GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS: A Social Media and Broadcasting Training for Migrant Organizations and Advocates

It is no secret with the current digital landscape that online platforms are the way to go to boost whatever message one would like to deliver.

This fact has inspired the conducting of a training series on online broadcasting and social media with an emphasis on Youtube, Facebook, and Podcasting. Representatives from various migrant workers’ organizations in the Asia Pacific came together last April 16, 2022, to sharpen their skills in this arena. This two-part training series organized by Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) aimed to help migrant and refugee organizations in utilizing social media in advocacy, campaign, and organizing work. The training sessions were also meant to strengthen their coordination with one another to assist in launching online programs.

For the first installment, APMM brought on Marjohara Bucay, a Filipino child’s rights advocate and a community journalist in Altermidya. Aside from his current activities, he has a background in working in media from his days of being an Editor-in-Chief of the Philippine Collegian, the University of the Philippines - Diliman’s official student publication. Shiela Bonifacio, Gabriela Hong Kong Chairperson and host of Talakayang Migrante, was brought on along with Marjohara for the second installment of the series.

All grown up: A question of online platforms for advocacy

Bucay would begin by stressing the omnipresence of social media in today’s context. He states, “Most people are on social media.” It is not an understatement to say that the largest social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram host a behemoth amount of people and data.

In this sea of information, they are reminded of the fact that while they may use these platforms to boost their campaign, at the end of the day it is a business that operates under a complex algorithm that the lay organizer has no access to.

Speaking of circles, this was the obvious shift that Bucay pointed out when observing social media consumption. People are now able to curate what they see and talk to who they want to talk to. As the internet got bigger, the public became less interested in seeing content meant for a general audience. They became more interested in protecting their spaces due to the onslaught of data privacy concerns that came to light. In short, these platforms became more segmented over time.

Overcoming the digital gap

Effective online advocacy work is built on having knowledge of the best practices of using social media and online broadcasting tools. For social media, it is important to plan a digital campaign strategy that examines how people use social media. There should be recognition that people are generally averse to wordiness. These days, the name of the game is on image-based and video-based content, the latter of which being “the way forward for content creators.”

Bucay goes more in-depth with podcast creation in the second installment. In order to be successful in launching a podcast, it is important to keep in mind that it must be real, relatable, recognizable, and routine. Having a consistent output of unique content that speaks to the audience is necessary to establishing a loyal listening base.

Live streaming is another recommended way to reach out to an audience. If the podcast is personal because there you can hear someone from the organization, what more when there is video involved? To start, Bucay shared the technical aspect of setting up a Live video for both platforms. He also shared the more advanced method which is to use platforms like OBS Studio, mimoLive, and Streamyard.

In the second training session, much was discussed about the actual practice of utilizing the popular broadcasting platform Streamyard. Shiela Bonifacio talked in depth about how to use the features of the application before and during a broadcast, bringing with her the knowledge acquired as a host of Talakayang Migrante.

Sites like these have useful tools that create more dynamic visual presentations as well as audience interactions on popular social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. The participants were interested in the technical considerations that a site like this would entail like if it would affect computer performance or if the recording can be possible on different account setups. It is understandable that these kinds of questions would come up given how advanced some of these features may seem to those beginning their journey to creating live-streamed content. As compared to its more popular sibling Zoom, Bonifacio states that “You can post so many things in Streamyard, unlike Zoom that is limited to the layout. In Streamyard, it’s already there.”

Aside from planning and expanding our circle, each organization should also think about developing a voice or brand. It should be distinct so that the audience can easily recognize who is speaking and so that they can build a relationship with them. To concretize this, organizations can make a style book that will be infused into all the content that they put out. When asked about its importance, “The internet is such a wide space that you’re competing for attention with all this content in social media.”

Beyond the screen: Online campaigning’s limitations and offline solutions

However effective these strategies are at improving our online campaigns, we have to go back to what was said at the beginning of the presentation. Social media is a platform for campaigns, not the campaign itself.

What organizers have to keep in mind is how they should reach those who don’t use social media. More than this, how does one convert social media presence into concrete actions? One should think about the shortcomings of these online means when it comes to concerns like disinformation and trolls. At the end of the day, these platforms are “participatory” but it is still a business. Given the profit-driven nature of social media content production, distribution and consumption, it cannot be the only means we use to organize.

Bucay stressed that there should be a premium placed on people’s stories. These types of stories can be discovered and disseminated organically when we are on the ground with them and discussing their narratives. Online campaigns can be a great jumping-off point to reach more people who can volunteer to do this kind of work themselves.

This 2-part Online Broadcasting and Social Media Training facilitated an exchange of knowledge between different migrant and refugee advocates in utilizing social media in their advocacies, campaigns, and organizing work.

The worsening crises and increasing vulnerable conditions call for the exhaustion of different platforms for the widest possible reach of our campaigns and struggles. Together, let us continue to get our message across, and build solidarity with one another as we champion migrant and refugee rights!

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