FICS Theses and Dissertations

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https://repository.upou.edu.ph/handle/20.500.13073/2
Theses and dissertations by graduate students from the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies.

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    Participation of Women and their Contributions to Climate Communication in the City of Batac, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
    ( 2024-11) Tapaoan, Daniel Jr. P.
    This quantitative and exploratory study was conducted to find out the participation and contributions of women in the implementation of climate communication initiatives in the City of Batac, Ilocos Norte. An interview schedule was used to gather data from 115 women-respondents in the 14 urban barangays in the city. All data sets were tabulated and organized, as well as processed and interpreted narratively. The women-respondents, who are all Ilocanos, are predominantly middle-aged, college or vocational education graduates, married, salary earners, non-Catholic Christians, and affiliated with service-oriented organizations. An overwhelming majority of them claimed they always participate in climate communication initiatives. They play six communicative roles, in which information disseminator is the most frequent, and they use both interpersonal and mediated communication channels. Their main contribution is information dissemination, and they expect better climate communication outcomes. They experience various facilitators and barriers in their participation, which are grouped into attitudinal/emotional, interpersonal, physical/external, and physiological factors. Moreover, the computed correlational coefficient indicated significant associations between the women’s attributes and their participation in climate communication. Such findings could serve as bases in crafting policies and in implementing efforts to strengthen women’s communicative roles and sustain their participation and to make climate communication initiatives in Ilocos Norte more participatory
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    E-Farming System Knowledge Transfer: Exploring Experiences in the Philippines and Indonesia
    ( 2024-09-30) Fajardo, John A.
    Agriculture is complex and hermeneutic having epistemology in communications, innovations, politics, and society. This sector faces challenges in attaining food security due to climate change, low crop productivity and farm income, and aging farmer population. Traditional communication of crop advisories requires more time and has limited reach to farmers compared to digital communications. Although, the advances in digitalization also pose “last mile” challenges. Complexity theory in communication offers pedagogy and practice in E-farming knowledge transfer to smallholder and marginalized farmers. The theory has been utilized in digital social advocacy, neo-diffusionism communication, management, and social science. This study aims to theorize Complexity theory in digital knowledge transfers in agriculture to drive social impact through effective utilization of crop advisories in digital media, mobile applications, and Internet of Things (IoT). Autoethnography, Focus Group Discussion, Key Informant Interviews, and User Acceptability Test qualitative research methods as well as desktop quantitative research were utilized in this study. One hundred (100) farmer respondents and ten (10) key informants were interviewed in the Philippines and Indonesia. Results of the study showed that farmer motivations and needs are vital in digital crop advisory’ success. The PCE (Planning-Communication-Evaluation) model is proposed leveraging Complexity theory. This model covers different interactions of adaptive agents in the social system including content developers, farmer personas, and other agents in the e-farming system. The social, digital adaptiveness, and muted voices of various farmer personas offer discourse to unravel and drive success in e-farming. The research findings also provide pragmatic and pedagogical implications of adaptive agents or nodes in digital farming advisories anchored from Complexity theory. Digital e-farming communication and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) offer a discourse in the production and adaptation of the sociality and reproduction of society through these agents interacting in a fluid or non-linear pattern.
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    Power Relations, Hegemonic Ideology, and the PRC’s Communicative Practice of Interacting with Oceania through Infrastructure Aid Projects
    ( 2024) Bustria, Mienraddo John M.
    The People’s Republic of China has engaged with Oceania, particularly the Pacific Island countries, using the communicative practice of providing infrastructure aid projects. As the dominant state, China uses its material capability to dominate social relations with the island states to influence their behaviors and policies in order to advance its economic, strategic, security, and diplomatic interests. China as the Center state benefits from its dominance and inequality of social relations with island states as the Periphery state. Through its economic resources, Beijing controls social relations as indicated by the views of island leaders on the PRC’s infrastructure aid projects. Their discourses reflect their belief systems in the social relations’ normal and natural order with China, reproducing power, but they cannot perceive inequities in reality. Structures of language, while reflective of harmony of interests between the dominant state and dominated states, reveal distorted speech situations. China’s material force forms part of its domination and is normalized in Pacific Island societies through the existence of hegemonic ideology. Thematic findings show why the PRC communicatively practices such action. It wants to gain access to natural resources, create business opportunities for Chinese companies, expand the Belt and Road Initiative, establish a military presence, and constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. However, there are contextual explanations that reveal deeper-level power structures and meanings behind Beijing’s action. The marginalized meaning structures are as follows: donors use aid to shape recipients’ decisions to get access to projects built; linking aid to relations provides leverage to donors and traps recipients; providing aid influences the behavior or policies of recipients; enhancing reputation helps stabilize the party’s domestic rule and image; and access to resources and business deals promotes the donor’s existential interest. These five theoretical propositions provide a multiplicity of meaning structures or deeper-level power structures and meanings behind China’s communicative practice. These propositions align with what the literature states through the framework of power relations and hegemonic ideology, which the surface-level meanings have failed to explore. Yet, through partnerships with traditional partners (West) and with China, four alternative futures offer communicative dynamics: opportunities for emancipation (utopia), the prevalence of Western norms (order), the West cannot compete with China’s resources (status quo), or both the West and China abandon the region (catastrophe). Discursive reflection could occur in specific scenarios to alter existing communication order, potentially leading to unforeseen consequences.
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    Participation of Women and their Contributions to Climate Communication in the City of Batac, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
    ( 2024-08) Tapaoan, Daniel Jr. P.
    This quantitative and exploratory study was conducted to find out the participation and contributions of women in the implementation of climate communication initiatives in the City of Batac, Ilocos Norte. An interview schedule was used to gather data from 115 women-respondents in the 14 urban barangays in the city. All data sets were tabulated and organized, as well as processed and interpreted narratively. The women-respondents, who are all Ilocanos, are predominantly middle-aged, college or vocational education graduates, married, salary earners, non-Catholic Christians, and affiliated with service-oriented organizations. An overwhelming majority of them claimed they always participate in climate communication initiatives. They play six communicative roles, in which information disseminator is the most frequent, and they use both interpersonal and mediated communication channels. Their main contribution is information dissemination, and they expect better climate communication outcomes. They experience various facilitators and barriers in their participation, which are grouped into attitudinal/emotional, interpersonal, physical/external, and physiological factors. Moreover, the computed correlational coefficient indicated significant associations between the women’s attributes and their participation in climate communication. Such findings could serve as bases in crafting policies and in implementing efforts to strengthen women’s communicative roles and sustain their participation and to make climate communication initiatives in Ilocos Norte more participatory.
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    Disaster Media Tools, Community Influencers, and their Effectiveness in Disaster Risk and Reduction Management in Tiwi, Albay
    ( 2023-12-12) Jumamil, Mayflor Marie L.
    Traditional and non-traditional media have become essential communication tools or channels for disseminating, informing, mobilizing, and coping with disaster-related information/messages. They provide real-time data and information for use in the different phrases of the disaster to help spread awareness, support, and warnings in relief for victims. This study examines the various traditional and non-traditional communication tools available as disaster media. it identifies broadcast (TV and radio), print (newspaper), digital (cellphones) and social media as sources of disaster information/messages and their effectiveness for Tiwi, Albay's Disaster Risk and Reduction Management (DRRM). Six (6) sets of data were utilized to examine and determine the quad media as sources of information/messages. This includes the effectiveness of the identified sources of information as regards timeliness, accuracy, relevance, and understandability, the existing disaster media communiccation networks, the issues or challenges encountered by the residents and community during a disaster and during the Tropical Depression (TD) Usman, as well as the preparations made by the local government to maintain communication and activity of information channels. This research employed an explanatory-sequential design using a mixed method approach by combining empirical surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews with the select heads of the families and communities as the main respondents. It utilized stratified and purposive sampling from the most affected barangay and the least affected barangay as the strata. Purpose sampling was used in the selection of the study locale, with the town of Tiwi in Albay identified as the hardest-hit town during the occurrence of TD Usman.