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abstract
This paper looks at political blogging in a developing, democratic country, like the Philippines. It presents the results of an exploratory-descriptive study of the profile, perception, and activities of 30 A-list Filipino political bloggers and 64 of their readers, who are mostly male, young, collegeeducated, high-income and veteran Internet users. Bloggers and readers see blogging as a form of political participation that has led to exchanges offline. For both bloggers and readers, there was no significant change in their participation before and after blogging. A blog serves more to keep track of bloggers’ thoughts, inform others and over time, formulate new ideas. This is in sync with blog readers’ expectation of gaining information and knowing others’ views. Readers are highly cynical and moderately efficacious, which may be caused by exposure to blogs that are critical of government. Despite its limited impact, blogs support democracy by allowing expression and encouraging participation despite the odds in Philippine politics.
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Mary Grace P. Mirandilla-Santos
Mary Grace P. Mirandilla-Santos is an independent researcher on telecoms policy and ICT’s impact on development, society and politics. She is currently a consultant for the The Asia Foundation and the Asian Development Bank in Manila.