or misinterpretation of your actions and words in this rapid response world?

Taking legal action or sending out cease and desist letters can make you the “heavy” in the drama, causing more damage than good. Legal processes can also take time - and through that very process could keep the issue in the news more than you would like.

Hilllary Clinton’s campaign has come up with a clever way to deal with misinformation about her and her campaign for the US presidency, reports The New York Times. She has “introduced a Web site dedicated exclusively to the instantaneous rebuttal of charges or news reports it deems offensive or wrong”, called Fact Hub.

On the Fact Hub, Clinton’s team painstakingly sets the record straight wherever she has been misinterpreted or where others have got their facts wrong about her statements and actions. For example, it corrects Barack Obama with an statement headed Obama Misrepresents Hillary’s Views On Social Security and there is a rebuttal of a claim that Clinton and her team did not leave a tip at a diner where they had a meal (which is the subject of the New York Times article I just mentioned).

It looks like the website uses a blogging platform and includes an RSS feed so you can subscribe to it to receive the latest updates - another example of innovative ways to use blogging technology and blogging without calling it a blog.

For those of us of less grand profiles, it is still useful to keep an eye on what is being said about you online and to consider carefully how you would respond to any erroneous claims being made about you or your business. I am curious to know what processes you are using to monitor what is being said about you on the online grapevine at the moment and what plans you have in place to deal with any erroneous claims about you or your business. Please add a comment or email me using the Contact form above.

Photo: thanks to sskennel from flickr.com (CCL)

This post also appears on the EuroComm Blog today, where I am one of the blogging team

When I was writing my article Blogging Thrives in Malaysia for IABC’s journal, Communication World, I was struck by how quickly news of events travels in the new era of online communications.

I started researching and writing the article in July this year and as I finished it and was about to send it to the journal editor, Malaysian blogger Nathaniel Tan was taken into custody and I had to quickly update the article with that latest news.

Just after I sent it off to the editor, I got an urgent email from one of my interviewees, Asohan Aryaduray, the New Media Editor at The Star newspaper in Malaysia saying that there had been “some serious and troubling changes in the political landscape” and giving me an update on further crackdown and potential changes in the laws affecting blogging.

I had to recall the article and revise it yet again with these latest updates.

On Saturday, I was building on the research I had so far on blogging in Malaysia for the book I am working on about New Trends in International Public Relations and came across reports online of riots in Kuala Lumpur during a political rally for electoral reform, within hours of it happening. A link was posted on the Facebook group “Save the Malaysian Judiciary” to a YouTube video of an Al Jazeera TV report showing police spraying demonstrators with chemicals during the march.

When I first found it on Saturday afternoon, it had been viewed 240 times. When I checked back 3 hours later, it had been viewed over 8,000 times.

Some further digging led me to more videos around the event, including a video from a little while back that was one of the rallying calls for the protest.

More and more, the way we receive news and information is going to be a mix of traditional news media and citizen communication - people passing on news around the world through emails, social networks and social media tools. Right now, it’s still new and worth commenting on but soon, it will be the norm. We’ll still most likely turn to the journalist-produced content for news that has been fact-checked and produced according to professional standards and guidelines (though journalists can still get things wrong!) but alongside will be a stream of information passed on by non-professionals. The trick will be identifying the non-professional sources you can trust and those that may be scaremongering, gossiping or pushing their own agendas.

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This post and others in the category New Trends in International Public Relations is part of my research project for the book of the same name that I am co-authoring with business communications expert, Silvia Cambie. I am focusing on the social media aspects while she is working on the wider public relations issues.

To find out more about my research for this book, see my book wiki.

To see who has contributed to my research for the book, take a look at my Contributors List.

If you can help with my research for the book, please contact me via the book wiki contact link or email me via this blog.

The article I was researching and writing earlier this year about blogging in Malaysia has now been published in Communication World, the journal of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). It is featured in a special Asia-Pacific supplement under the title “Blogging Thrives in Malaysia.” The article examines the tension between political bloggers and the authorities as well as highlighting the success of non-political personal and business blogs in the country.

It has come together with the help of various journalists and bloggers who generously shared their views and experiences - thanks, guys! Much of the information they have given with me will also be useful for the book that I am working on about New Trends in International Public Relations.

Please feel free download the pdf of the article Blogging Thrives in Malaysia. By all means forward it to anyone who may be interested, with a link back to this post.

You can also download the article plus other articles I’ve written about social media from the box below.

This post appeared on my writing blog Fusion View yesterday

I’ve been taking longer than I planned researching a section on Conversation and Democracy for my bookproject, New Trends in International Public Relations. What I’ve been finding fascinating is the different attitudes that the East and the West have to social media in the world of politics.

Western politicians and social media

The main presidential candidates in the US are all embracing blogs, YouTube and Twitter and many observers say that this is the first presidential race where social media is playing a major role. The televised debate between the Democratic candidates, for example, included questions posted on YouTube by members of the public - these videos were played on a giant screen in the hall where the debate took place and the candidates took it in turn to answer the questions. Critics of this have said that this does not truly show political leaders “embracing” social media in its truest form ie as a free-for-all, open dialogues between equals and peers. The questions were carefully vetted and chosen beforehand instead of being an open, forum where anyone can take part (in the way that people can add their comments more freely on a blog, say). I think it’s very naive to think that politicians will ever hand over that level of control - they might be willing and comfortable having a “town hall” meeting where they roll up their sleeves and have an impromptu chat with the audience (who are no doubt carefully selected by invitation in the first place) of several hundred but it’s a different matter of scale where anyone in a population of several hundred thousand could send in a video. There will always be a hierarchical structure of some kind even in the most modern of democracies and those hierarchies will always seek to manage the flow of information. To me, what is significant is that they are using this medium at all and making an attempt to engage with their constituents in as open a way as they are able, given those hierarchical constraints.

Asia’s discomfort with social media

This attitude of acceptance - that social media is a force to be reckoned with and a new medium to reach out to voters - is all the more striking when I look at the attitude towards social media in Asian nations. Awhile back I researched an article on Blogging in Malaysia, with the input of Kevin Anderson, the Blogs Editor at The Guardian, UK and Asohan Aryaduray, the New Media Editor at The Star, Malaysia on the issue of political blogs there. Many outspoken political critics who blog their views find themselves arrested. There is a general anxiety and unease about this new medium that allows ordinary people to voice their opinions freely. For examples of more repressive and authoritarian Asian nations’s attitudes to bloggers, we only have to look at China, which routinely censors blogs and most recently, Burma, which restricted internet access during this summer’s protests.

West v. East

The cultural and political roots go much deeper than a mere suspicion of social media on the part of Asian authorities. There has been a much longer history of citizen protest and action being tolerated in the West and every year, there are marches and demonstrations in London and major American and European cities for all manner of causes. I remember as a student taking part in a march through the streets of Oxford in solidarity with my co-students. Although I did not feel very strongly about the cause they were protesting about, I wanted to see what it was like to be part of a protest march. It felt dangerous and rebellious and anarchic for me, coming from Malaysia where such protests were banned. In reality, it was rather tame and boring as we strolled down the High Street and various student leaders ranted through their megaphones.

So in the last few weeks as I’ve been researching this topic, I found myself getting side-tracked thinking about the cultural roots of Western political discourse and engagement versus the cultural roots of Asian nations who generally seem more comfortable with authoritarian government, and also authoritarian versions of democracy. That’s a whole separate book in itself, I expect, but I’d be interested to know your thoughts about these two differing political heritages.

To see my research in detail, check out my book wiki where I have posted my research online in the Conversation and Democracy section.

Do you know any Asian politicians who blog?

I am not aware of any politician in the ruling party in Malaysia who blogs - if you know of anyone, can you please correct me and let me know the URL of their blog? I’d also like to know if any politician in a ruling party in any other Asian country blogs or engages in social media eg via videocasts or podcasts. I want to ask them why they blog and what benefits they see coming from engaging in social media. And what might be some of the disadvantages.

From those Asian politicians who don’t blog, I’m curious to know why they don’t and what they think about their citizens using social media for political commentary.

If you are a professional communicator in Asia, what are the issues around politics and social media if you are advising politicians or business leaders about their communications strategy.

You can add a comment or email me using the Contact form above. If you prefer to remain anonymous, I can understand and respect that and I will not publish your name or email address* on my blog or in the book (or book wiki).

*The email address is a required field but it is not visible to visitors to this blog. As a matter of policy, I do not disclose email addresses from comments or emails to me in any event.

Photo: thanks to pietroizzo from flickr.com (CCL)

Continuing my Twitter watch, I see that the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera has set up a Twitter account to bring its friends news updates direct to their mobile phones. You can sign up to Twitter and add them as a friend at http://twitter.com/AJEnglish.

The BBC also has a Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/bbcnews if you want to compare reporting styles and different cultural approaches.

For an American perspective, you can check out CNN tweets at http://twitter.com/cnnbrk

Related posts

What is …. Twitter?

Another presidential candidate on Twitter

Following my post looking at the use of online multi-media by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, co-ordinated by Team Hillary, I’ve just heard that her rival Barack Obama has signed up for a Twitter account.

You can now get his hot-off-the-press tweets of his campaign trail. Well, in theory anyway: his last update at the time of my writing post said “1 day ago”. He - or his staff - are going to have to gain a bit more momentum with Twitter to have any credibility at all with the technoscenti.

In contrast another presidential candidate, John Edwards, has been on Twitter for longer and has been tweeting much more prolifically.

The US presidential campaign is being fought online, according to the BBC - one sure sign that blogs and social media are forces to be reckoned with.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign site has a blog as well as HillCasts, videos of Hillary speaking directly to you, her online audience, about what Hillary as President would mean. There are also a range of videos of her campaign trail, speeches, photographs, press releases and of course a section where you can contribute to her campaign as well as take part as a volunteer.

Her blog is not written by her - the byline of the bloggers are clearly evident at the top of each post and they include a volunteer Michael Brasher and also her Chief Strategist Mark Penn. Hillary’s chief blogger appears to be Crystal Patterson but I couldn’t easily find any information on the blog about her. As a blog-watcher, I think that it’s a good move to be transparent where the blog is written by someone other than the figurehead who has top billing on the site. I also like the fact that there are guest bloggers giving their particular perspective on the campaign. Having a volunteer, especially a student, write about his experiences brings in the view “on the ground” and also helps to connect with other students and volunteers - and potential volunteers. My one feedback point would be: It would be good to see an “About” page that tells us something more about the regular blogger(s) so visitors are aware of the context in which they write. However, this could just be my non-US ignorance of the personalities in the drama or my not being able to easily find the relevant information on the site.

The overall impact is to present Hillary Clinton’s message in a range of media and also to share it in a way that is easily digestible and understandable for ordinary people. It’s not mediated by the press so she can say what she wants to say direct to her audience. It makes her seem accessible and in touch with ordinary people’s lives and concerns. It keeps her real by sharing information about the process of campaigning. She is referred to as Hillary and her team are Team Hillary - the first name adds to the sense of her being approachable and in touch while emphasising that she is a woman. And also, distancing her from her husband Bill, which is who think of when we hear “Clinton”.

Hillary is not the only candidate using multi-media online. You can visit Barack Obama’s site at http://www.barackobama.com/. John Edwards also has a presence online at http://johnedwards.com/ and famously, he is using Twitter to keep friends and followers updated on his campaign trail. I added him as my friend on Twitter to see what it was all about and he added me back! He seems to twitter himself - when a staffer twitters, it says “(from staff)”.