 Sa maayong hapon, asalong malay kong worak matulay, tiyalawa ba kapo sa timakabawa ay muslim and to all our viewers from all over the world, thank you for joining us today to learn more about the importance of big data for campaign communications and strategies. The official campaign season for those running for president, vice president, center, and party list representatives just started yesterday but we have been inundated with campaign slogans and campaign messages for months already. Some have also used this loophole in the COMLEC rules as a time to dry run or pretest their candidates branding to see how it will stick. But are there other tools other than the political survey that can be used to calibrate the game plan? Welcome to the seventh installment of the National Forum on Communication and Democracy, Philippine elections 2022. Data sentiment or data and sentiment analysis going beyond surveys. My name is Ed Lingao, a journalist with TV5 and I will serve as your host and moderator for today's program, which may also be viewed by a live streaming on YouTube at the TV UP channel as well as on the TV UP and the Philippines Communication Society Facebook pages. We will also have some live tweeting so please use the hashtag PCS forum series with your posts. And now before we begin, we will let us acknowledge the following. We would like to thank the University of the Philippines system or the UP system, the Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs. Of course, the Philippines Communication Society, the UP Information Technology Development Center, the ITDC, TV UP, the Internet Television Network of the University of the Philippines, and everybody who has helped to make this forum series possible. And because we have a lot of faculty and students watching us today, PCS members will be receiving a certificate of attendance as a benefit of their PCS membership. Ayam po, you will see on your screen yung certificate of attendance. Inabakan po talaga yan. So kung gusto nyo maha ko apunyan and you are a PCS member, please do stay for the duration of the forum. And you will get this personalized certificate of attendance. Now, if you have not yet applied for or renewed your membership as of yet, this is your chance to be part of the premier organization that represents the Communication Discipline to the Philippine Social Science Council. The online membership forum is available on the PCS website philscomsoc.org slash membership. Again, it's philscomsoc.org slash membership. As well, you can see on your screens the QR code that you can just scan for an easy application to membership to the PCS. And because this is also a national forum on communication and democracy, we want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to be heard. So please take note, we will be using Mentimeter so that our viewers on Facebook and YouTube will also be able to participate. And it's also a chance for you to be interactive during this forum. So nilang po kaya makikinig, po magtatanong, mayan nika yung question and answer dito sa Mentimeter. Do not worry, this is not going to be right, minus wrong, hindi po graded recitation ito. We encourage everybody to participate in our mini quiz. I know that sense. Pero madali lang po ito at sumalin na po kayo na diyan po yung QR code on your screens. Your answers will be discussed during our panel discussion later on. And you'll also see how the other viewers have answered. Okay, yan po ang QR code danga Mentimeter. It's in menti.com with the code 608293. Now again for all our viewers, including those on Facebook and YouTube, please open your browser and go to menti.com. And fillin na itong menti code na nakikita ninyo. It's 608292. Or just scan the QR code on your screen. Madali lang po yan. Just open your scanners on your cell phones. Okay, I know that everybody is excited to get the show going. So to set the tone of data and sentiment analysis going beyond surveys, let's hear a few words from the Dean of the College of Mass Communication in the University of the Philippines in Dileman, Dr. Alaminda Lee Sanchago. Amami. Hi, Eda. Thank you very much for that introduction. And good morning. A pleasant morning to everyone. And wait, there's something going on in my screen. We just have to get rid of it. So anyhow, and I hope that everybody is having a COVID-19 safe day and everybody is fine and healthy. So I would like to welcome you to this very timely and relevant webinar entitled Data and Sentiment Analytics Going Beyond the Surveys. I posted the first question. What is data analysis? And the second question, what is data analytics? Is there a difference? These two phrases are used in describing how information or data is examined and also processed so that it can be used for whatever purpose you want to use in your study. And there are occasions and many times that these phrases are used and understood loosely, but they are similar but not really different. They both refer to an examination of information. In analysis, the researcher interprets the information, gathers it, and forms a coherent understanding and drafts a narrative plan. And then analytics is in the hardware aspect, what the computer is doing when it accepts stores, calculates, and makes resulting information available for use. I don't know what's happening with my screen. So, but then essentially we have to look into really what is the difference. So analytics is understood as the overarching science of managing data. However, analysis looks at the more micro aspect of data and then actually it will be used for interpretive purposes for a particular goal in a study. So then essentially also it is, but then both of them are similar in scope. How about sentiment? Sentiment is an attitude towards something. And most of the time, yes, it is a subjective as in the video where Dr. Lisa Bersales talked about what sentiment is all about. But in sentiment, unlike in what data, the concept of data that we are familiar with, sentiment carries a social and cultural dimension. Because it comes with a combination of beliefs and emotions that explains an action. And many times sentiment is expressed with an underpinning of social values. So for instance, an example of sentiment is someone being so patriotic that they decorate their house with many flags of their countries. But then the basic question, can we measure sentiment? Because for the longest time, sentiment is not given a lot of importance. But now, yes, it does have importance, especially when we use social media. At first glance, we dismiss sentiment, but nevertheless, even if it is hard to define, it is very measurable. At this webinar title, Data and Sentiment Analytics, I see a mixed methods approach. A harmony between quantitative approaches and that of data analytics and a qualitative approach that of sentiment analysis. If you are in the know or in the hub of information, actually, there are many softwares and approaches so that you can analyze sentiment. So like for instance, there is Arcanium. And then there is this latest one that's being promoted on Facebook, Brand 24. So because in sentiment analysis, you are mining opinion. And mine because sentiment data can be large and overwhelming. When you look at it in the context of analytics, it can generate big data and it can overwhelm even the best researcher or statistician. And then sometimes they use a variety of methods like natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics, biometrics and a lot of other methods. And sentiment analysis has been used for the longest time because it's used in business. It is widely applied to voice of customer materials such as reviews, survey responses, online and social media, healthcare materials and a lot of things. So that sentiment analysis and sentiment analytics can be applied to studying the sentiment of voters for this year's elections. And then of course, how do we manage sentiment in the context of sentiment analytics. So it's really no different from data analytics. There are many softwares and programs that you can use to extract sentiment just like when you want to extract data. Then essentially, yes, data and sentiment analytics is a powerful tool for a candidate. However, we should be aware that this is a forecasting tool and forecast can change in a breeze. Additionally, it can enhance your capacity to analyze audience opinions, but then opinions can change, especially when election day is nearing. So what can sentiment analysis analytics give you? You can find out positive, negative and neutral mentions about yourself as a candidate or also about your competitors. You can protect your reputation. You can find negative comments and communicate these with their authors or sources before they turn into a PR crisis. Right now, the managers of our candidates, they are really on their toes because they have to weigh whether or not they will communicate with the opposition about whatever negative comments that they generate if ever they prove that they are the ones generating it. And then of course, you can find insights. Then you can improve your public exposure. This is why sentiment analytics is important. Now, this is an exciting webinar. I can't also wait to hear from our experts. It can be an eye-opener when you learn the ins and outs of data and sentiment analytics. Do not allow yourselves to be limited or push to a corner by surveys. There is really more to what the eye can see. So let us all learn from our experts for today. And thank you very much and welcome to this webinar on data and sentiment analytics. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much for your very inspiring message, Dean Armi Sanchago of the UT College of Mass Communications. Again, harmonizing quantitative and qualitative approaches to big data and big data as a powerful tool for just about everybody including the candidates that can be used and that could be useful. But before we forget po, hot birting ako pala. Palama. Baka lang di po ninyo lang. Si Mamami nag-birty lang lang. So yung pancit po ay abang natin may amaya lang. Virtual pancit. Okay. It's time now for mini quiz. Again, like I always like to say, do not worry. This is not quite minus song. This is not a graded exam. It's just our way of getting your perspectives on the topic at hand. You may now start answering the Mentimeter poll on your screen. Simply go to menti.com and fill in the menti code 60829393. It's a complicated process po. We just basically ask you certain questions and then you answer. And then we will show you in real time yung results nang inyong mga sagot on the screens. Look at it as a mini poll of sorts. So just to show you, our first question would be, what are the words that you associate with big data? I'm assuming po that you've already opened the Mentimeter app and the first question is that, what are the words that you associate with big data? So for this first question, you may put in three words for our word cloud. Yung pinakikita niyo sa inyong screen. Ang word cloud po, sige lang yan. The answer that generates the most votes or responses yung pinakamalaki yung font na makinita niyo dun sa ating word cloud. So the bigger the font, the more people voted on that answer. You will see that the words, of course, will increase in size the more times that it is mentioned by our viewers in the Mentimeter poll. So for example ang po, the one you see now, parang pinakabalaka yun is the word analysis for that or your surveillance data of Facebook and statistics. So the bigger the font, the more votes that phrase or that word got in our Mentimeter poll for number one. I think po, are we seeing the answers coming in already? Yan, I think we are seeing the answers already coming in. Pede pahuking huma but if you want to change the outcome, you can still change the outcome depending on how you vote. Okay, so we will leave the Mentimeter poll open for you as we go along with the program. Ii-de-review lang po natin yan later on yung mga kasagutan later on in the program with our speakers. There will be two questions po, that was the first question yung what are the words that we associated with big data. The second question po is this, simple yung o-o, hindi. Malalaman ba ang kabuwang sentiment o ang mga botante mula sa political surveys lamang po-o-o hindi. Will you be able to divine the full sentiments of the voters just based on political surveys? Po-o-o hindi. Again po, using the same application, depending on your answers, you will see in real time the results on your screen. So far meron po tayong 49 people saying hindi. Malalaman ang kabuwang sentiment o ang mga botante mula sa mga political surveys lamang Oh, but nabawasan, nagdag-dagbawas. Now it's 51, baka may nagbago ng isip. 52, tangin nagsasabi po na po-o ay lima lamang. Po-o malalaman ang kabuwang sentiment o mga botante mula sa mga political surveys lamang. So yun po, again we will keep on coming back to the maintain your screen every once in a while to check on viewer sentiments on those two questions. Now, as we are hearing from our viewers, let us now hear the word on the street with a person on the street to interview via TV, UP. Data po, it focuses on quantitative. So numbers. Siya yung nag-ge-generalize na opinion or na personal sa good sa isentang. Big data is any data which is fast which has lots of information and which is accessible to many in real time. Using this vast amount of data, they will be able to analyze and create patterns para mapredict o mas mapag-arala ng mga buking kung ano yung magiging result o kung paan yung magiging handling nila sa election. Dating ko, ang big data, gina-gamit sa election, pero basically kasi ang big data gina-gamit ka-lagap o data-gadring ng any source of information. Surveys on the other hand, although now we do online will be more structured and with more identified respondents. A part of me nangiyawala sa surveys using that vast amount of information kasi it is in scientific process and it's from material and concrete data. Me personally, hindi ako na ninyawala sa surveys kasi I think maraming falseness na nakatago sa likod ng bawat survey na nilalamas. Pwede naman pagbasi anong survey gina-gamit naman yung talaga para maalaman mo ang falsun ng tao. Sentiment analysis finding out what do they feel? What are their sentiments? What do they want to say? Sentiments naman ko ito siguro yung mga tanong na kumukuhas sa emotional na background at o rin ang kanilang salo of me. At this coming election so I hope na yung paggamit ng technology tulad ng big data maggamit sa masama. We should use our critical thinking for the benefit of the people and for the sake of truth and justice. Okay, manami salamat to TVUP for giving us a pulse of the people to this person on this free interview and to start off, maalami to introduce our distinguished panel of experts for round table discussion on data and sentiment analysis going beyond surveys. We are, of course, proud to have with us this morning the founder and managing director of STAT-BASE Group. He's also the president of STAT-BASE ADR Institute also our favorite guest of the Chiefs on One News. Please welcome to the webinar Professor Victor Andes or Dindo Manit. Prof. Dindo, thank you for joining us. Good afternoon to everyone who is participating in this webinar conference. Thank you for the invitation from the Philippines Communication Society. Thank you for taking the time. Next we are pleased with us on the panel, Rappler's head for digital strategy in this capacity. She leads strategic initiatives and content data partnerships as well as in risk management on tech platforms. Among these initiatives, it's Rappler's multi-prong efforts to address this information online which tied together big data supported research, fact-checking and civic engagement. So please welcome to your screens Gemma Bagayawa Mendoza. Gemma, thank you for joining us. Thank you for inviting me, ECS, and also thank you, Ed. Okay, running up the panel, a privilege shall be with us economists and businessman. He writes, of course, for Business World Land, a Philippine star. Please give a virtual welcome to Andrew Masigan. Hi, Ed. And hello to everybody. Good afternoon to PCS and the faculty that's present today. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Hi, sir. Sukirin namin yan sa programa namin. Well, thank you. Thank you to everyone for being a part of this roundtable discussion on the importance of big data in crafting and refining campaign communications and strategies. Okay, let's start off with the person on the street interview that we just watched. May I ask for some feedback from our speakers? You saw the video, you heard the opinions, you heard some believers, and you heard some unbelievers. What do you think? What do you think of what the public had to say? May I start, Prof. Dindo? Prof. Dindo. My approach in any political communication initiative is always ask myself who am I trying to talk to? So the first step is trying to understand the voters. So when you understand the voters, the best way to understand the voters is through qualitative and quantitative data gathering. That's why I have been always a subscriber of data-driven analysis. I try to understand who they are, their geographic and demographic profile. I try to understand issues that is important to them. And I even probe further that qualitative and qualitative is something that I try to work with. Then came the reality in this post-modern world that we are in. Data can be mined. Data, especially with the rise of social media platforms. So I try to merge that because realities also in any campaigns you cannot do what I call blanket communication or shotgun approach. It needs to be targeted. And to be targeted is to understand you're not expected, especially in the Philippine political setting, you're not expected to win even a majority of plurality can win it. But the best is understand where your possible voters are and how can you best communicate to them by understanding who they are. This is what I call the voter-centered campaign. And I build on that using data. And I would argue here every campaign uses surveys. Uses surveys. So anyone who tells you that they're part of a campaign and they never use surveys or even qualitative FJD has never been part of any campaign but they will not admit it. That they're trying to understand the voters. It's the analysis where it matters. How do you best interpret the data? And then with that, Ed. Okay. Sili pa rin talaga kahit na sabing hindi kami timating sa surveys. Sili pa rin talaga yan e. Oh, yeah. Oh, Gemma. What do you think? Yeah, so I'm going to speak from the perspective of a journalist that's looking at this space and looking at this exercising, election exercise. And as I was saying earlier, Ed, during our chat, it's impossible to really think of elections without thinking of data because the surveys themselves, that's data still. Election results are data. So, we know that our analysts, they look at that as reference to understand the voters. But basically, a lot shifted with the digital space. I mean, was listening to the people who were interviewed earlier. I think there's a, we need to know once what that big data is. So essentially, we're now living in a space that's a big part of the ecosystem. So, elections are in effect because hearts and minds battle for hearts and minds. And where is that battle being waged? In the past, that battle was being waged in the traditional media. Well, it still is to a large extent, but increasingly that's happening now in the digital space. Now, as a journalist, I like to look at that and essentially like looking at that space and how that space has changed. That space is different, very different because in the past, you're basically, the measurements are different. The surveys are how you get the sentiment of the voters, the actual viewership inputs, the signals where they're getting the messages, that's measured differently. But now all of that can actually be measured because of digital, how people are consuming information. So, you can log in the digital media and that can be crunched and that can be used to manage, mitigate, like, change messaging or even craft messaging. So, it's very important to watch that space during elections. Yeah. But mindy, ano, pa warm up pa lang to, baka masado kayo na. Pa warm up pa lang to, wala pa nga tayo sa question number one. But, Andrew, what do you think? Pa warm up pa lang, ha? I think data analytics is both a boon and a bane. Okay. The reality is that, the reality is that data analytics can be frightfully accurate. It could be used by certain people. Well, for one, it's a boon because it gives us the real picture or a close enough picture of what the sentiments really are out there, no? But on the other hand, it gives the players in the arena the opportunity to create realities. And these realities may not be accurate realities. These may be realities based on half truths, based on disinformation or outright lies, no? So at the end of the day, even if we have a picture of what the sentiment is out there, it is still incumbent upon the voting public to do their homework and to really know and dig what the truth is and get to know the candidates well because like I said, no? The truth can be manufactured. And the basis of all that is the sentiments derived from analytics. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting point there. And also, I suppose it also raises the question of whether the public should be swayed by sentiments or should they be swayed by their own analysis of what's happening around them? Whether surveys sway people and should they be swaying people? But anyway, before I get ahead of everybody else, pa si'simula pa lang tayo nang ating mga talagang tanong. Okay. Let me begin with the first question. Dindo, I'll go back to you. What is the definition? How do we define big data? What are the sources of big data? And what are the best examples of how these are used for campaigns? I think big data, the use of big data was actually introduced with the rise of the use of internet in campaigning. So at the turn of it's early 2000, we saw that in Western democracies whereby it was initially met before the rise of social media. As a tool, it replaced what we used to call in traditional campaigning, the mailing system. You receive a mail, literally a mail from your postman and the candidates used to send that. So the internet, the email address became a tool to communicate direct to voters, specifically targeted. Then as social media evolved, especially Facebook, in the US you can add Twitter and maybe YouTube even. It was a way to target your message going beyond mainstream media. That means you don't need to pass through the editorial control on the biases of TV, network, broadcast networks. So it was met straight. So very critical to this is it became what we call a direct to voter approach. So how do you how would you understand where the voter are? The data mining happens. But the problem is you might be violated privacy laws. In the US when this was first used, I think there was still no regulatory policy with regards to data privacy. So they were able to use extracting from marketing campaigns and really identify where these voters are. But in the Philippines the reality is you don't need to really break it down because the key demographic here is social class. I've always argued that these are people that tend to shift the vote and surveys, qualitative quantitative surveys and even qualitative studies will tell you that when they look for the respondents. So that this where data mining is. It's how you analyze and identify where these people are. Then you build a campaign to communicate to these people. That's the value of data mining in political communication. You can target you can target your audience. You can fine-tune your message depending on based on what they want. So people don't even know that wow wow galing naman ni candidate ay itong inahanap ko nila alam inaral pala sila. And it's no different from how campaign advertising has evolved. Inaral mo na ang butante based on the candidate. Then the campaign team or the campaign advertising team creates that ad. But data mining brings it to a higher level specific target because advertising is now what we call blankyap. Tamaan natin ko sinong nanunood na TV show na itong now it reaches you because of social media. And it becomes a powerful tool not only for elections but for any policy initiative or advocacy that any political group would like to do in any society today. And not just in politics ay I suppose also in commerce galing good. So whether they're politicians or sabong panlaba. True, I taught a course in political marketing as an elective course but I took it from the marketing, the business marketing principles. So basically it's just that in this case you're not selling panlaba you're selling a person and you're talking to a voter. So that's where the demographics might change. Sorry, I have to move on na, minsakasin na pa pa ako sa kwentuhan. Gemma, your thoughts. So and big data so I look at it so there are two things that we need to think about. First because of social media everybody in effect became a publisher. I mean like anybody with a Facebook or YouTube account and anybody can create one. They can create content and they can push content out there and that's data. Every piece of content out there is data and you generally publish that to various audiences. Some of that is public, public posts which can really reach a big audience then at the same time there's also behavioral data that can be used to create a model of you. And that data is actually the one that's more invasive. So in the past I was saying in the past with traditional media you don't know what you actually read who actually read this piece or like this piece. But now it's not you know I mean the companies know they know what which ones read which content was read by whom and when and they know when somebody reacted a certain way like even the amount of time it takes for that person to react to something that's not that's something that is collected. So that data is used I mean by the companies to trigger responses from people and generally it's a response to get you liking more right? So there's that but there's also the public data that is used to call sentiment meaning like when you post something you hate somebody then there are techniques for collecting that and for deriving insight from that so that's also another it's both good and bad at the end of the day technology is a tool but increasingly the problem really is because of the profit motivation because it's used to it's not even just the groups that are participating in this space in the campaign space the platforms themselves become in a way participants in the whole process because of the way the platforms are designed so if you like more a particular person or engage more with a set of people who are posting about a particular party likely more likely you will get more of that so you get a different view of reality from others so those are the implications of data and data gathering that is that needs to be of particular interest to everybody because all of that has influence in the election outcomes Gemma let me ask you something that Andrew brought in the idea that both a boon and a bane you're echoing that and you're amplifying that doesn't this you did mention it's a tool but doesn't this make you feel like you're being manipulated is there any is there any reason to be concerned with the money and all that ano the dangers really is in the fact that you don't really know so anybody can create an account for one thing deba so technically that space can be people or can be other can be ano can be not people but just suck puppets like puppets like accounts that are created but actually manipulated or managed by a single person so multiple ano marami yan deba that is being done and or there might be bots that were used to create that so the thing there is that do people even know that something that is posted by somebody by an account was posted by a real person that's first ano how do you distinguish the other part is the content itself correct deba is it verified and we see quite a lot of that that's the rise of this information it's the rise of what we call fake news and that is being used to manipulate now as you get more of that you get you get fooled by a particular particular claim or ano narrative because of your behavior on social media you might actually be getting deeper and deeper into that whole thing and you don't know if you're if you're not aware you don't know so that's the danger getting deeper into the rabbit hole kong baga yes so that's the danger and and that can be used that can be misused Andrew let me bring you in teka you mentioned Kirina Andrew Andrew Pasigana you know it's becoming frightfully accurate I find that interesting that you used the phrase frightfully accurate and and actually normally being used in a positive way but it's becoming frightfully accurate and it's both a boon in a bane taking off from all the discussions so far pala eh eh at what point should we say at what point should we say that's enough data mining you're mining too much data from the viewers the listeners the watchers the participants on Facebook or social media whatever looking at what we read what we browse and all that and feeding us more of what you think we want well basic question is this something to be concerned about or is this something to work on and how do you work on that well I say frightfully accurate because our margin of error is less than 2% that's why whatever shows about 98% plus accuracy but just to just a caveat na I'm not a data scientist I'm not a data analyst I'm here to talk about the platforms of the presidentials okay so just will just get that out of the way so that people know what what my track or what my role here really is but having said that I think that it's become social media and the company over social media has become so prevalent and become the main source of information especially as Dino said that the majority of our market are of the D social economic class I mean we talk about the D class those are households with incomes of 20,000 to about 40,000 44,000 pesos a month no for a family of five so these are the people who we're talking about okay and the data further shows that 86% of this voting universe have not exceeded high school level in terms of education so you can imagine how how impressionable this chunk of voters are okay and I think to a great degree data analytics is being used and abused and bended and manipulated to this voting block by means of half truths and lies so again I would like to I would like to say that social media only says one aspect or one one part of the story but really we have to rely also on debates on interviews on the website itself and study the material what is the social economic plans of these candidates because at the end of the day social economic plan is a social pact those the social economic plan are the package of promises and the package the package of commitments so it's incumbent upon us to really look at that and not be dissuaded by promises on the internet are cheap anyone can make a promise and the promise or the tweet or whatever can be taken down the day after so there is an element of due diligence and incumbent on every voter so I'd be happy to talk about their plans and programs later on yeah but Andrew you make a very good point there that people should be looking at plans, programs and platforms and not just dissuade by not just dissuade by whatever you call it but it's sentiments and popular support for whichever candidate or what but let me ask you to say it out they it looks like to agree it looks like to agree the the ratings are being driven more by the second than the first I mean that's very obvious because because at the end of the day and Dindo will probably validate this it is really share of eyeballs and share of mind that wins the day of public opinion and the leading candidate has an overwhelming well yeah is way above no in terms of share share of mind and share of eyeballs in as far as the internet is concerned and social media but Ed may make a point no may make a point I think we should give value to the written word why because one candidate may have an extraordinary platform but may not be able to articulate it as well as the next candidate okay so the written word matters because this is a social path right I'd like to draw attention to to Ping Latson for instance no we've seen him in several campaign discourses we've seen him in KBP we've seen him in we've seen him with Jessica Soho and let's I just I'm just singling him out as an example no because he may not be the most fiery or articulate person and mind you I'm not I'm not campaigning for anyone I'm just stating a fact okay he may not be the most articulate he may not be the most animated but there is substance to what he's saying okay and I do your do I did my due diligence went to his website and it is a very impressive platform so that's what I'm saying right the the theatrics and then performance yeah social media noise are only one aspect of the equation it's really the written word actually I completely agree with you I think everybody agrees with you but that also latest in a conundrum at this particular point how many people bother to read well that's the that is the challenge that is the challenge that we're facing at the moment okay we'll circle back to that sure that's something that I'm sure everybody agonizes over every night I do that as well okay well na sa first question pala ang buta apat waitang natin sorry medyo nabapabay dintuan pero ito po what are the implications of big data companies collecting, analyzing and using data to influence political opinion in a way we've already touched on this but I'd like to mind your thoughts further on this yung collection, analyzing and using the data to influence political opinion for good or for bad may be a boon may be a bain what can you say about this and or maybe moving things forward what should we do about this if anything should be done at all dindo I'll go back to dindo it's as long as it does not violate our data privacy law because that is what's good with us did not have that when they were data mining so we had this law I think middle 2013 2014 if I remember it right so how can we use the data privacy law to regulate this companies it allows consent if you allow consent there's no problem when you don't know that you are being mined but of course with Facebook the moment you become a member I think there's a note there they own whatever you post there people did not did not realize that I think even with YouTube when you so the matter of fact that you wanted to be part of your platform you gave that consent and that's a reality but you thought it was free engaging with your friends without realizing that the business side of it is understanding you but I've tried to raise that with some of the representatives of some of these companies because these are corporate entities and they're denying that now since the fiasco so I really wouldn't know that they are using those their data mining for this purpose because it became a scandalous after the 2016 multiple elections around the world not only in the US but in Europe people were during the Brexit here in the Philippines because one of the companies that was data mining the Philippines and using it for a campaign it's called strategic communication laboratories suddenly removed the Philippines as one of their successful campaigns when those scandals happened in 2016 so I don't know if anyone will admit because right now you have to have to give your consent to the Filipinos but sir hindi ba hindi ba automatic na tung data mining I mean the fact that Facebook gives you what it thinks you like to read and what you like to write the algorithms but it's meant for you ang war ako sa data mining is when it's being used by somebody else to capture you that's the danger of data mining but right now the algorithms tells you your likes gives you some feeds that's where the challenge is is there a line to be drawn somewhere I mean just simply stay out of social media that's the only way will you and if I can interject Ed yes Andrew to be fair to the likes of Facebook and YouTube and Twitter they never said that they were the gatekeepers of truth as a matter of fact they went on record to say we are a technology company that is profit driven in other words their aim is to generate ads to give their stakeholders or their stockholders share value they never said they were the gatekeepers of the truth so again as Dindo said it's incumbent on us to do our homework and discern which to believe or which not to I think the problem is escalated to such a point wherein it is disinformation about disinformation and weaponizing the internet has escalated to such a point that it dictates governments it dictates world order it dictates national security so just in the same way after World War II the United Nations was convened to to establish protocols for national security sovereign domain and all that I think at some point we must or the international community must come together to establish protocols for disinformation because it could really make or break societies Pero sir wouldn't that be a tricky wouldn't that be a tricky and sticky question of determining to begin with what is disinformation and what is not I mean I'd like to think that we all agree that disinformation is bad disinformation is bad but then you have people who will look at the nitty-gritty and say that that's not disinformation that's my opinion As a journalist I have to make a distinction because I get so much information on a weekly basis I must make a distinction as to what is verifiable truth in other words backed by statistics or what is an opinion those are two different things so just in the same way that national national security sure national security issues were vague in 1943 to 1945 just before World War II in the same way we have to define what is disinformation and what is lies what is opinion and what is verifiable truth so I think that that day I think will come sooner than later but also the other sticky question is how far do you go in going after misinformation some people may might say that it's my right to believe in what is wrong I have a right to be wrong in other words that's also freedom of expression if I post something on social media I'm being the devil's advocate here of course if I post something on social media and I believe in this who are you to stop me or who are you to to climb down on me well of course it is a private it is a private medium so there's a little bit Ed with your point no, it's your right to post that but when it's an organized effort for me that's where the difference is when you have subtly show mispersonality showing political inclination comment social media influencers who did not you or who did not exist before 2015-2016 sadly becoming political analyst without even sorry to say Ed but mainstream media checking their background and giving them prominence so then you have and you can track it but when you they come out with something and you can see an organized support in comments in sharing it's a that is what we should be worried of because that means it's an organized communication to push a certain agenda in this case this information as Andrew said you can check facts you can have data to support it so it's good to have fact checking I'm going to jump in there because we're talking about fact checking so yes everyone has the right to free expression but they want to distinguish two things like you are you have the right to air your opinion yes but you are not Hindi right the platform in broadcast itself is not a right in having a platform is not a right not everybody has the right to be like broadcasted to millions and that's the reason why in the past with traditional media what happened was that traditional media was supposed to be vetted and it's not always good at vetting yes there are times when we air people who should not be should be fact check in the airwaves but at the same time there is some there's a process there when we select when there's a selection on who you actually interview and when somebody has been repeated lying most likely there's a consequence there but I would go into this first facts are not there are verifiable facts opinion opinion is different just because you said in your opinion the sun is shining doesn't mean the sun is shining it's you can go out there you can actually verify if the sun is out there that's a real fact or if you say that something happened at this time at this place that's something actually happened it doesn't mean the holocaust happened and that's not under debate so those things are not matters of opinion now the problem right now is there is no gatekeeping at all there's no verification at all what happens is that everybody basically you have a space that's really diversified the sources of content the sources of information and information content contains narratives messaging that influence voters that could influence voters so that's really very important and that's a big part of this I want to show Ed something that we've found from our research if you don't mind just to show you how exactly what is the actual impact of that so in the past you can see that in the past we have the traditional media you know where the sources are you may not always agree with them but you know who they are you can at least criticize them and hold them accountable but now with the social media space the sources of information are actually so dispersed now we compared the newsrooms for instance newsrooms on digital they're the red dots in that scatterplot and they're so drowned by the noise out there and the noise includes the brands the noise includes everybody else who is on Facebook and has a page and what does that mean you might actually be having mainstream media organizations ready to leasing themselves but everybody else is not bound by that and therefore could be affecting public opinion from a monitoring standpoint if you're not monitoring that you may come to the point when people vote and you don't know what happened because you are not seeing how that's moving so in a way the use of data for monitoring by journalists is very useful and very important very important to the coverage but at the same time the other part of that is that the other consequence of that is this in effect because you divorce the gatekeeping role sorry I'm just unsharing how do I sorry because you divorce the gatekeeping role from the there's no more gatekeeping role to that you're basically removing responsibility so you cannot it's really hard to hold parties accountable also in that digital space now platforms in a way sometimes they're not even the goal is just to increase engagement but because you are they're using that the algorithms are clustering people according to what they see is the profile of this person then in effect the platforms themselves are actually recruiting for the candidates so that is a very important difference between this space and the traditional media space I'd like to go back to your while ago this is Facebook that's Facebook so we look into we look into pages pages on Facebook and that includes pages of news organizations but we also track a lot of other pages brand pages company pages other communities out there things like that and they're all sending signals to the public so these are just the pages that does not even include all the accounts we're talking here about over 30,000 pages and as you can see here the newsrooms usually they're seen as the source information they're no longer the primary source they're no longer the primary source and then therefore as we are communicating we're trying to educate people or give nuances the conversations out there you might actually have an alternative universe where other things are being discussed and they have different realities and that's a very powerful thing tell me if I'm getting this right in this image is how news is getting overwhelmed by all the other everything, all the other pages in Philippine social media and Facebook to the green color being all the other data on Facebook and the news so you still have very big news groups but there are also small news groups and the audiences are different and all of that so the thing that social media empowers is very niche messaging so it might be that for a candidate for instance one message might be more powerful to a particular audience and that's delivered through another information source but for a different segment of the audience and we're not even talking ABC here very niche markets something else might be effective and all of those messages are being tested all the time, all of those messages are being circulated sometimes we don't know what are those messages that are being circulated so that's how different this space is now but the green dots this is not qualitative in any way this is quantitative page likes and interaction so we're talking here of reach of the content of these different pages it's not in reference to whether or not it's information or disinformation it's just basically the others it's basically everything that you're seeing but at the same time you're seeing a big part of that also are pages that are participating in that space and one thing to take into consideration is a lot of these might be celebrity pages but sometimes often seem quite a lot of them that are being used for campaigning mean pages as well have been used for campaigning history pages so very recently we've been tracking a number of history pages supposedly that are triggering posting things that are very nostalgic about the Philippines but they've been circulating messages that are favorable to a particular candidate so all of that are signals that the voters are receiving messages that the voters are receiving and that is affecting public opinion but Gemma looking at this this graph wouldn't the problem then lie on how so much of the public has turned to facebook for yes so part of it is like a significant part of the population now rely on facebook for nyo which makes this even more including the journalists including major workers yeah but it's not necessarily a condemnation of facebook and what it does network insight we're just talking here about impact and the reach of the messages like what is actually reaching people yes interesting graphic baka we can ask our other panelists sir dindo what do you think you can see it but what do you think of that table and what it means for us at the end hard to comment on the data that I'm not really familiar with but internally in our own team we do our own data analytics and I think it was mess it was mentioned in passing earlier at the time of the engagement so when we've noticed that since the filing of candidacy which was October and to our last read was January for the end of January you see that Marcos has an average of 60% dominating social media discussions so and maybe it shows also in the survey it was ranging 58 to 60 over 60% it was over to December so it just shows that if we will assume that he is pushing certain disinformation as that has been argued by some like he's the most qualified leader he's the most pro-poor Marcos was the best years legacy of Marcos was great so imagine if he was dominating exchanges across across different social media platforms he's shaping the mind of voters so everybody's playing a catch up second to him, far second was Vice President Leno Robredo at 28 to 30% in different period of the past months since October so just see where the battle is that's why I'm saying that these elections will be shaped not by mainstream media at it used to be because I remember they always said TV skin during election period now social media seems to be the dominant platform especially with 89 Filipinos in Facebook and YouTube and that's very dangerous when there is this information happening something that we had Pals Asia read for us is what is the source of news and last December we got that one of our questions for Pals Asia internet and social media has overtaken radio so it's now second source of news TV of course is still number one but second is internet it cross that cross it only from September it was still radio but when it hit December it was already internet so you'd see so much movement in one quarter alone and you can expect more until the end of the election it's been driven by the political campaigns but let me interject na in there yung PCIJ finding was that did not technically he did not spend a peso on Facebook ads but that's a very technical thing he did not buy the ad but something that we noticed is that social media influencers Kerry Marcos or Tony Gonzaga projecting to be a showbiz personality who is actually now the emcee of the campaign whose husband is the director of the ads that means they're part of campaigns so it's not Marcos who's doing that it was their production or what about this is the fascinating thing sick but fascinating Facebook groups who had nothing to do with politics suddenly are all endorsing Marcos are you saying that these Facebook groups are being sold or being bought so that's what I'm saying it's a different game you cannot measure it based on how many people paid for an ad in TV networks even that has been rendered obsolete already I remember when I was in PCIJ we would look at that all the time and what's done for radio, TV and social media what makes a successful campaign ad is when people think it's natural authentic Marcos is not buying any spot but our friend in TV5 before who is a commentator in what PTV4 what with 5-10 million followers you might know who I'm referring to I will not comment who is endorsing does he give it for free that endorsement that's a Facebook following of 10 million between him and a brother just imagine who are those brothers that's what I'm saying I refuse to incriminate myself I would add in relation to that we're not even just talking about the current content we're not talking about share of voice at Rappler we did this whole investigation into the how are the the pages or the groups that are circulating messaging about particular politicians and the Marcos really have a significant number of social media influencers and pages that are posting content that are really favorable to the Marcos and are and significantly a large chunk of that information or hateful messaging so for instance the gold that's been in Facebook for years like years Facebook and YouTube and people believe and people believe them the question about Nutriban which was fact checked again we said there's so many times already that Nutriban claim that's been circulated for since we've been tracking this 2014 we saw there's this increase in the creation of groups that are like this history groups pages that are like fan pages of the Marcos and then we're not even talking of the ones that Dindo said where that used to be history pages then they shifted we've tracked them, we saw them so it's not about just advertising in a traditional way as defined by Facebook but it's the content it's a native content that is actually more powerful let me ask you this question I want to know if there's any answer I suppose in undertaking these strategies these candidates especially the one that is leading right now was able to or did his best to track behaviors, sentiments maybe go through big data to be able to come out with this strategy I mean of the other candidates they never bothered this kind of a strategy for example the micro influences all that from the traditional advertising na punta doon sa vlogger na dating life coach or vlogger na dating musikero and so on the line did we see a shift somewhere yes I've tracked campaigns to the years, it's one of my hobbies so what's unique with Senator Marcos the son of the dictator can I say that no, because we were just playing with is that he uses qualitative and quantitative I know he's a poster personally he started with me in track with, he's a foreign poster so his first operation in the Philippines was with me so data is very important, so it's a very intelligent campaign he was the one who helped him in 2010 helped him in 2016 so data is important and understanding but what was unique with them also is maybe they knew mainstream media cannot be a tool for shaping the narrative for them so they found a way so this was 2015 they will not pass your standards or the standards of decent Filipino so they decided to circumvent it nearly made it in 2016, but there was a pushback you're fighting an administration machine also of President Aquino that's that pure VP Lenny camp that's Aquino administration machine that fought that victory of Marcos so now, maybe the problem was while everybody was focused on Duterte and VP Lenny even was focused on her recount Marcos was seeding this in social media it did not stop so it was then is he really that popular my point is he's at 51-52% according to our data last December he's not he's popular because the supporters Duterte and his supporters merged if there was a Sara Duterte in the ticket in the ballot now he would be at maybe a tight second or a tight first with Sara but their votes consolidated that's why it looks strong but the strength of that is both of them have strong social media machine Marcos we have trapped as 8.3 million fanatic followers at Duterte of 26 million for the past 5 years imagine that forces joining together that's a powerful machine that nobody has seen something to think about is this you have a candidate or a family that has political baggage and that's something that mainstream media is not likely to forget so I really agree with that idea like some of the messages and actually a lot of the messages that are being circulated would not pass master in terms of the editorial vetting process of mainstream media but in social media and this is part of a technique propaganda technique that the Russians actually used the fire hose would technique what is that it's multi-channel so messages are repeated over and over again it lacks commitment objective reality but that makes it more agile it just needs to respond to a message regardless of whether the messaging is through or not you just need to respond to the message because of that the bind is very effective let me bring in Andrew Andrew we keep on going back to the idea that we want to talk about platforms you want to talk about positions you want to talk about policies will we ever get there well you know what actually we are there okay it's already in the public in public conversation and this is one thing that I'd like to underscore and really highlight candidate Lenny has come up last December with her hand of boys a lahat which I think is a very well crafted socioeconomic plan in that it tackles the core problems of the country in one fell swoop the core problems as you know poverty, joblessness, hunger and income inequality has come up just last month with his 10 point is cost plan which I think is also very sensible although if I may comment about of course all the plans have pros and cons but about cost plan is cost plan is really a spending plan okay and my question to is cost camp is where the hell are we going to get the money now that our debt levels are 63% of GDP so I like Ping Laxons approach to his socioeconomic plan because he starts off with an internal cleansing okay he recognizes that the core problems of the country are of course the debt levels hunger and unemployment and he attributes all that to corruption okay and from there he springs off to other strategies in other words everything towards a clean and reliable and corrupt free government is what Ping Laxons is all about Paquiao Paquiao has a very extensive one 22 points all mother statements no details so I can't really comment interestingly Marcos has no socioeconomic plan not on his website not on print media not on any internet and narrative so how he is at 50% is really baffling no because here he is without a plan lording it over the ratings so that's something to think about but Andrew that's precisely my question will we ever get there I ask that in the sense that will we ever get to an elected official who really plan that's what the debates are for that's why the debates the debates are supposed to to clear uncertainties to make platforms known to eliminate gray areas but for some reason Marcos doesn't seem the need to attend these debates perhaps because he thinks it will do more damage than good I don't know it's just speculating but that's the reality he's the man without the plan without the plan okay I'm sorry we're going over time already I need to shift gears kira pagmasa din masan usapan okay okay we're now entertaining questions from our audience in the Q&A session now for this section we'll also be joined by Dean Arminda V. Sanchago Dean Army may remarks at the top of the program but before we start reading off some of our viewers questions that's first share how our audience answered our fun quiz earlier with our mentimeter poll results and you can see on your screens like we said earlier the bigger fonts reflect the words or the phrases that had the most votes so analysis is probably number one and number six followed by surveillance data of FD information numbers privacy and so on and so forth if you want you can screen grab this or you can capture this so you can look at the results in more detail as we go along so that's for the first question of the mentimeter poll results do we have the results of the second question already, here we go for the second question malalaman ba ang kabuang sentinyan ang mga botanpe mula sa political service lamang 67% said no, sorry, not percent 67, 67 voters said hindi 6 voters said so correction, hindi po 67% napapaglitong hindi nyan 67 voters hindi ang po so morami sa kanila na kusabi hindi mo ako ang kabuang sentinmiento na mga botanpe sa political service lamang okay, so we see how most of our viewers have voted so far, we will go back to that mentimeter data as we go along with the program do we go into the Q&A do we have oh, well sirs, ma'am, meron bakayong comments so far results so far or should we go to the Q&A na kasi maraming mga talong nalumakalabasa sa Q&A baka gusto naman e'yo doon siguro, let's go na to the Q&A para hindi tayo na gagahul sa oras okay, I'll go into the Q&A now from Nonoy Ativo the DICT 2019 survey of interdict availability pegs the Philippines at only 12% 146 barang guys have quality internet access data says 70 million Filipinos have internet access but that only counts accessing the internet in the past so many days data shows that there is little quality and unknown regularity of a majority of Filipinos that are really online how then can social media impact 20% of elections given the low reach of internet in the Philippines in quick ano lang we've heard time and again more and more Filipinos are online but it appears that the internet access in terms of quality is not really that good kung hindi ko ng kaganda ang quality of internet access could social media have an impact on the elections given the poor quality yes sir imagine anyone in this webinar now just look at your kasambahay your employees, your staff who are class D they were given social media access to prepaid card so this internet that is low the reason why our internet is low is because so many users and do you know that there was a study just published 2 weeks ago by we are social everybody follows this who tries to understand in the daily time spent using the internet oh yes and that's not me I'm quoting a data, an international data so ba sa mahiili kasi tayo to comment how negative it is we're not realizing because we're all downloading YouTube there, we're all downloading it's not the text anymore that's why our telco failed to adjust to the demand of this but our urban area just look at where Marcos is doing very well in surveys he hit 64% in mega manila and mega manila is a ground zero of internet use or even urban areas so I think we have to factor in that in terms of 89 million already maybe these are fake accounts but the weird fact is 89 million people sharing text responding it creates a certain momentum and in a pulse asia survey 57 56% use the internet as a source of news of course television is 92 but imagine radio at 39 so at times maybe our government data is delayed in terms of accepting certain reality so the telcos are big companies because they see that the rise of e-commerce the rise of use of internet during the pandemic also so we have to factor those realities and also that gives a new meaning to the phrase big data download nang video malaki taliyang data okay Gemma or Andrew would you like to pitch in dun sa tanong ngayon with the quality of internet engagement so low how big an impact could social media have on 2022 I think internet penetration well more than 75% of the population are in urban centers and internet is readily available in urban centers so for me it is accessible to the greater majority which is the reason why the penetration is I disagree that the penetration is low as a matter of fact I think on the wake or on the back rather of free data provided by the telcos it's become accessible to the majority and siguro ano ano ano if quality of engagement and quality of internet browsing is so low that makes people more vulnerable to misinformation you also have to consider at the seeding of narratives on the marcos camp that started many many years ago as someone mentioned as early as 2014 I think it was Gemma who mentioned as early as 2014 they identified the manipulation of narratives in history sites so there you have it 6 years or maybe even 7 years of brainwashing will really take it stolen on public opinion I'll go a little bit further back as far as early as 2011-2012 we were already noticing YouTube videos retelling the EDSA narrative and these were very very well produced videos well researched may mga ano pa archival content pa nation chitunes catchy sound bites ang galing nang takagawa it fits a short attention span also instead of watching documentary in db networks being shown at 12 o'clock midnight or 10 o'clock midnight this one target a certain audience with a few minutes of narratives sir galing talaga napakakagawa ang sabiw ang adate ang words primary color simple graphic ang sara panorin what resources can buy nakakagiging yung content pero ang sara panorin but it also goes to show the what's the word the can I use the word maliciousness of itong I mean from 11 years ago seeding the internet this is a concerted effort design to put us into this place this is all by design okay let's move on to okay are there remainers of the Cambridge analytical strategies in our may 2022 elections coming from Invictus Benaventura does anybody remember of course we all remember Cambridge Analytica so familiar anymore with the strategies that they proposed they use so they use a combination they don't use behavioral data lang but they claim they have multiple data points and that all those data points combined I think thousands yung sinabi in the case of the American voter and that's used to target to target narratives particular messages to voters now we know in the Philippines of course the mark was confinitis but we know that they did reach out to Cambridge Analytica we don't know if they finally but this was mentioned by one of the whistleblowers one of the whistleblowers of Cambridge Analytica so we know that they reached out now was that consumed dinilinayon ng mga markers but what we know is that the election this campaign itself the seeding of these narratives it's very sophisticated very precise very niche so there are things that will appeal to more educated people there are things that will target ordinary citizens obviously educated people probably will not believe yung taliyano gold or anong that's not going to apply but there are other messages like the nostalgia about martial law the messaging about how it would have been better and so on and all of that I want to emphasize the point it's really what's effective niche messages not very broad messages but niche messages that are tailored to particular audiences targeted question from Ann June Magnae how can we define political analysts at sinaba yung mga matatahog na political analysts alam mo that's a good question kasi even among us journalists and in TV it's a question now sinabang analyst at sinong hindi at sinong dapat ituring na analyst at sinong man on the street kong baga sinong ibarbero I can answer I'll try to answer that I would not like to be invited if I did not get trained 26 years as an associate professor in a university teaching political marketing electoral politics as an analyst even in the academy we used to joke when some of our colleagues or in political culture nipanga into election suddenly comes out on TV or an international relations expert talking about elections I used to joke at kung sino-sino na lang but what's worse was after 2016 are the so-called social media influencers turning themselves into political analysts and that's where the sad part is and the funny thing is I was questioned by one TV news director with head of a network said problem hu kasi sa inyo professor masyanda kayong academy kasi to mga analysts na to maybe you know that news director but incriminate myself but sabi ko academy analyst may theoretical framework may data this one are basically propagandist that you put on TV so there na problem sir we've had a lot of discussion about this within our circle in our small circle may discussion kami about this and our agreement was that stop using the phrase political analysts, let's just use the credentials yes the person that we are talking to for example chairman political science department so on and so forth thinking pinoy kailan naman naging analyst at thinking pinoy or si sasa sasnot when do they become political analysts when do they become quoted by people or Trichsicruceangeles I have just naming some names that started coming out since 2016 kasi the phrase political analyst is so widely used parang lahat na ng barbaro analyst na our agreement among ourselves is we just use the credentials as a better to identify an analyst without calling him an analyst that way may not have the academic credentials but was part of think tanks or civil society organization but that's a credential every blogger became analyst because she has 50,000 followers that came out of nowhere until 2016 in the analyst propagandist civil society looks like a hyper yes informed si ma instead of saying political analyst we just put your title and you're in your enough since you mentioned hyper Ramon Casiple who's not an academic but he's an activist media used to call him professor because he was a drop off because he was an activist like a professor he was a human rights activist and you have to give credit to that kind of analyst experience as you mentioned he was the executive director of hyper before he retired ang tawagang saka yung malu pabansang chismoso a question directed to Gemma from Nonoy Ativo ma'am Gemma I think he quotes you here does not have the right to broadcast one's opinions to millions and si Nonoy Ativo asks can I get more clarity on this? Is this the basis traditional media? Where did this come from? Thanks so freedom of expression technically you can speak out but as a person ang sinasabi mo what you say can only be unlimited by like your audience who had broadcast audience before that was like traditional media those were the publications the radio stations now ngayon anybody has that broadcast capacity so we even see quite a lot of these user accounts thousands of followers one particular account in fact that we've been looking at because it's been it's been targeting traditional media in atak he has 180,000 followers so that kind of following is almost like one of the local media networks local news organizations na sa province 20,000 followers pero they're expected to follow certain guidelines na ito wala so that power is what I mean it can be taken away in traditional media ABSCBN was not given a franchise supposedly because of certain violations we are held accountable that can be taken away that broadcast power can be taken away okay well I'm sorry we're running overtime again so I have to catch up I have to play catch up again we only have time for one last question so we'll make this a fast round for everybody also in the panel the question is do you think that big data will devalue political campaigning to mirror algorithms or enhance it to be more responsive to the voting population so you think that big data will devalue the idea of political campaigning algorithms ang bayan or will it make it more responsive it will enhance any campaign to be more responsive but what do we mean by responsive to get the support of those voters so they will have a better understanding and a better way to communicate by targeting a specific demographics of voters din army, baka ano you'd like to pitch in as well that question do you think that big data will devalue political campaigning to mirror algorithms or enhance it to be more responsive to the voting population well algorithms are very useful anything that you can use to look at trends I don't think that it will it will fade it's a very useful instrument actually but I suppose the question also wants to ask the potential for misuse I think dun ang parang gusto nang tanong as well could it be misused for information for educating people but what's the danger of big data as well being misused whether it's in politics or for commercial purposes I think the algorithm sorry the algorithm lends itself to being misused on a commercial political basis or commercial purpose political purpose whatever I'm waiting for the day when an agency such as the ad board or the KBP who polices and gate keeps the truth in as far as advertising is concerned in as far as network network content is concerned will be adapted to social media until such time the algorithm will become more and more efficient towards controlling the hearts and minds and preferences of the target audience whether it's towards a product, a politician, an idea or whatever jumping in lang on that so again it's a very powerful tool but I think it's power lies in when people are not aware of the fact that it could be misused it's really very important that people become aware of that and then push back at the platforms when needed if there's really maline algorithms that are being kind of biased for biased for certain maline purposes like this information or hey so it's two things and what it calls for really in the case of elections, a different kind of vote watching it's not enough anymore to just watch the vote like watch if it's being counted because the fact is the vote is being manufactured already in the space of social media the sentiment that is all being stoked, a particular sentiment is being stoked and the narratives are being seeded that's all connecting already to the outcome so even if you watch at the end stage the actual voting that's too late if you're not monitoring in a more sophisticated way so this is really important now as we develop these sophisticated tools are introduced and they are tools for the public and people of city sense journalists we need to be more conscious of that and we need to be watchful and watchful in a different way we need to be more sophisticated in monitoring this space some very good points awareness being so key like it or not when you go on Facebook, social media I'm just here to read we tend to interact and engage we don't know how our data is being used and we don't know how it's being pushed back to us and how it's affecting us so it goes back to sentiment sentiment analysis some people I suppose a lot of people I suppose tend to go with the flow tend to go with the bandwagon so if they notice a trend they end up jumping on the trend and going with the flow actually we have to develop a voters literacy type of program if we have media literacy information literacy perhaps it has to be fine tuned to voters literacy and also include digital citizenship because actually as you said we jump into trends etc we don't really know what we are getting into and also not really understanding like how we are being used so I think we should develop that aspect for voters literacy and not only during elections it has to be a whole program with or without elections okay well thank you very much to everybody on our panel to end our Q&A session we will be asking each of you words we will give you a moment to think about your parting words as we flash our zoom panel evaluation poll on this screen yes po may alam tayong zoom panel evaluation form for those of you who are on zoom kayo pa yung mapita nito for those of you who are on facebook or youtube I'm afraid you will not be able to see this just a quick run through lang po five questions please answer them number one the panelists demonstrated thorough knowledge of the topic please vote strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree number two second question the panelists were well prepared and organized strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree the panelists spoke clearly and audibly again the same choices strongly agree going down to strongly disagree second to last question the panelists used appropriate language technical jargon adequately explained again choices from strongly agree to strongly disagree and the last question the panelists contributed to the perspectives and the knowledge on data and sentiment analysis also one choice from strongly agree down to strongly disagree so please take this moment to answer this quick poll to show our panel our great appreciation for their time and their energy and their efforts they've graciously taken the time from their very effective schedules to be with us today so we will leave this poll open so you can continue keying in your answers again po hindi sya right minus wrong so do not be afraid to put in to plug in your answers as we proceed for our program with our program now for the parting words we begin with Dean Anami Sanchago of the college of mass communications yes so we na ilatag na po sa atin mga dapat natin maunawaan and our experts really discussed thoroughly aspects that are important and perhaps later you can communicate with them directly if there are more things that you have to say but what is most important is we have to be diligent diligent voters we should use our intellect not being how to say to swap by the the strong stream of whatever sentiment that we have that's all okay thank you Dean Anami Andy Masigan I know you wanted to talk at greater length about the platforms of the candidates no worry we will have that in subsequent but for now can you give us your final words no problem there will be another time for that I just want to let the listeners know or be aware that there are pocket masters behind every digital campaign and be aware that this is an orchestrated effort which have been planned for a long period of time so be judicious and be diligent do your homework again I refer to the platforms because this is the basis of leadership of the candidates please take the time to please take the time to study them because at the end of the day that's what the candidates have to offer thank you wag pa pa facebook facebook lang okay jema bakayawa mendoza so my message is to make informed choices need to have reliable sources of information and currently because of the fact that the platforms and big data and social media have been abused there's a whole I mean it's difficult to make informed decisions so it's really important to be looking at this platform because of their potential impact on the elections recently we've launched a campaign a collaboration working with multiple sectors media, fact checkers researchers legal professionals and civil society groups so that information verified information and credible information sources will be amplified and that fact checks themselves will be amplified so it's really important moving into the election so please be watchful okay of course we have professor dindo van hit sir for everyone thank you for this opportunity and organizers but I just would like to emphasize one fact since 2016 we've had what I call a pandemic of misinformation or disinformation and as we enter the election season on second day to day keep in mind that social media that has been an important tool for us to communicate to our friends, to our networks have been weaponized to disinform I even would like to use to hack our minds we in this forum might have that capacity not to be influenced that way but let's find a way to engage people and to stop the spread of this information because elections are very important its shapes are future it tells us the direction that we want what if we make the wrong choices because we never understood just nothing behind but then candidate as what Andrew was saying earlier so it's time for us to take our part as active citizens we have to stop this disinformation and shape really the election based on the substance of the candidate on all the candidates thank you again for this opportunity okay thank you professor dindo don't let facebook do the choosing for you so thank you very much to all our speakers at season for all of you we appreciate that you have shared your wisdom and your time for our webinar today you are now sharing the evaluation poll results and as expected as expected great percentage of our viewers have given very high marks for our panel question number one panelist demonstrated sorrow knowledge of the topic strongly agree 75% agree 24% so satay don't well prepared and organized 71% strongly agree 27% agree don't worry, wala naman strongly disagree or disagree number three the panelist spoke clearly and audibly ako lang siguro ang hindi strongly agree 73% and agree is 27% and number four panelist used appropriate language with technical jargon 68% strongly agree 32% agree and then the last question panelist contributed to the perspectives and knowledge on data and sentiment analysis 74% strongly agree and 25% agree so there very good numbers for today's poll and we're also launching our post test menti meter poll let's take a quick look at what it looks like dalawa naman na tanong ito wait let me turn this down first okay for the first question what are the words that you associate with big data number one is manipulation number one is manipulation but I think more or less manipulation analytics statistics and data analysis and possibly social media so those are the words associated strongly with the phrase big data for the second question malaman ba ang kabuang sentimental mga botante mula sa political service 21 na nagsasabing hindi isa ang ko so yun po marahin pa rin talaga ang rinivalang hindi mo nalaman ng kabuang sentimental mga botante mula sa mga political service isa mo sa that's an important qualifier dun sa lamang okay we will keep the post test open in the background and proceed with our program now it's my distinct pleasure to introduce to you the vice president for public affairs of the UP system and the president of the Philippines communication society please welcome professor Elena Pernaia hello hello Ed hello to Dindo to Gemma, Andrew and mom army thank you for being here this overlaps for sharing your lunch hours this episode of our national forum series on communication and democracy had our resource persons discuss how data and analytics may impact our 2022 Philippine elections the webinar began with definition of terms data analysis, data analytics sentiments, sentiment analysis sentiment analytics there's some clarification of their distinct differences where analysis pertains to the examination of gathered information with the goal of discovering what are useful in forming conclusions and supporting data decision making there is a science to analytics analyzing raw data in order that conclusions may be made from these gathered information our moderator Ed Lingao then engaged our resource persons professor Dindo Manhit economist and political analyst Andrew Masigan and multimedia journalist Gemma Mendoza in a round table discussion that tackled such a wide variety of topics from surveys data analytics, social media campaign messaging political analysts influencers candidates platforms I will do my very best to synthesize their main points but my strong advice to all of you is to review the entire episode which will remain in the TV UP YouTube channel what is the value of data whether these are gathered by quantitative or qualitative methods for elections candidates use survey data as these are necessary to craft a voter centered campaign without a doubt surveys conducted in a scientific manner produce accurate data capable of giving a snapshot of current opinions and even projecting trends in opinions across a variety of demographic groups but there are doubts and questions about their validity and their utility surveys and big data can provide a glimpse into what people are thinking and feeling about the candidates hence this data can be useful for both the candidates and the voters as they give us an impression of what they can be and what they might be in the future however while these data are useful we should all be cautious in interpreting and using these information some surveys are questionable because of their design particularly the way questions are asked and also the way that the respondents are sampled the same caution must be made about using sentiment analysis because the opinions of those who did that post sentiments are not accounted for so what is really the big picture is in question Sentiments have a social cultural dimension for example if you look at patriotism as a sentiment and sentiment analysis uses the mechanical processes and algorithms to make sense of what are being posted again these are useful in making projections and creating messages but then as our opening speaker pointed out these projections can change in a breeze opinions especially during election campaign periods may likewise change sentiment analysis offers data for real time election monitoring and prediction what sentiment analysis does is to mind public posts and send them into positive and negative and there lies their utility sentiments that are put in the digital space have been increasingly showing importance as research indicates large numbers of the adult population get their political news and information from these large spectrum of social media pages where there is no negate keeping of news and information it seems that the legitimate newsrooms the pages of news groups have been drowned out the digital space has brought on a lot of change the election campaign battle is in fact in this digital space mining the data in this digital space allows niche micro marketing graphics in political campaigns these allow for giving information on who and where the voters are and what their specific needs and preferences are as pointed out by our esteemed professor manhid in the case of philippine elections the key demographic is the economic class D without a doubt the digital space the social media are valuable because it is in this digital space that we are able to measure precisely because they are digital it is we are able to measure information and sentiments there this according to our multimedia journalist Gemma Mendoza on the optimistic side the social media platforms are liberalizing tools and alternative communication media for empowering citizens for an impact can strengthen democracy by echoing public opinion but as our economist and political analyst and rumasegan points out data analytics can be a boon in a bang data analytics can be frightfully accurate the boon is you do get an accurate picture of what's out there but on the negative side using the data allows for a constructed reality data analytics can be used and abused with half truths and lies theatrics, sentiments, ratings social media noise is just one aspect of the elections what is important and valuable for democracy is the written word the substance, the plans and the platforms of the candidates but these again are drowned out because some campaign messages and narratives are the ones that are floating these narratives which do not pass the standards of the media circumvent the editorial processes by finding life in the social media platforms hence it has become exasperating that the platforms of these candidates and other substantial leadership issues do not get the proper exposure will we ever have can we expect an elevation of the Philippine election discourse well the main lesson is the ball is with us it is incumbent on us the voting public to do diligence about the candidates to dig for the truth an enlightened citizen free is the key to democracy and hence there is an unquestionable need to develop voters literacy not only during this time of election but at all times and especially if they are integrated into our formal and non-formal education as a parting shot I'd like to address our audience whether you are young or not so young it bears repeating that your vote our vote is a decision on our collective future why? because the persons we give our vote to will have a huge impact on six years of our lives six years truly is a long time so please take the advice to go to see beyond the theatrics and the sentiments be aware go to reliable sources of information do not fall for constructed realities learn to recognize misinformation and disinformation do your fact checking importantly be active engage with others to stop the disinformation thank you very much for your attention and I hope that your afternoon was truly enlightened thank you very much maraming salamat po Professor Nenny Perna be active not passive and do your own fact checking some things to keep in mind for that concise and on point synthesis maraming salamat po Professor Perna we are now sharing the post test test results for our viewers tinapayong I think final result okay I think the biggest word there or phrase there is delete Facebook I didn't see that a while ago it seems to me the biggest word or phrase there is that garnered the most number of votes from our viewers the others are of course analytic social media data analysis and analysis but no. 1 delete Facebook and the second question okay malalaan ba ang kabuang centimero na nga butante mula sa mga political service lamang 20p say in de at isa po same po as you can see on your screens there is a distinct increase in knowledge and understanding of the issues based on the post test results those who have actively participated in most of this interactive program now as we mentioned earlier this webinar is part of the series of the national forum on communication and democracy Philippine elections 2022 the PCS will be having a webinar every second Wednesday of the month until May 2022 or election month so please do marker calendars next month we'll be featuring keeping in check the power of technology giants at your host and moderator so please stay tuned for more updates on the PCS website or on the PCS Facebook page so please save the date now if you would like to watch this or all the other previous webinars in playback all the webinars in this series will be available for viewing at your convenience at the tv up youtube channel so anytime anywhere you can access the previous webinars now this formally it brings to a close the 7th national forum on communication and democracy Philippine elections 2022 we do look forward to your company again every second Wednesday of the month from 12 noon to 2pm manila time this is Edling Gao from tv 5 on behalf of the Philippines communication society that has strengthened our country's democratic foundations through communications thank you