The Role of the Internet in the 2010 Election Campaigns

There goes a saying that the campaign period for the next election inevitably begins right after the proclamation of the winners. Indeed, one can only watch the current Villar-Lacson tussle as part of a saga that conspicuously unfolds as 2010 approaches (assuming all the machinations of the current occupant of Malacanang are exhausted and the elections really push through).

But that aside, one wonders how the Internet will figure in the political arena as election campaigns are now effacing in various guises, more specifically endorsements of a motley of products. What role will the Internet play in the coming elections?

Janette Toral in her article published in Digit@l, a publication of the Internet and Society Program of the UP Law Center, acknowledges that the Internet played a valuable role for then senatoriables Escudero, Pangilinan and Trillanes who are active Internet users and who may have been helped by the Internet community specifically bloggers.

True enough, the Internet proved then and will continue to prove in the future a very effective way for candidates to tell the voters about themselves. It provided a springboard for the people to know about these three winning senators’ programs, platforms and advocacies. It became a very efficient medium in the branding of these candidates. Furthermore, it gave the impression that these three were not only accessible but also familiar.

Undeniably therefore, more and more candidates will make use of this technology. More so for new candidates who will try to displace the incumbents. There will be more of candidates who will create their online accounts. And quite expectedly, there will also be efforts to engage in online tussles as permutations of the ongoing Lacson-Villar tussle.

But as Nicholas Thompson recognizes, while the Internet will give voters a greater chance to get to know the future candidates, there is no guarantee that voters will get to choose better leaders. Hence, despite the ultimate technology bandwagon in the future election, the medium may be different but the process is starkly the same – conveying messages and promises which gradually dissolve when winners are proclaimed starting the cycle of campaign for the next election all over again.