Dapat na maging conscious ang mga botante sa paggamit ng Twitter para sa political information. Ito ang naging rekomendasyon ng Philippine Media Monitoring Laboratory (PMM) sa mga botante sa kanilang ginawang pag-aaral tungkol sa 2022 Philippine Election Actors and Network in Twitter.
Bukod dito, kanilang iniulat na mayroong 8 million active users ang social media platform na Twitter sa bansa.
“Compared to Youtube, which forms a network through recommendation in the algorithms on the platform, connections we made on Twitter are actually more deliberate in the network emerge interactions that happen in three levels,” paliwanag ni Assistant Professor Jon Benedik Bunquin ng UP-Department of Communication Research.
Sa ginawang pag-aaral ng PMM na parte naman ng Digital Public Pulse Phase 1, mayroong tatlong lebel ng interactions, ito ang macro—kung saan nakakapag palitan ng paggamit ng hashtags, meso—ito ay sa pagitan ng follower-followee network at ang micro- ang palitan ng reply at tweet ng mga users.
Ayon kay Bunquin, nagagawang makipag-ugnayan ng publiko gamit ang Twitter dahil sa mga features nito.
“Most of the affordances that people enjoy the platform right now, have actually emerged in varied ways of interacting with other users on the platform. In a nutshell, we see four features of Twitter that are relevant in shaping this course.”
Ito ang “Reply” and “Mention,” “Retweet,” “hashtag” at “trending topics.”
2002 Philippine elections Twitter networks ng Q1 at Q2
“Our analysis involved looking at different layers of the networks. First, we do collect the interactions network as a whole so, how big is it, how did it change from quarter to the next. Second, we examine different network actor influenced ,which actors are the focal points of interaction who is the noisiest in the network, who is the most important, who serve as bridges to the communities and third, we identify clusters emerging from interactions, what kind of people are there, why are they together?” pagisa-isa ni Bunquin.
Sa pag-aaral, umabot ng 120,599 actors o users at 328,032 na connections ang naitala sa nabanggit na platform as Quarter 1 (Q1)—mula Mayo hanggang Hulyo 2021—isang taon hanggang kalahating taon bago ang halalan sa bansa.
“This network is not dense, no although it appears visually as large clusters of interacting nodes, the connection among them actually varies sparse people tend to cluster on specific actors in the network, there’s not much high interaction at the micro level?”
Habang sa Quarter 2 (Q2) naman—sa buwan ng Agosto hanggang Oktubre 2021—nakapagtala ang PMM ng 189,452 users at 623,657 connection kaugnay sa elections Twitter Interaction Networks.
Mga election network actors sa Twitter
Mayroon sampung election network actors/users ang naitala ng PMM, ito ang News, Entertainment Media, Politician and Government Offices, Civil Society, Other Affiliation, (Non-Government), Ordinary Users with No detect affiliation, Private, Unidentifiable, Suspended at Inexistence.
“For ethical reasons, we can’t present specific accounts that fall under any of these categories.”
Nanguna naman bilang public actor group sa Q1 at Q2 sa News Media ang Rappler.com at ang Twitter account ni Chel Dikono (@cheldiokno) sa Politicians sa Q1 at ang kay Vice President Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) sa Q2.
Mga mahalagang natuklasan sa actors at users
Nanatili pa rin sa kamay ng Political Candidates ang electoral discourses sa Twitter.
Ayon kay Bunquin, sila rin ay nagsisilbing tulay para sa maraming usapan sa nasabing platform.
“Electoral discourses on Twitter is still directed at Political Candidates. Given their position in the network, they also become bridges to multiple discourses on Twitter.”
Mayroon ding direktang ugnayan sa Twitter ang botante at iba pang election stakeholders sa mga political candidates.
“Voters and other election stakeholders can directly engage political candidates through Twitter, providing opportunities for political interaction.”
Samantala, naging focal point of interactions naman si VP Leni Robredo pero ang iba kandidato na sina Bongbong Marcos, Manny Pacquiao at Tito Sotto ay siyang naging sentro rin ng Twitter conversation.
Ilan pa sa mga natuklasan ay ang mga naging sentro naman ng political communication at mga individual users katulad ng influencers, non-politically affiliated na tao at kahit pa obscure accounts habang ikalawa lamang ang news media sa electoral discourses sa nasabing platform.
Iba pang mga rekomendasyon
Sinabi rin ni Buquin na dapat na maging advocate ang pamahalaan ng responsible use ng Twitter.
“Advocating for responsible use, constant recalibration of programs for media and information literacy with evolving media technologies and practices.”
Sa hanay naman ng media, dapat daw na gamiting advantage ang Twitter para sa election-related coverage.
“Take advantage of the platform in diversifying election-related coverage and including sectors whose agencies and issues are not bought into the fore, more discernment in reporting twitter trends.” DZUP
