Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

The New Symbol of Political Awareness: Social Media Catalyst

Raizza P. Corpuz

Abstract: This paper is about the new paradigm of social media in the epochal turning point in
todays time and how it is connected to the development of society in political perspective. The
purpose was to examined the use of social media by Filipino especially the young generation and
how it its juxtaposed with the development of political awareness in terms of different facets in
our society by the impact of social media usage. The research explored the relation of social
media used as a channel or tool or medium for awareness that brought change to one perceptive
stance in the realm of verity. This research suggests that the use of social media is one facet of
developmental awareness to the new horizon of our generation and the virtual community sets
forth an action through their involvement and freedom towards speaking ones heart and mind in
the realm of temporal now.
Keyword: Social media, political awareness
1. Introduction

The new paradigm of social media in contemporary epoch serves as new medium for
change and development. Social media as a tool to help Filipino youth today to be politically
aware, in using the modes of social media as a medium to connect to the virtual community it
serves as a new way to be totally knowledgeable to what is happening in our country. The
generation today is the generation of cyber netizens were every mode inclined to technology,
internet based is totally inclined to their existence, their everyday living surrounds with the
virtual community that helps them to be engage and learn the language of human spirit. Towards
the changing environment technology becomes the necessity of man, social networking system
becomes a need not only wants for each and every individual. Social media plays a pivotal role
in everyday lives because of the need to belong. It definitely changes the holistic array of
political attention to our country. It helps Filipinos to shape their mind towards their capacity to
Raizza P. Corpuz, February 26, 2014

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

engage and to their own way of extending knowledgeable capacity to connect through their
emotive and cognitive means. According to Center for European studies the three social
networking sites determine the engagement and awareness of the user towards one own
individuality through the external sphere of themselves. The research conducted to enliven the
enigmatic comportment of social media towards the development of epistemic range of the
students in tertiary level on how they use social media especially Facebook, YouTube and
Twitter. The three social networking sites used based on the survey conducted out of one hundred
participants it was the top three highest marking usages for all the participants who enjoined to
answer the queries on the survey conducted.
It also varies with Facebook is the Internets leading online community. Most consider
Facebook as the very image of social media. The basic idea is to offer each registered user the
chance to create a user profile with pictures and to keep in touch with their so-called friends, or
contacts they link to on the site. Facebook wasnt the first of its kind: similar services already
existed in the late 1990s, but the way Harvard university student Mark Zuckenberg linked a
persons photograph and profile to others and created a way to share thoughts, pictures and links
was completely new. It was easy for users to adapt to it. Facebook was first available in February
2004 to Harvard students. Within one year, Facebook was used in almost all American schools,
and was opened for public use in 2006. Facebook came to Finland in 2007, and at the time of
writing, it has 1.5 million Finns registered as users. The worldwide fascination with Facebook is
based on the possibility it offers to be in contact with people whose e-mail addresses and phone
numbers have changed or become outdated. But an even more important feature of Facebook is
the chance to create networks: Facebooks activity is based solely on communities. Being on
Facebook isnt just limited to information within a group of friends. Through groups, users can
form new networks. A users posting, in the form of text, pictures or both, can receive feedback
from other users in the form of the Like button, and the option to make their own comments.
They can also forward the posting to their own Facebook contacts using the Share option. One
popular feature Facebook supports is community pages for common interests. Many political
candidates create a page for themselves, and when a user clicks on the Like button, that user
indicates that they would like to receive updates each time the candidate adds something to
Facebook.

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

The Filipinos are known to be one of the highest percentage users of social media.
According to Social Baker Statistics, there are now 30 million Facebook users, 43 % of it is male
and the other 46 % are female. The Statistical range is the following:

Philippine Facebook User by Age

40% are young adults aged 18 24

15% are teenagers aged 13 -17

11% are more mature adults aged 35 44

A smaller percent of Filipino Facebook users belong to the older market:

5% are aged 45 54

2% are aged 55 64

1% are those aged 65 and above

Profiling the countrys Facebook users by gender gives us the following data:

46% are female

43% are male

Twitter is a free, Internet-based micro blogging service, on which users can send short,

140-character messages to each other. Its use is based on quick exchanges of thoughts and
information between friends, acquaintances, and all the users of the Twitter platform. Twitter
messages are most commonly called tweets. These tweets form a current of messages that are
followed in chronological order from a computer screen or some other screen, like that of a cell
phone. A sort of keyword called a hash tag can be added to tweets to connect the current
message to some other message, making it easier to follow the messages. In conversations
concerning society, Twitter can be an interesting vessel, because its messaging form is very
compact. In short messages, there is no opportunity to justify a point of view or cite sources, and

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

because of this, political messaging and conversation can be more heated and critical here than
on other social media platforms. Despite this, Twitter can be used for active political discussion.
Twitter can also be used to steer the user to more detailed content elsewhere, through web links
or other references. However, studies on the use of Twitter to influence voting behaviour
highlight only small groups of super users.
YouTube is the Internets leading video service. It began operating in 2005, and grew very
quickly, with 50 million visits to the site just by the end of the same year. In 2010, there were
already more than 2 billion visits to You- Tube every day. The basic idea behind YouTube is that
users upload videos to the site and at the same time, watch and comment on what they see. Based
on the number of viewers, the most popular videos on YouTube are music videos, entertainment
programmers, and news videos, but there are also some user-made videos about personal
problems that have found quite a large audience. YouTube is also an important channel for
parliamentary and regional election candidates, with a much lower cost than TV commercials.
YouTube users have so far been more inclined towards entertainment than politics, and because
of this, the most watched political content has been satirical mash-ups, where a video
recording is mixed with a diff rent audio recording, changing the message and meaning of the
video. Also popular are secretly-filmed slip-ups and witty remarks made by politicians. The
contents of satirical TV shows are also popular.
According to Drexler, (2003) the future of technology is in some ways easy to predict.
Computers will become faster, materials will become stronger, and medicine will cure more
diseases. It would appear that technological revolutions are among the most consequential things
that happen to humanity, perhaps exceeded in their impact only by more gradual, non
revolutionary technological developments.
Technological change is in large part responsible for the evolution of such basic
parameters of the human condition as the size of the world population, life expectancy, education
levels, material standards of living, and the nature of work, communication, health care, war, and
the effects of human activities on the natural environment. Other aspects of society and our
individual lives are also influenced by technology in many direct and indirect ways, including
governance, entertainment, human relationships, and our views on morality, cosmology, and

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

human nature. One does not have to embrace any strong form of technological determinism or be
a historical materialist to acknowledge that technological capability through its complex
interactions with individuals, institutions, cultures, and the environment is a key determinant of
the ground rules within which the game of human civilization is played out at any given point in
time.
Social media are new information network and information technology using a form of
communication utilising interactive and user-produced content, and interpersonal relationships
are created and maintained. Typical social media network services could be content sharing, web
communities, and Internet forums.

Statement of the Problem

1. How would social media practice become a tool for political awareness?
2. Does the use of social media serve as a symbol to develop change in our country?
Methodology
This study followed Basic Qualitative Research in revealing the experiences of social media
user in the realm of its role. This approach allows us to probe further into the contextual area of
social media usage as a tool for the development of political awareness in our country. Basic
Qualitative research distinct from the different study such as Narrative, Phenomenology,
Grounded Theory, Case Study and Ethnography (Creswell, 2007). Basic Qualitative research
involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach to the world (Cresswel, 2007). The main
rationale of Basic Qualitative Research is to understand how people make sense of their lives and
experiences (Merriam, 2009, p.23). I used this approach because I want to understand the
relational aspect of social media to the virtual community as the extension of the societal and
communal awareness. I choose a basic qualitative study because the topic needs to be explored.
'By this, I mean that theories need to be developed and it is because there is a need to present a
detailed view of the topic. A basic qualitative research involved an order to study persons in their
ordinary setting. This involves going out to the situation or field of study, gaining access, and
gathering material. If participants are removed from their setting, it leads to contrived findings
that are out of context (Creswell, 1997). This approach allows not to a mere objective definition
of what the social media as its ordinary context but how the relational array of the technological

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

revolution becomes a medium for change and development. In particular I followed the Generic
Approach in doing Qualitative Research because I wanted to understand the use of social media
in determining different ways of its use to the individual especially the user of Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter. The one hundred participants in this study selected based on convenience,
the tertiary level both male and female of LPU Cavite.
I collected the data through the basic ways of the generic techniques of qualitative
comportment, through interviews, observations, and document analysis researcher can collect
data (Merriam 2009). I prepared a data through a depth interview guide, which allowed each
participant to narrate and share their experiences. I also conducted in depth scrutiny in
documentation through reflective analysis. The technique that I manage to engage is to determine
first what is the most used social media most often use and in accordance to the interview the
utmost number of usage is through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I engaged myself in
interpreting each answer of the participants in this study and identified the recurring patterns or
ideas that have in the same thought and characterized it in one qualitative data. Merriam (1999)
characterises qualitative research as understanding the meaning people have constructed in
which the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. It usually
involves fieldwork as primarily employing an inductive research strategy focussing on process,
meaning and understanding resulting in a richly descriptive product.
Related Literature
Social Media, Social Network and Communication
This review highlights a fundamental paradigm that is related to social media and the new
paradigm shift of its usage in achieving the goal. The best way to define social media is to break
it down. Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media
would be a social instrument of communication. We use theory to provide general principles for
explaining the data (Miller, 1986). Theories also suggest directions for research because of the
questions they raise. These theories are symbolic interaction, social exchange theory, gender
theory and family systems theory. Symbolic Interaction is a theory that looks at how people
interact. Communication is the key factors in these interactions. We communicate with each
other with more than words. We communicate through symbols. Symbols include not only words

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

but also intonations, gestures, movements and so on. When we interact with people, we do more
than simply react to them. We interpret or define their actions. Social Media is not about different
websites, but people, (Holloman 2012). With all the talk you hear about the Facebook, Twitter
YouTube, LinkedIn, Google and other social places online, it wouldnt be too much of a surprise
to think that social media is all about Facebook, Twitter and the like.
Social Media is not about the tools and the channels- the software or the technology.
Its all about what people do with the technology (Holloman 2012, p. 4). Social media is a
collective term that describes the means of communicating and engaging with people. Its
something many people see as evolutionary, if not revolutionary, in helping people connect with
each other in ways that are genuine, authentic and natural. Social media means change in the
way everyone understands how organization works. It often means change in the ways people
relate to and connect with others, inside and outside the organizations. Despite the volume of
research, the debate about media effects -- whether it can be shown empirically that the specific
mass media messages, typically those transmitted by television, have specific, often detrimental
effects, on the audiences who are exposed to them -- remains unresolv mnbed. This is partly
because the debate is more about the epistemological limitations of social science research than it
is about the media in particular, and partly because the debate is motivated more by a public and
governmental agenda of education, censorship and regulation (Rowland, 1983) than by an
academic agenda concerning media theory (Roberts & Bachen, 1981)
The New Community
According to Waters, (2010) these web-based networking services are re-defining
community and what it means to be a part of one, because they can encompass a much broader
range of relationships that just your immediate family, friends, and co-workers. They allow you
to add old classmates, distant relatives, and los-lost is compadres to your current circle of
friends. People who havent seen each other in decades are re-connecting today on social
networks. And theyre not restricted by geography, so friends and family strewn across time
zones can interact as though they live on the same block. Although most members tend to use
their networks to enhance existing associations, this is a place where new social connections,
both personal and professional, are made. Like any community, social networks post codes of

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

conduct that include basic courtesies we would extend to each other in any civilized social
environment
Staying Connected to Family and Friends
One reason people are flocking to social networks is that their busy schedule lives farflung families have made it difficult, if not impossible; to stay meaningfully connected with all
the people they love. Its a modern combination of too few hours and too many miles that has put
a historic strain on our family ties. Social networks create an online space for nurturing those
connections. Access to the web isnt yet universal, but just about anyone can find a terminal with
a browser and an internet connection, so a social network makes sense as a family touchstone
(Waters 2010).
Socializing and Facebook (www.facebook.com)
People use social networks to socialize. Its easy to forget that social networks, at their
core, are about people hanging out with each other. Facebook was founded in 2006; this is the
largest social networking in the world today with more nearly 500 million members (Waters
2010).
Facebook was founded in February 2004 in Harvard University and only acting as the
University OSN site before opened the site to general public in 2006 (Urista, Dong, & Day,
2009). Facebook functions by allowing users to select one or more networks to which they
will belong, such as a specific high school or university, a geographical area or city, or a
company. Facebook can also serve as a source of leisure due to the availability of games and
applications (Kolek & Saunders, 2008). There are a number of ways for users to communicate
with one another on Facebook. Users can send private messages to other individuals. This
capability is similar to emailing (Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert, 2009). Messages may also
only be sent to one recipient at a time (Golder, Wilkinson, Huberman, 2007). Face books ember
also can make use of the Wall function. A Wall is a space on the profile, somewhat like a notice
board or a public forum where users can post short messages or add photographs, music or video
clips to share information (Ross et al., 2009; West, Lewis, & Currie, 2009). Facebook users can
comment on their friends messages, photographs and videos. Instant messaging is a text-based

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

communication tool that allows dyadic synchronous interaction between two individuals,
although there some systems that support multiparty chat (Nardi, Whittaker, & Bradner, 2000).
The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change by Rita Safranek
Lyotard's account, the computer age has transformed knowledge into information, that is,
coded messages within a system of transmission and communication. The transitions of different
new inventions are challenge to humanities but on how it is use that is the contribution to society.
Social media is typically defined as web-based tools that enable users to easily share
information, collaborate, and communicate with one another, Patti Shank (2008). In
contemporary epoch it is then playing a pivotal role, it is part of the day today existence. Living
in a virtual community in today`s time is inevitable, the fast changing development in the realm
of our society is part of changes. It is changes that succumb to both ideal and real way of
demonstrating the antinomy of living towards the demand of the contemporary challenges.
Social media networks have created a phenomenon on the internet that has gained
popularity over the last decade. People use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and
MySpace to create and sustain relationships with others (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
Based on the article provided it is definitely a demonstration of what is the role of social
media, what is the positive implications and negative result that it divulge. In how Safranek
explicate this is through the different contemporary happenings around the globe specifically to
Middle East, North Africa and Asia. It is very clear that the writer gave exemplification to the
emerging role of social media both as a tool and as social justification of change in the societal
notion. The social media and regime of change is his focal stance that substantively explicate the
different events occurred and the connection of social media to each. The vital facet of social
media in the diverse events holds the scrutiny on the article.
Safranek focused on three social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The article elaborated the role of the internet to the social happenings. Then she believes that Part
of the attraction of these big three social media services and independent blogging is that the
average person, with little or no advanced computer skills, can have good success using them;
content can be created and accessed with as little as a Smartphone; and it can be easily

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

intertwined. Links to videos posted on YouTube can be embedded in blogs, Facebook, and
Twitter. A Twitter post can appear on a Facebook page. In other words, large numbers of people
can be easily and inexpensively contacted via a variety of services. "Social media also lowers
traditional socio-economic barriers to commanding the spotlight. You dont have to be
somebody to be somebody on social media".
Text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Internet have given rise to a
reservoir of political energy that posits a new relationship between the new media technologies,
politics, and public life (Giroux). These digital technologies influence the formation and
activities of civil society groups: mobs, movements, and civil society organizations. While mass
popular protests are by no means a new phenomenon, digital tools are facilitating their formation
(Etling et al 38).
I will scrutinize and explicate it through dividing posits the writer demonstrated. There is
political unrest and Social Media, the Philippines in 2001, the impeachment trial of former
President Joseph Estrada, activists, with the help of forwarded text messages, were able to
organize a protest at a major crossroads in Manila. Over the next few days, over a million people
arrived. The publics ability to coordinate such a massive and rapid response close to seven
million text messages were sent that week so alarmed the countrys legislators that they reversed course and allowed the evidence to be presented. ... The event marked the first time that
social media had helped force out a national leader (Shirkey). On January 20, 2011, Estrada resigned.

Moldova in 2009, Activists used Facebook, Live Journal (an electronic diary ser-

vice/social network), and Twitter to organize pro- tests and bring attention to the political unrest
in the former Soviet republic. Word had been spreading rapidly via Twitter and other online
networking services. Although the protestors failed to prompt a change of leadership or a new
election, they got the world to focus on a small, remote country, and digital activism became
recognized as a source of political power (Amin).
There are different events that the writer explicated about the role of social media and the
regime of change around the globe that mirrors how social media plays as a medium to set
forward ones aim and aspiration of change. But it simply denotes that its effectiveness depends
on how people inside the state use social media as a means rather than an end to its goal and

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

purpose. There are some negative array that social media implies based on the article, the two
arguments about the idea that social media will make a difference in national politics. The firs
this threat the tool are themselves ineffective and the second is that they produce as much harm
to democratization as good because repressive governments are becoming better at using these
tools in suppress dissent. Facebook and Twitter have their place in social change, but real
revolutions take place in the street. Social media always comes with a catch: It is designed to do
the very thing that isnt particularly helpful in high-risk situation.
According to Castells in his conceptualization that the new political movement is
applicable to Arab countries where religions and ethnic divides previously prevented networking
because many of the Arab countries banned the creation of political parties and limited to the
right to associate or create civil rights groups. This meant that there was a little space where
religious, ethnic and cultural groups could meet and interact. But social media has helped such
groups discover one another and break the psychological barrier of fear between them.
New media can have an impact firstly to transform individuals and give them new
competencies that empower politics. Secondly the way that the new media draws external
attention from citizens and governments outside the country or region to the place that is
experiencing protest or conflict.
Thus, the important role of emerging social media to promote change and political regime
constitutes an antinomy that can serve as a means towards achieving its end to demonstrate
development in the government.
There are three uses of social media in accordance to this article.
1. Efficient and cheap way to give information
2. Conveys to members the highly motivating realizations that they have big numbers
3. Efficient way to transfer skills and information.
Some peoples everyday experience is that technology changes too fast from their
comfort (Green, 2010). The technology that fast moving and fast changing the same as time with
its infinite value, reminding us that each and every new invention is neither good nor bad on how

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

we view and look at it towards its need. Everything guide to social media is innovative book in
terms of how the author Waters explicate his ideals on how social media works, its usage and
influence to the users. It can help the reader to enliven the many quandaries towards the new
media in our tempo spatial world. There are different approach and exemplification the author
elaborated.
The New Community
According to Waters, (2010) these web-based networking services are re-defining
community and what it means to be a part of one, because they can encompass a much broader
range of relationships that just your immediate family, friends, and co-workers. They allow you
to add old classmates, distant relatives, and los-lost is compadres to your current circle of
friends. People who havent seen each other in decades are re-connecting today on social
networks. And theyre not restricted by geography, so friends and family strewn across time
zones can interact as though they live on the same block. Although most members tend to use
their networks to enhance existing associations, this is a place where new social connections,
both personal and professional, are made. Like any community, social networks post codes of
conduct that include basic courtesies we would extend to each other in any civilized social
environment.
What is a Virtual World?
A virtual world is a three-dimensional computer environment designed to stimulate the
fundamental aspects of the real world, to mimic real life. Theres an up and a down in a virtual
world, a forward and a backward, a sky above and a land below. Its true that a visitor to a virtual
world might be able to fly around in that sky, but its still a sky ruled by sky physics. Visitors (the
flightless ones) must open doors, navigate stairs, and look both ways before crossing the street.
Virtual worlds can be elaborately realized environments, with detailed towns and cities, roads
and rivers, shops and theatres.
Virtual worlds fit under the social media umbrella because of the critical role social
networking plays in many if these environments, but also because the users of these computergenerated environments create a lot of content in the form of educational displays, user-planned

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

tours, in world games, and blogs, not to mention clothing, tools and amenities for other users
(Waters 2010, p 189-190).
Social Media Marketing Explodes
Facebook has nearly 500 million members and twitter has moved beyond its 10 billion
tweets. Even though much of the worst hype around social media marketing is already
dwindling, the audiences made available for marketing campaigns by social networks and other
social media services will just keep getting better.
Social media is transforming the way companies communicate with their customers, and
thats nor a fad, but a trend. The big social networking players are sorting out the market. Niche
players are emerging. Users have already seen the nascent rules of social media marketing
surfacing and establishing guideposts.
Social Networking Becomes a Business Tool
Chatter is an example of something called an internal social media platform, which
allows companies to take advantage of the collaboration potential of a social network.
Companies like Jive, blueKiwi, Remindo, and even Microsofts SharePoint support these kinds
of services. NASA has one called Spacebook. And others are beginning to appear.
Mobility and New Devices
Social Media are going to be appearing on a growing number of mobile devices. There
are already numerous iPhone, Blackberry, and Android social media apps.
Mobile phones have become the new computing platform, and for some social media,
such as location sharing, theyre essential. For microblogs, such as Twitter, Tumblr, and Jaiku,
mobile devices are almost preferred platform. Facebook has reported that 25 percent of its users,
or about 100 million people, access the social network primarily through mobile devices.
Sonia Livingstones theory on the New Media supports the study in determining the
power of social media in relationship, in communication, in the individuality of a person and in
the society. Sonia Livingstone (2003), studies on childrens relationship to new media

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

environment. It is significant to find out that social media is a tool in establishing social
awareness to the community in todays epoch.
According to Waters (2010), there are top ten things everyone should know about social
media and one of these is that social media and social networks are not synonymous terms.
Social media is the umbrella term for a range of online content that includes blogs, wikis, photo
sharing services, bookmarking sites, and social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. Social
media is at the intersection of communities and tools. It gives people the ability to connect with
each other across the planet, free from the tyranny of geography. It lets people communicate via
the written and spoken word, but also gives them the opportunities to go beyond that with that.
Social media is giving every human being in modern society the tools to communicate and form
communities in ways never seen before (Waters, 2010).
Social media means an umbrella term for all user generated content. It includes blogs,
wikis, social networks, location sharing, social bookmarking, social news, photo and video
sharing, and virtual worlds. Social network- a web based service through which people interact
socially, creating a kind of online community. E.g. face book and MySpace. It is an umbrella
term for all user content generated by users of those applications, and the services that make both
accessible to just about anyone with a web browser. These include social networking, (Facebook,
MySpace, LinkedIn), wikis (WebPages for collaboration), blogs (personal online diaries), video
and photo-sharing, (YouTube, flickr, web shots) social bookmarking (delicious, dig), online
reviews (yelp, opinions), and virtual worlds (second life, world of war craft) Waters, (2010).
Social media fulfils different communication needs for different users. Interactions via
the computer facilitate communication by allowing users to keep in touch with family and
friends in a convenient way, to learn about social events, and to find out about activities of other
users. The gratification received from this social information helped users feel that they were a
part of a peer network of knowing what was going on about events and activities (Quan-Haase,
2010).
Social Media, Social Network and Communication

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

This review highlights a fundamental paradigm that is related to social media and
extending networks. The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an
instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social
instrument of communication. We use theory to provide general principles for explaining the data
(Miller, 1986). Theories also suggest directions for research because of the questions they raise.
These theories are symbolic interaction, social exchange theory, gender theory and family
systems theory.

Symbolic Interaction is a theory that looks at how people interact.

Communication is the key factors in these interactions. We communicate with each other with
more than words. We communicate through symbols. Symbols include not only words but also
intonations, gestures, movements and so on. When we interact with people, we do more than
simply react to them. We interpret or define their actions.
Social Media is not about different websites, but people, (Holloman 2012). With all the
talk you hear about the Facebook, Twitter YouTube, LinkedIn, Google and other social places
online, it wouldnt be too much of a surprise to think that social media is all about Facebook,
Twitter and the like.
Social Media is not about the tools and the channels- the software or the technology.
Its all about what people do with the technology (Holloman 2012, p. 4). Social media is a
collective term that describes the means of communicating and engaging with people. Its
something many people see as evolutionary, if not revolutionary, in helping people connect with
each other in ways that are genuine, authentic and natural.
Social media means change in the way everyone understands how organization works.
It often means change in the ways people relate to and connect with others, inside and outside the
organizations. Despite the volume of research, the debate about media effects whether it can be
shown empirically that the specific mass media messages, typically those transmitted by
television, have specific, often detrimental effects, on the audiences who are exposed to them -remains unresolved. This is partly because the debate is more about the epistemological
limitations of social science research than it is about the media in particular, and partly because
the debate is motivated more by a public and governmental agenda of education, censorship and

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

regulation (Rowland, 1983) than by an academic agenda concerning media theory (Roberts &
Bachen, 1981)
Augmented Reality is real technology that superimposes computer images and some
audio over the real world in real time.
Thus, Social Media today plays a vital role in a community where we are all form part of,
as a country possessing liberty we are capable of leading ourselves to change, innovate and
invent a new paradigm of development in societal facet. The ability to interact with the symbols
of technology reminds us that the genuine potentiality of man involves innovation towards the
changing time in contemporary world.
Development in a country the same as ours reminded us that we should be in lieu with the
demands of generation, allowing us to be part of social change, letting ourselves to be inside the
progressive array and succumbing the grace of life in the realm of the world that technology is
for people to use in upgrading the way of life. We should remove doubts in trusting what the
world can offer to us better realize its use and make it as a tool for the social change in our
country especially the influence of social media to our daily lives. In this medium whether it is a
technology that elevate innocence and ignorance but if we will scrutinize its use, it can help us to
establish the sociological, economical, political and cultural aspect of how Filipinos use social
media to promote change in status quo.
Results and Discussion
1. How would social media use turn out to be a tool for political awareness?
Political awareness is the political participation towards political engagement in the
perceptive analysis of this study. According to Himelboim, (2012) interpersonal informational
trust and openness are used to predict three aspects of use of the Internet for political
communication purposes perceptions of online activities as a valid form of political participation,
media use for purposes of political information, and interest in behaviours related to political
discourse.

Social media platforms, however, next to serving entertainment and social

surveillance needs (boyd & Ellison, 2007; Lampe, Ellison & Steinfield, 2006), provide spaces
where individuals share political opinions and information (Pew, 2009a, 2011). Social media
spaces include SNS, discussion forums and blogs, where indi- viduals meet, share, and discuss a

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

wide range of issues (Kapla & Haenlein, 2010). Whereas social media spaces can be exclusively
used for unidirectional information flow, studies show they also serve social interaction needs,
which require some level of information or opinion interaction (Papacharissi & Mendelson,
2008; Sweetser & Weaver Lariscy, 2007).
Advances in information technology (IT) are bringing about changes in contemporary society
that pose new situations requiring interconnectivity (Roy, Samovar, Porter and Daniel, 2013). It
is a way to demarcate the realm of reality but the fruitful equilibrium of both ideal and real
stance in the field of information especially towards a new adaptive measure of being aware. The
verity of internet lies within the changing environment. It is not only the medium used to develop
the different perspective on the use of social media helps the study to substantiate the claim the
social media has an impact to political awareness of the young generation in this moment in
time. The tertiary level students in Lyceum of the Philippine University-Cavite firmly affirm that
it has an impact on their political awareness that is happening to our country. Based on the
surveys and interviews conducted Political awareness tackles a variation of perspectives, there
are distinct point of view on how they understand politics and awareness. There are (100) one
hundred participants engaged in the study all are tertiary level students from first year to fourth
year in LPU-C, there are fifty males ( 50 ) and fifty (50) females who answered the survey.
Both male and female believes that among the choices of social networking sites Facebook is
the leading social media sites that has the highest number of users with seventy eight (78)
participants followed by YouTube with fifty one (51) students used and lastly Twitter with (43)
forty-three users. All of them replied that they used social media as a means to communicate and
to be aware to what is happening in our country, it serves as the most convenient way to acquire
datas because it is easier to use because of their mobile phone they can easily access to
Facebook that posted news and current events that is happening to our country. Almost seventy
percent (70 %) accept as true that social media helps them to be aware on what is happening to
our country, sixty percent (60%) affirmed that social media serves a as a tool for change in our
present government. Among one hundred participants (100) there are fifty-eight answered Yes
that social media is a tool to change the status quo on our government and twenty participants
(20) doesnt believe in such. Seventy percent (70%) based on the tabulated answer firmly
affirmed that they accept social media as a means towards political awareness while 30% doesnt

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

agree on such. Sixty eight (68) participants also agreed that social media especially Facebook is a
tool for dissemination of information to demonstrate assembly and gatherings in the street the
same as what happened on One million march in Luneta. Lastly, they agree that social media can
help to improve our country societal condition especially in political array because of political
awareness the number of participants agreed upon are (70%) percent while the (30%) percent
still believes in the traditional activism of rally rather than silent activism on the social media.
According to the survey and interview conducted the virtual community serves as a tool
for political awareness among the youth today. Their generation serves as netizens who is not
passive anymore to what is happening around us especially to the political aspect that is visibly
demandable to be aware and part of because it can afflict all communal facets of one nation.
Virtual Community is a new developmental community that extends social activism in a silent
mode, the communal array that is a bridge to exercising both freedom and acquisition of change.
The very essential facet of social media is how it used by many Filipinos to seek truth and
justice, to promote assemblies that can enliven the shield of oneness towards changing the status
quo. It is a tool that empowers the individual people to deliver the different sides of the story. It
is a tool that symbolizes the avant garde of sign in the realm of true Filipino identity.
There are different assortments that social media can offer to the user, and one of the
benefits that social media can offer to humanity is the power to influence and to reinvent the
momentarily setting. According to Hjorth 2011,
Personal political identities are constructed through political action
and the appropriation of political symbols on SNS. However, positive
though these developments may be in Bennetts terms, the mixing of
SNS, politics, and identity construction is unproblematic. Many
respondents in the focus groups remain sceptical about how much
impact this solidarity and online political discourse can have in the
offline world.
In the Second People Power Revolution, which led to the ouster of
President Joseph Estrada, mobile phones became both a symbol and a
tool of democracy, and texting was prominent in the political
application of communications networks (Pertierra et al. 2002;
Rheingold 2002; Rafael 2003; Pertierra 2006).

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

There are different political events that shaped the mind of the Filipinos towards the
implication of social media to develop change in the status quo. The text brigades using the new
media through texting they also use internet messaging that demonstrate d the Edsa revolt during
the historical change in polity that regime. The facets sought to explicate the different scenario in
the Philippine politics and it was then supported by different scholars in Political awareness and
political development in societal and communal array.
According to Toivo, (N.D) Social media and societal communication have eight central
changes. Social media has changed the way people communicate. This section deals with eight
key changes it has produced. Engaging with social media is a communal activity, so its
important to understand that influencing social media is a much more diverse and difficult task
than working with traditional media. These eight central stages supported the different
perspective of the participants that I interviewed and the stances that resulted to almost in
compatibility of the study conducted by Toivo, social media new power of political influence.
The first change specific to social media is the (1) anonymity of its agents, which means
that those who write and comment often use nicknames or aliases. Even though anonymity
provides an opportunity to comment on delicate issues, it can also sometimes lead to flame
wars and avoiding responsibility. Use of the writers real name makes the message stand out
(for example, in the Letters to the Editor in newspapers), since the author wants to be
identified as owning that comment. Those who communicate need to be able to appear with their
own names.
The secrecy can be inclined to the way Filipino wants to expose the Political anomalies
that is happening to our country especially what happened in the recent case of Napoles it was
first posted on the Social Media. During the hottest issue that bomb the whole nation about the
PDAF Scandal of our government there are many personas that used aliases, symbols and
unknown just to protect them and just to flaunt and share what they know on the net by helping
the investigation but also protecting themselves. The caption that posted on the net last 2013 was
entitled An open letter to Janet Napoles that was the beginning of the hot topics about the
picture posted with the two senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada. As rappler, one of the
social media site online news added a caption on the picture Janet Napoles rubbing elbows with

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

local politicians implicated in Pork Barrel Scam. Taken from (http://www.rappler.com) this was
through Face book that the news, abruptly spread towards the online community.
The second change is the (2) richness and diversity of information social media provide.
Users are no longer dependent on a single source for their news and other data any more, but can
flue several different media side by side. The modus operandi can be thought of as remediation,
where media use, modify and reorganise contents gathered from other media. Also connected to
this changed information environment is the fact that it is not possible to participate in every
conversation.
In just one click on the net and simply browsing the Face book every single happening
around the globe can easily be captured. The very convenient and easiest way to know is through
the help of social media and as I conducted the interview many believes that the very source of
new information is not anymore the old media which is the television but the internet especially
Face book, out of (100) one hundred participants 85 of them accept as true that Face book,
YouTube and Twitter help them to outsource the richness of the information the new media
community offers.
The third change is (3) omnipresence there are no longer any isolated places or hiding holes.
The private and public lives of societys most influential figures have merged and become public
space. Many politicians has had to face the fact that a phrase taken out of context or a joke they
told during a private conversation has been recorded by outsiders and quickly made public on the
Internet.
There are different ways, modes and methods to engage and use the new media. In both
negative and positive posits many politicians are using the internet and social media to connect
with the people.
The fourth change is (4) speed. News and information are spread more quickly than ever before,
and the demand for speed can also lead to reports without any confirmation. William Davidow,
an engineer and technology investor, describes the current era using the term over connected:
we are too oft en and too quickly in contact and cant process new information adequately due to

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

haste. He cites the example of the modern stock exchange that has become a particularly fickle
monster due to computerisation and automation.
There are different ways that social media used to a fast changing developmental process
in the users life and one of those facets include the speed of information. Through the use of
social media the information set forth the world can easily be transferred through the users. In
just a click away those who was interviewed believes that fast changing effect delivers the users
to know more what is happening around the globe especially in our country and most especially
the political happenings as given exemplification was the One Million March and silent activism
regarding PDAF issues.
The fifth change is the (5) multitude of roles that users assume, and their relationships to
each other. The lack of a clear hierarchy is characteristic of social media. A good example is the
online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, which doesnt really have a main editor, but an army of tens of
thousands of writers, inspectors, and editors. So, if inaccuracies are found, to whom at Wikipedia
should complaints be directed? The e answer to this: dont complain! Instead, supplement the
article in question and correct perceived mistakes alone.
There are different advertisements sought to extend how Internet world can change the
way people live, Google anak google one line that pertains to how fast we can seek and
retrieved information through the use of Wikipedia, Google and some search engine by simpky
typing the words or lines and can easily grasp what they want to know especially the historical
background, the theories or even in just a simple meaning of the word.
The sixth change is the move from (6) objectivity to subjectivity. For example, in the United
States, some of the so called traditional mainstream media have abandoned the promotion of
equality and pluralism. One case observed across different social media platforms has been the
rumour that the current president of the United States, Barack Obama, is a Muslim. Over 20% of
Americans still believe that Obama is a Muslim, even though this false information has been
repeatedly refuted.
The object in itself is the Computer or the new media used of social media through
internet connections but still the perceptive analysis of human being is still the important facet of

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

the developing realm of its usage. How the users perceive and accept the usage of social media
helps them to be subjective on how one can understand the reasons and essence of it especially
the social preference of political awareness. On the basis sought to define and describe the used
of social media especially the three chosen social media, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube it
simply denotes that it helps the user to be informative and aware on the things that happens
around.
The seventh change is the new (7) ability to combine different kinds of recorded information
in very flexible ways.
Social media isnt just text, pictures, audio, video, and animation, but all of these
combined. With todays compact cameras, sound recorders, laptop computers and other mobile
devices, combined with affordable soft ware, one can easily create and edit impressive
presentations.
The eighth change is the (8) near absence of traditional methods of regulation. A government
can attempt to restrict the content of social media, but traditional censorship cannot keep up with
ever-changing web pages. China and Saudi Arabia, for example, tightly control their citizens use
of the Internet and social media. On the other hand, it is technically difficult to interfere in even
in the most radical web-distributed propaganda.
In our country the very controversial Cyber Crime law was then decided to be constitutional
and towards the accepted phenomena of internet used our government is doing their principal
role to eliminate the unethical usage of it and develop laws that can promote the principle
foundation of change through technological revolution without harm.
There are three major factors for the use of social media that play a pivotal role for Filipino
user especially for tertiary level student of LPU-Cavite.
1.

information sharing (receiving/providing information and generating ideas)

2.

sharing for educational purposes (for learning, problem solving and sharing school work)

3.

social purposes (retrieving personal information about others or themselves, chatting,

making appointments and generally keeping in touch)

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

That is the result of ideology and hegemony that creatively indulge with the virtual
community on the cyber space and extending the social awareness towards exchanging
information, sharing and being part of disseminating the different topics especially what is
happening to our society. It doesnt necessarily for leisure purpose only but engaging through
time using the internet makes them aware and opens their mind to reality locally and
internationally. The space which travels us into the past, we can journey to other countries with
just one click; we can reinvent the societal facet that needs to develop through our submission in
the virtual community.
Based on the research conducted the different answers varies on how each participants view
the use of Social Media, how it helps them to engage and interconnect with the people around the
globe. The internet serves as an extension of their everyday living, the internet helps them to be
aware and realize their being towards the world and towards their community. It help them to be
involved at the same time it develops their sense of response to the evolving community of
change. The virtual community helps them realize the essentiality of their capacity to be engaged
and to be part of the political arena. The participants explicated that nowadays it is already a sin
not to know and not to be aware to what is happening to our country especially through the help
of social media, that in just one click everything is possible to see and read, to know how the
social, political and economic community changes does. Towards the rapid news interplays with
different social networking sites especially the role of Facebook to the young generation
substantiate my claim that truly social media helps to demonstrate change in their political
mindfulness, their being conscious helps them to be involved and engage in their simplest ways
possible. The simple comments, shares and likes help them to be heard, it is not simply an echo
that needs to be heard but truly the voice of one towards the total responsive ideologies. In a
reflective analysis of the interview conducted and through surveys the participants completed
their qualitative remarks on how social media helps them to be aware in the political aspect in
virtual community.
2. Does the use of social media serve as a symbol to develop change in our country?
McLuhan, (1999) tells us that a message is, the change of scale or pace or pattern
that a new invention or innovation introduces into human affairs. Note that it is not the content
or use of the innovation, but the change in inter-personal dynamics that the innovation brings

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

with it. Thus, the message of theatrical production is not the musical or the play being produced,
but

perhaps

the

change

in

tourism

that

the

production

may

encourage.

As McLuhan sees it-in the simplest terms, here is his theory step by step: People adapt to their
environment, whatever it is, with a certain balance of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell,
and taste. If something steps up the intensity of one sense, hearing for example, the other senses
will change intensity too, to try to regain a balance. The same as the symbol used through the
social media as a means to enliven the ideology of the user it demonstrated that towards the
usage of it. The same as the use of the new media it explicated that it becomes a symbol that
people use to the transfer of political enlightenment. According to one of the most influential
theories of political representation, the Responsible Party Model, citizens are only effectively
represented in parliament and government if they are able to (1) articulate their policy
preferences; (2) discriminate between political parties and their programmes, and (3) select the
party most likely to implement their desired preferences. Empirical research from the 1950s
demonstrated that citizens are often uninformed about politics and party programmes and do not
have an opinion of their own on important issues. This suggests that political representation is
likely to be biased in favour of citizens with higher education and incomes.
Whether this is indeed the case critically depends on being able to determine, in a valid
and reliable manner, how much citizens know about politics and to evaluate the consequences of
low levels of political knowledge for democratic regimes. The impact of the channel of
communication is a symbol for developmental awareness of one individual netizens towards the
new paradigm of technological revolution in this contemporary epoch. Political participation
towards political engagement is a political awareness in the perceptive analysis of this study.
1. Knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens
2. Developing their modes of empirical knowledge
3. Developing the political knowledge and political behaviours in using social media

Facebook
YouTube

SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter
In the use of social media as a tool for engagement in developing the impact of its use
social media became a common interest in the metaphor of its symbolism. The idea of the self

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

towards the other that it is more centripetal, cyclical pattern as a medium and informative ways
to deliver change the political awareness, engagement, and participation from the ideal facet
towards reality, social media is a tool towards its user from the transfer of thoughts there is a
change in perspective and there is an action and awareness.

Perception

Political Participation

Political Information

Political Discourse

Through perceptive use of social media the user becomes aware through the occurrence
of events around the virtual community, the political participation sought through sharing,
commentaries, likes and even dislikes of the posts from the three major social media in
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The political information helps to deliver a political discourse
that result to political dimensional catalyst that symbolizes change in the objectifying role of
social media through its subjective range use by the netizens.

SOCIAL MEDIA

FACEBOO

YOUTUBE

TWITTER

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

MEDIUM/ TOOL

SOCIAL AWARENESS

POLITICAL
AWARENESS
Conclusion
The idea of individualism from communalism is the ideology set forth in explaining how
social media becomes an essential piece of study in contemporary time. The right to belong
within the community of technological revolution were internet is not only a wants but a need,
the wisdom to belong towards the virtual community until the verity of realistic mode.
At least five major features are easy to identify:
1. Social networking and social interaction
2. Participation
3. The use of different providers (e.g. search engines, blog spaces, etc.)
4. Openness
5. Collaboration (between both users and user groups)
In contemporary Philippine development the use of social media in contemporary issue
plays pivotal remarks because technology used by Filipinos and it serves as a medium and tool
for developing ones awareness to the objectifying principle of reality. Social media and online
political communication is an interpersonal awareness. This study suggests how Filipino

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

especially the young generation netizens uses social media in political participation, from
traditional to contemporary way of thinking political interest. Awareness engagement
development of ones thinking towards the evolving change to societal-political perspective.
According to Sharma 2012, Political Awareness maybe defined as the extent to which the
public is aware of the politics prevalent in the society. Politically aware society possesses the
following characteristics, foundation and contemporary knowledge of politics, access to elite
opinion, forum to discuss individual opinion
Public integrity maybe defined as the extent to which the public is able to look at the long
term and societal implications of a political action thereby ignoring the short term personal gains.
Public attitude determines the extent of integrity with which public is able to evaluate and take
actions having a political aim. I differentiate between public attitude as either good or bad.

Professor Simon Baddeley, 2012 adds the perspective of how social media and public
attitude affect the movement of the public from one quadrant to another. By acting as source of
sharing and discussing information social media essentially increases the political awareness of
the public thereby moving the public towards the quadrants lying in the high political awareness
half.

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

According to Emad, N.D there is four dimensions of political awareness have been
recognized: foundational knowledge of politics, factual contemporary knowledge, historical fact
knowledge, and access to the elite opinion. This was then clearly shown to the study provided
that social media serves as medium or a tool for a catalyst way that extended to each individual
netizens especially for the tertiary students who was then interviewed. It is very clear that
through internet usage it is a helpful way to be politically aware especially in contemporary
epoch.

References:
Bennett, W. L. 2008. Changing citizenship in the digital age. In Civic life online: Learning how
digital media can engage youth, ed. W. L. Bennett, 124. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Civic_Life_Online.pdf (accessed January 11. 2014)
Baym, N. K. (2004). Interpersonal life online. In Lievrouw, L. A. & Livingstone (Eds.)
Handbook of new media (pp. 3554). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210230.
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five
approaches. 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Emerson, R. (1976). Social exchange theory. Annual Review of Sociology
Giffords, E. (2009). The internet and social work: The next generation. Families in Society: The
Journal of Contemporary Social Services, Retrieved. December 10, 2013 from
http://www.socialworker.com/jswve/spring12/spr122.pdf
Greene, L (2010). The Internet: An Introduction to New Media Oxford
Grbich, C. (2007). Qualitative data analysis: an introduction. London: SAGE Publication
Kaye, B. K., & Johnson, T. J. (2006). The age of reasons: Motives for using different
components of the Internet for political information. In A. P. Williams & J. C. Tedesco (Eds.),
The Internet election: Perspectives on the Web in campaign 2004. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Livingstone, S. (1996) On the continuing problems of media effects research. In J. Curran and
M. Gurevitch (Eds.), Mass Media and Society. London

Impact of Social Media on Political Awareness

Quan-Haase, A. (2012). "Technology and society: Inequality, power, and social networks". Don
Mills: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780195437836
Waters, J. (2010).The everything guide to social media: USA Adams Media Inc.
Journals:
Suomen Toivo. Social Media The New Power of Political Influence (www.toivoajatuspaja.fi) N.
D
Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Ellison Michigan State University
What is Social Media (Social-Media-for-Informal Learning) N. D
http://spot.colorado.edu/~calabres/Castells%20Review.pdf Accessed January 10, 2014
http://gendocs.ru/docs/10/9373/conv_1/file1.pdf Accessed January 10, 2014
http://www.utwente.nl/gw/vandijk/research/network_society/network_society_plaatje/d_castells_
review_castells_net.pdf Accessed January 10, 2014