The revolution will not be televised, but blogged

(Originally published as a column piece on Jan. 9, 2007)

FILIPINOS are taking over the blogosphere.Some of the very people who are making this happen might feel it’s sensationalistic to say our bloggers are “taking over,” as Abe Olandres of YugaTech said in a blog entry reacting to my post over at CNET Asia.

My blog post had cited a number of Filipino bloggers who are taking over the reins of international blogs, including Abe and J Angelo Racoma, who have taken the helm of The Blog Herald.

Check out Abe’s post for his reasons for disagreeing, including the fact that a number of Filipino bloggers have been part of Western blogging networks way before he and Angelo took over The Blog Herald.

As I posted in my comment, while I see what he means, I don’t think it’s sensationalistic to say that Filipinos are taking over. At the risk of using a horrid cliché, I believe we are now seeing the tipping point for Filipino presence in the blogosphere. This is another arena where Filipinos can compete globally — and succeed.

One point that I didn’t elaborate on in my CNET Asia post is that the Filipino bloggers I cited are all based in the Philippines, which is significant given the brain drain and the feeling of our countrymen that they have no choice but to seek greener pastures abroad.

I celebrate the successes of our expats and believe that wherever we are, Filipinos can and do excel (I’m the one who coined “Global Nation” after all, heh, back when I was handling that site). But I’ll also be happier if Filipinos will feel that they do have a choice — and realize that by harnessing technology and our intellectual capital, we can avail of these opportunities while remaining here in the Philippines.

Will 2007 be the Year of the Filipino Blogger? I believe so, because now we might see whole groups of Filipino bloggers achieving success here and abroad. This will be an exciting year for everyone in online media, whether you’re in mainstream media or what I call New New Media.

And as more Old Media giants try to extend their brand on the Web, we’ll see an even greater need to find the right balance between embracing these online tools and maintaining our journalistic standards.

Repeat after me: bloggers and journalists are not one. You can read my CNET Asia post for my thoughts on this issue, but in addition to what I said there, I’d like to point out the ambivalence many journalists feel toward blogging.

On the one hand, you have those who joyfully embrace not just the tools but also the spirit of blogging. They revel in the freedom, to the point that they might now even feel constrained by the journalistic process, finding it tedious compared to the instant gratification of seeing your post online after you click the button.

Compare that to the drudgery of being asked by your editor to rewrite your story, or check your facts. Not to mention correct your grammar — in fact, bad grammar is unfortunately one of the byproducts of the blogging revolution and all this online freedom. Though as anyone who’s on message boards and mailing lists knows, bad grammar was around long before blogs came into the picture — it’s just that now more people are publishing content that you actually get to read them. By the way, the funny thing is that now that many journalists are blogging, you also get an idea of what their writing is like before an editor polishes their articles, heh.

On the other hand, you have some journalists who act as if blogging is beneath them, and that it’s only something they’re reluctantly embracing because they have to remain relevant in the Internet age. Then again, the status quo is usually prejudiced against anything new. Time was when print journalists dismissed TV as a news medium, and not so long ago, both of them were looking down on online media. Now it’s the turn of blogging to be snubbed.

What I would like to see is a true revolution. I accept the fact that mainstream media will have to adapt blogging to its needs and adhere to journalistic standards. At the same time, however, mainstream media should reinvent itself for the Web, and itself adapt to the needs of an audience empowered by online tools.

Let me end this the same way I ended my post “Bloggers and journalists are not one.”

Let’s respect the Web for what it is, instead of seeing it as a mere extension of Old Media and the old value makers. We live in one world, but it’s a world of many beautiful colors.

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