News Feature: Social media now the most preferred communication platform By Venus May H. Sarmiento DAGUPAN CITY, Aug 12 (PIA) -- The explosion of social media platforms from the most popular sites facebook, twitter, instagram and blogspots have enabled users to communicate with one another in real-time. The social media - some call it the new media - supplements traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and radio in delivering news and information. To harness its power, the government’s communication arm the Philippine Information Agency, gathered information officers from the four provinces of the Ilocos Region on Monday to introduce social media in disaster management. PIA’s director- general Jose Mari Oquinena, who graced the event held in La Union province, said the social media platform is a powerful tool in every agency’s communication programs to help empower the community. “Social media is now the new normal. Instead of hard news, we have to package our information in a way that is appealing and attractive to the public,” he said. Oquinena said people should take advantage of technology and information available. “However, social media must be used responsibly, that is communicating to build a nation and not to destroy it,” he said. New media consultants Allan Capulong and Paulo Pangan said social networking sites are best utilized for “infotainment’ (short for information and entertainment) which netizens prefer to use. “We need to deliver content so engaging that it will be read and will be shared,” Pangan said. He said 11 million Filipinos go online daily while 101 million Filipinos have access to social media. Of this number, 40 million use the internet. Out of the 40 million internet users, 30 million use the facebook and about 10 million engage in twitter. Pangan said in terms of usage, television gets the biggest slice of users at 89 percent, followed by internet at 45 percent, radio at 34 percent, newspapers at 12 percent and magazine at 4 percent. President Benigno Aquino III, himself, has 2.9 million followers on facebook which he uses to update Filipinos on his administration’s programs and projects, Capulong added. The speakers advised information officers who attended the Seminar on the Utilization of Social Media in Disaster Management to use the social media to bring the good news to the people and use it to prevent disasters. Oquinena said the PIA has been making use of the social media in its mandate to deliver information. “Let us package our information in a way that we could really inform and most importantly, inspire and move people to action,” he said. (MCA/VHS/PIA1-Pangasinan)
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 03:36:07 +0000