ITS PARLIAMENT OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA, STUPID Those protest demonstrations and street rallies that cause horrendous traffic jams and loss of precious man hours are getting passe, outmoded, antiquated, or anachronistic. They have become unnecessary aggravations imposed by people, who think they have the divine right to define for the people what should be agreed, asserted, and fought before the arena of public opinion. The so-called parliament of the streets is no longer attuned to the modern times and, in its stead, the parliament of the social media, has emerged to become the venue of what could be regarded an ongoing social and political revolution. In the battle for sound bites (or teledemocracy as political theorists aptly call it), the street is a poor arena. It is suited for Arab nations, where the information superhighway, or Internet, has yet to take a deeper root. But for modern and emerging democracies, or a restored democracy like the Philippines, the street represents a passing era, or just one of the stages in the dynamic process of strengthening their democratic institutions and processes. Nontraditional media, particularly social media, has emerged as the better venue than those streets. Issues are better discussed and debated in major social media sites. Public resolve is developed on the pages of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedup, among others. Signature campaigns are better pursued in social media than in the streets. Even the first Million March Rally attracted at least 100,000 netizens in the Luneta Park, when the issues were defined and tackled in social media. But the next rallies fared poorly when netizens showed doubts on their authenticity and integrity. Pressure politics could hardly be pursued by holding frequent protest demonstrations in the major thoroughfares of Metro Manila and other major cities. The parliament of the streets hardly serves as a barometer of the peoples pulse. At best, the parliament of the streets is being resorted by groups and people, who have lost touch with political realities, or those with dubious agenda, thinking they could best express their advocacy by shouting on top of their voices, brandishing placards, and scuffling with law enforcers. It is senseless for the leaders of those protest demonstrations to call those mass actions, if they could not mobilize at least tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people to express their views on certain nagging issues or press the political leadership to listen to their advocacy. Their effectiveness could only be measured by drawing huge crowds. Times have changed. Protesters are no longer exactly thrilled to join those street rallies and demonstration, when they know they are only hurting the people and themselves too. The inconvenience of calling rallies, and other mass actions that require physical presence in the streets do not appear palatable for the citizens. In brief, social media would continue to evolve as the main venue for conflict resolution and issue management. In short, street mass actions becomes virtual confirmation of what have been discussed, agreed, and resolve in social media. What we now have is the parliament of the social media, stupid.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:42:35 +0000
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