The nature, structure, and dynamics of power within the Philippine blogging community

Abstract

In the age of cheap computers and cheaper broadband connections, selfexpression and democracy has spread to unprecedented levels, at least over the Internet. Anyone with the technology, basic knowledge of a software interface and a chip on the shoulder can tell the whole world just what's wrong (or right) with it without the immediate fear of being censored or taken down. Hence, in this fertile landscape, blogging was born. Simply put, a web log or a blog is an online journal. Originally, it was used as a sort of personal diary by scattered Internet users all over the world. A few years and millions of bloggers later, it has evolved into an international phenomenon that influences politics and affects economies in many countries, in many ways. 1 One of the countries where blogging is steadily gaining momentum is the Philippines. A quick survey of the Philippine blogging community will show you that it is very diverse and disorganized. It will also show you that many politicians and journalists have become bloggers and bloggers have become professionals by earning from advertisement revenues or becoming published journalists in their own right. Due to the attention given to it by the media, government, and corporations, one can say that blogging here in the Philippines is healthy---in the sense that it has become more mainstream or masa compared to three years back.2 Given this significance of blogging here in the Philippines, this paper aims to study three basic things: the nature of power in the context of the Philippine blogging community, the structure of the community and the dynamics of power within that structure. Ultimately, it will try to discover how bloggers are empowered within the wider context of democracy and self-expression. [Introduction]