Social Media for Public Serviceby Martin AndanarDe Lasalle University Talk

Professor Eduardo de Mundo Jr., Chairperson for Council of the Arts Representatives, Maria Lazaro, and Mass Media and Society Students, thank you for

inviting me to talk about PUBLIC SERVICE THROUGH NEW MEDIA.

FIRST OF ALL, I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT FOR US TO CONTEXTUALIZE NEW MEDIA. FOR THIS TALK, PLEASE ALLOW ME TO DEFINE NEW MEDIA AS INCLUDING, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVE TO, FORMS OF COMMUNICATION ONLINE.

I HAVE, TIME AND AGAIN, REPEATED DURING MY PAST SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS IN FRONT OF STUDENTS AND PEP TALKS WITH MY STAFF AT NEWS 5 EVERYWHERE THAT WE ARE SO FORTUNATE TO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC AND BREATHTAKING TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGES TAKING PLACE IN THE WORLD OF COMMUNICATION DISSEMINATION.

AS A 40 YEAR OLD BROADCAST JOURNALIST, I AM ALSO FORTUNATE TO BE ONE OF THE FIRST USERS OF INTERNET WHEN IT WAS COMMERCIALIZED IN THE PHILIPPINES DURING THE MID 1990‘S.

I REMEMBER SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB FOR FILIPINO STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES AND AUSTRALIA IN 1994 USING LYCOS AND WEBCRAWLER. THIS WAS DURING THE TIME WHEN I WANTED TO STUDY IN AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES.

I WAS ONE OF THE LAST MOHICANS IN SENDING LETTERS AND BUYING POST STAMPS BEFORE INTERNET CHAT ROOMS BECAME THE IN THING.

WHEN I GOT TO AUSTRALIA IN 1995, I STARTED USING YAHOO FOR MY UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND TO GET UPDATED WITH WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE PHILIPPINES. I REMEMBER I WAS AN EARLY FAN OF THE MANILA TIMES ONLINE.

IN 1996, WHEN MY UNIVERSITY, FEDERATION UNIVERSITY OF AUSTRALIA REPLACED THEIR COMPUTERS, WE STARTED USING NETSCAPE. THEN GOOGLE IN 1998.

THE INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES WERE CRUDE BACK IN THE 90’S. THEY HAVE NOT YET INVENTED THE ALGORITHMS NEEDED TO MAKE ONLINE SEARCHES EASIER.

TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, IF ONE WAS TO COMPARE IT TO WHAT WE EXPERIENCE NOW, INTERNET CONNECTION WAS VERY SLOW BACK IN THE DAY. WE’RE TALKING ABOUT 56 KILO BITES PER SECOND THAT WAS RAN BY A MODEM.

EVENTUALLY, THIS WAS REPLACED BY BROADBAND AND OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES THAT NOW OFFER UP TO 10,000,000,000 BYTES PER SECOND!

THE CONCEPT OF ONLINE RADIO AND ONLINE NEWSPAPER, AS WE KNOW IT TODAY, WAS ALREADY PRESENT IN 1995. BUT IT WAS NOT PREVALENT.

WHY? IN HINDSIGHT, APART FROM THE EMAIL AND HAVING AN ACCOUNT IN A CHATROOM, 1) YOU HAD TO CREATE A WEBSITE TO HAVE YOUR PRESENCE FELT ON THE INTERNET 2) IT WAS COMPLICATED TO EMBED AN ONLINE RADIO STATION OR ONLINE ARTICLE IN ONE’S WEBSITE.

THE HABIT OF SHARING WAS THERE, HOWEVER, THE SOFTWARE THAT MADE THIS CONVENIENT WAS NOT PRESENT. DESSIMINATING ONLINE CONTENT TO A WIDER NETWORK WAS THE CHALLENGE

ONLINE IN THE 1990’S. IT’S NOT LIKE TV OR RADIO STATIONS WITH ITS POWERFUL TRANMITTERS THAT CAN BROADCAST SIMULTANEOUSLY TO A HUGE MARKET.

BUT WHAT WAS IMPORTANT TO US THEN WAS THE PROMISE OF MORE FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUALITY. IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE ADDITIONAL ONLINE FEATURES MADE THIS PROMISE BECOME REALITY.

THE CHALLENGE IN DISSEMINATING INFORMATION TO A WIDE AUDIENCE ONLINE WAS NOT FOR LONG.........

SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLODED. IT STARTED WITH FRIENDSTER IN 2002, MYSPACE IN

2003, MULTIPLY AND FACEBOOK IN 2004, TWITTER IN 2006 AND INSTAGRAM IN 2010.

ONLINE CONTENT SUCH AS PODCAST, ONLINE RADIO,TV AND ONLINE PAPER BECAME EASIER TO SHARE.

THE INTRODUCTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA MADE THE PROMISE OF MORE INDIVIDUALITY ONLINE A REALITY....

SUDDENLY, EVERYONE WAS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO BROADCAST ONESELF ONLINE. EVERYONE HAD THE CHANCE TO HAVE THEIR OWN 2 MINUTES OF FAME. EVERYONE HAD THE CHANCE TO HAVE THEIR OWN CURATED NEWS IN ANOTHER FRIENDS NEWSFEED.

THE WORD TRENDING NOW TOOK A NEW FORM IN THE DIGITAL SPHERE.

ORDINARY PEOPLE COULD NOW LEVERAGE THE SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK...THIS WAS UNIMAGINABLE TWO DECADES AGO, WHEN ONLY THE RICH AND POWERFUL COULD AFFORD TO LEVERAGE THE TRADITIONAL NETWORK, KNOWN AS BROADCAST.

ALONG WITH INDIVIDUALITY OR WHAT IS NOW BETTER KNOWN AS SELFIE,PLATFORMS THAT GAVE THE FREE AVENUE TO THESE EXPRESSIONS, LIKE YOUTUBE, SOUNDCLOUD, BLOGSPOTS, PANDORA, EVEN THE IPHONE WITH ITS REVERSE CAMERA FEATURE CONTINUE

TO EXPERIENCE PHENOMENAL RISE IN USE AND SALE.

THE MONOPOLY OF PUBLIC SERVICE THROUGH MASS MEDIA ENDED. THE ADVENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA GAVE EVERYONE THE CHANCE TO OFFER “PUBLIC SERVICE” OR “EXPRESS SOCIAL PARTICIPATION” FREELY AT HER OWN WHIM.

THIS CHANGED THE COMMUNICATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE FOREVER.

IN MAY 2013, WE AT NEWS5, CREATED NEWS5 EVERYWHERE..OUR ONLINE TV AND RADIO NEWS PLATFORM. NEWS5 EVERYWHERE GREW PHENOMENALLY GETTING MORE THAN 100 MILLION

UNIQUE VIEWS IN LESS THAN 12 MONTHS. IN AUGUST THIS YEAR, WE GOT A RECORD HIGH OF 48 MILLION UNIQUE VIEWS.

THE NUMBERS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH USING THE TRADITIONAL MEANS OF BROADCAST WHERE ABS AND GMA ARE CURRENTLY LORDING IT OVER.

THE INTERNET PLATFORM, HAVING A MORE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO CREATE THE HABIT OF NEWS BINGING ONLINE FOR NEWS5.

THOUGH I ATTRIBUTE THIS SUCCESS TO PROPER ONLINE CURATION AND AGGREGATION, AGAIN, THIS WOULD’NT

HAVE WORKED 12 YEARS AGO OR BEFORE FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.

OUTSIDE MY REGULAR PUBLIC SERVICE WORK AT TV5, AS SHOWN ON DIFFERENT PLATFORMS, NAMELY: TV5, AKSYON TV, RADYO 5 AND NEWS5 EVERYWHERE, YOU CAN ALSO CATCH MY OWN PUBLIC SERVICE ONLINE THROUGH MY PRIVATELY INITIATED “MARTIN’S MANCAVE PODCAST” ON PODCAST.PH AND “AUDIO BLOG” ON AUDIO.PH.

THIS SHOULD REALLY TELL YOU THAT PUBLIC SERVICE COMMUNICATION HAS GONE BEYOND BROADCAST, ALLOWING ME TO DO THINGS INSIDE THE CONFINES OF MY HOME.

PLEASE FOLLOW, AD OR LIKE ME ON FB, TWITTER, PINTEREST AND INSTAGRAM...JUST TYPE MARTIN ANDANAR

YOU CAN ALSO EMAIL ME OVER MANDANAR_1@HOTMAIL.COM! WHY HOTMAIL? BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN USING THIS EMAIL SINCE 1994!

THANK YOU...QUESTIONS PLEASE.