Babelmachine

Bloggers on the campaign trail

May 11, 2007 19:18

With blogging becoming more mainstream, we'll probably see more interaction between bloggers and journalists as they cover events and work hard to bring the news to their respective readers.

As I've said in a previous blog post here, bloggers and journalists are not one. But both sides can learn from each other, and such interaction in what's normally been the "turf" of mainstream media can prove to be an eye-opener.



Here's what the most popular blogger in the Philippines, Abe Olandres, posted about his experience in joining the caravan of Philippine senatorial candidate Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan.

We were amongst other giants in mainstream media--ABS CBN, GMA 7, Phil. Daily Inquirer and scores of other local print and broadcast journalists. It was a bit weird whenever one of the photographers or cameramen ask me which station or TV network we belong to and I’d answer: "Oh, we belong to a new local blog network”. And, yes, we were treated like any other media outfit representative, with full access to the personalities (politicians and showbiz alike) and the best seats to take photos and videos from.

This experience was an eye-opener to me as we get to see the news-gatherers in action--the exhausting travels and restless nights with early morning press briefings, always on their feet and running, rushing meals and sometimes completely skipping it--no bones about it.

So dare I say, I don’t think we’re cut out for this? Compared to what these guys are doing day in and day out, blogging seems to be a really easy task.

The Philippine senatorial and local elections will be held on Monday, May 14, so expect journalists and bloggers here to be busy covering the polls. It's funny, I know some people in other countries like Singapore who complain that the politics there is boring, while here in the Philippines, it seems to be too exciting, heh.

My own joke is that an election year practically eats up all 12 months here, because the first five months are spent preparing for the elections, campaigning, voting and tallying the count, and the rest of the year is spent complaining about and contesting the election results.

In the Philippines, nobody loses; everybody claims to have been cheated. Then again, if I lived in another country, I would be complaining about not being able to vote, so I'll just count my blessings.

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