The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Political Surveillance

During our Fall 2008 course on Digital Campaigns, our professor Garret Graff provide the class with links to about 40 blogs and sites that conduct political surveillance: http://delicious.com/mpjo855/class?page=1 . From this list, I chose the 4 or 5 sites that I enjoyed, somewhat liked, and disliked.

I liked firedoglake best because of its layout, interactivity and engaging content. When the page opens, the news, or a full blog and associated videos are on the left; ads and other links are on the right; older, shorter or non-breaking news articles are the bottom. Many of the contributions in one of the links – GritTV – are user-generated, such as “Citizen Grit” short videos. The regular contributors have very diverse and interesting backgrounds, and the writing styles vary between witty and sardonic. The site gives the feel of a fun, multimedia playground. When I am in a more serious mood though, I also like Slate a lot, where the drop down menu for news and blogs across the top of the screen is very helpful.

One site that could use some improvement is Little Green Footballs (LGF) The technique of using twisties on the left side is helpful in minimizing clutter, but with the exception of “LGF Headlines” which is handy for navigation, many of the word descriptors are misleading. Does “Bottom Comments” mean that the comments are old or posted last, or were those comments ranked among the worst? “Statistics” suggested to me a selection of quantitative highlights on the news, but what is actually shown are numbers of page views and comments on the site. “Top 10 Comments” made me ask: based on what and whose criteria? On the positive side, the “News and Opinion” list provides a wealth of links to newspapers, magazines and other commentaries. Also, putting all the ads on the right side gave the site a clean look. PajamasMedia solves LGF’s twisties problem by providing direct links under Instapundit.com and PJM Exclusives at the right side of the page.

My vote on the worst site goes to Washington Monthly. On the very top and center when you open the site is not one, but two prominent ads on auto insurance, almost eclipsing the name of the site. A subscriber’s box on the top right bleeds on top of the sign-up box for news updates. This same sign-up box is repeated after a slight scroll on the left side, as if the site weren’t cluttered enough. The long articles are presented in their entirely, forcing the reader to keep on scrolling to the next one. I thought the button “In the Magazine” at the left, top corner was a Table of Contents that was hyperlinked to the long articles, but it was not. It listed other articles that were different from the really long ones on the front page. The list of all the Archives going back to 2002 are at the bottom of the front page, forcing the reader to do even more scrolling.

There are a lot of political surveillance sites out there. I think that prior reputation and expected content make readers go in, but it is the multimedia experience that makes them linger and stay. Any opinions on this?

A viable multimedia project? Or a Herculean waste of time?

When I grow up, I would like to set up a non-profit and a website that will harness multimedia and social networking tools to promote transparency, anti-corruption and good governance in my home country, the Philippines, with the ultimate goal of helping its vast numbers among the poor.

After some research and interviews, I have gained a bit more confidence that this goal is possible. I want to start taking action but the next steps are fraught with challenges and risks.

In many ways, the biggest challenge is the multimedia concept itself and putting up (for lack of a name at this point) my “anti-corruption” website. The substance of what to put in the website will not be a problem. There are already decades of academic research and journalistic debate on how citizens who do not know their rights can be easily exploited by corrupt elites who operate outside the rule of law.

Moreover, Filipinos who are trying to deal with the scourge of bad governance have churned out a lot of multimedia products already: short videos, full-length films, comic books, radio programs, protest songs and poems, theatrical plays, newspaper and magazine articles, and countless text messages. A bit of these are already posted on websites, some of which I will be studying and learning from during this course.

The daunting task will be how to pull these all together -- how to give people who want to do something about corruption a voice, a safe space to speak out, a seat at the table. And more fundamentally, if many people are doing it, what difference can I make? Is it too crowded already?

This brings me to the real-world problems of using multimedia and the Web to concretize my vision.

User-generated products will come mostly from young people (as in 14 to 24) who are likely to be altruistic and perhaps careless about evidence, truth and journalistic ethics. A baseless accusation could go viral and bring legal action against my website. If I restrict access, I may end up with users mainly from the educated elite, and thereby risk political capture. And how will I finance this whole venture? Foundation money could help at least for the start-up, but that may have dried up in the current financial crisis. I could take advertisements, but that may compromise my journalistic independence, and make the capture of my website not only political but commercial as well.

And there is the issue of safety and security. Globally, the Philippines has among the highest rates of journalists getting murdered. Some of the multimedia products could turn out to be sensational news intended just to get people very angry. If some of those people happen to be powerful politicians, how do you stop them from hiring two gunmen to drive by on a motorbike and shoot you while enjoying your noodle soup at a street stall?

My greatest fear is that although I started off wanting to give voice to the voiceless, I get stuck managing these risks instead and end up as my democracy website’s most ruthless censor.

Are there any other issues I forgot?

I started by referring to “growing up”, which explains my interest in this course. I do not have a background in journalism and multimedia, but I do believe in their power to convince and orient behavior.

Through the workshop approach in our class, I hope to sprout new cerebral neurons and acquire new skills. But I am still in a box. If our exchanges could help me open wedges and chart pathways toward more satisfying life engagements, I would have gained very much from this course.

Fernando Manibog