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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    Evangelization at the Digital Platform: Communicative Practices of a Clergy
    ( 2026) Lopez, Mar Philippe F.
    This study examines how Catholic clergy construct digital evangelization content as an interactionally engaging communicative event within online spaces. Approached through ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the research focuses on the micro-level practices by which seemingly monologic evangelization content, such as a pre-recorded homily, is organized as a participatory experience. A recorded digital homily was transcribed and analyzed line-by-line to identify recurring communicative strategies. The findings indicate that the clergy employs rhetorical questioning to simulate dialogue, utilizes personalization and inclusive address to establish shared identity, integrates bilingual code switching to enhance cultural resonance, draws on narrative and imagery to clarify meaning, conveys an empathetic tone to build connection, and invites communal participation. A major methodological contribution of this research is demonstrating how implicit turn-taking and cognitive participation can be systematically analyzed in a structurally monologic, one-way digital format. By utilizing embedded question-and-answer sequences, the clergy successfully executes implicit turn-taking that happens entirely in the mind of the audience. This structural choice momentarily opens a cognitive response slot, mentally "giving the floor" to the viewer and forcing the audience out of passive listening into active, internal cognitive participation. Interpreted through a development communication (DevCom) perspective, these micro-level practices reflect the underlying principles of dialogue, participation, cultural sensitivity, and empowerment. Ultimately, the study concludes that because digital evangelization is inherently guided by these underlyingdevelopment communication principles, the practices of physical and digital evangelization remain fundamentally the same. This convergence provides profound confidence that transitioning from a physical space to a digital platform does not water down the messages and teachings of the Gospel. Instead, it preserves the purity of the message and proves that the core of the Church's mission, fostering genuine encounters and shared understanding rather than one-way proclamation, remains intact and powerful regardless of the medium
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    Uses and Gratification of Facebook Users among Urban Agriculture Practice in a Metropolitan Area in the Philippines
    ( 2026) Masilang, Erika V.
    Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study examined the motivating factors that affect the use of Facebook among urban agriculture practitioners. An online and paper-and-pencil survey was conducted among 100 urban agriculture practitioners in a metropolitan area in the Philippines from August 29 to October 9, 2025. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman Rank- Order Correlation for the relationship of variables. The practitioners mostly use Facebook to browse on tips and best practices in the industry. Furthermore, they consume, share, and engage with content posted by government agencies, private companies, and non-government organizations. Facebook satisfies the needs of urban agriculture practitioners in terms of information, entertainment, integration and social interaction, personal identity, advocacy, and remuneration. The gratification for remuneration had the lowest score which suggests that the gratifications they derive from Facebook are primarily socio- psychological rather than financial. The correlation analysis showed that the length of engagement in urban farming is positively but weakly associated with the four gratifications of integration and social interaction, personal identity, remuneration, and advocacy. Meanwhile, no statistically significant relationships were found between Facebook use and the gratification domains experienced by the respondents, suggesting that the amount of time spent on Facebook and the frequency of posting urban agriculture-related content do not necessarily drive the gratifications they obtain. Instead, these gratifications likely depend more on the usefulness and quality of information and interactions they have on the platform.
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    Non-Profit Organization's Communicative Practices in Mobilizing Support from the Public at the Digital Platform
    ( 2026) Maupoy, Pamela B.
    This research analyzed the communicative practices of a Nonprofit Organization in mobilizing support from the public at the Digital Platform and distinguished the underlying Development Communication Perspectives of these practices. Through qualitative research, employed the lens of Ethnomethodology as the research framework, and the Conversation Analysis (Sequence) as analytical tool, the study examined the naturally occurring data obtained on the digital platform specifically in the Facebook page of the selected Nonprofit Organization, which includes infographics, reels, photos/ images, graphics related to its various initiatives, advocacies and programs. Findings showed four (4) major communicative practices of the selected Nonprofit Organization namely: 1.) Risk, Crisis and Informational Communication 2.) Partnerships and Institutional Credibility 3.) Advocacy, Participation and Empowerment Communication. 4.) Resource Mobilization and Digital Engagement. These diverse communicative practices of the selected Nonprofit Organization reflected multiple underlying Development Communication Perspectives such as Participatory Communication, Empowerment and Right Based Perspective and Social Mobilization. In general, the results revealed that communicative practices of the selected Nonprofit Organization demonstrated an organized interactional process in structuring their contents not only to mobilize support from the public but also built its credibility, propagated their advocacy as well as marshalled collective action to bring forth progress and development in society.
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    Exploring Non-Human Agency in the Organizing of a Knowledge Management Unit: A Ventriloquial Analysis of a Proposal and a Proponent's Certificate
    ( 2026) Cortes, Jed Asaph D.
    Knowledge management is usually studied as something people do with knowledge once an organization already exists. This study asks what non-human agents participate in bringing a knowledge management unit into being, and what do those participants accomplish. Working from the Communicative Constitution of Organization (CCO) and from Cooren's theory of ventriloquism, I analyzed two naturally occurring documents from the founding of a knowledge management unit at a Philippine state university—my own KM practitioner certificate and the proposal to establish the unit. Following the four-phase framework for ventriloquial analysis set out by Nathues, van Vuuren and Cooren, I identified 17 ventriloquial effects: instances in which a figure is made present and made to say or do something, together with the vent that animates it. The figures trace back to three chains of authorship, which I call the canonical, institutional and technological voices. Technical knowledge on KM is the only vent that crosses both documents, and it animates most of the figures. The non-human agents perform five things: they authorize, they bound the field, they reconstitute an organizational reality, they supply a purpose, and they defer. Technical knowledge of the field emerges as the condition on which the organizing runs, since the canonical categories that claim the university's people, outputs and losses for the unit have to be held well enough to be applied. The study adds to the work on ventriloquial analysis that deals with documentary data with no live interaction, and it also contributes to CCO through the canonical voice, as an aspect of organizing where technical knowledge of the field is required, with the KM unit as an incident of such organizing.
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    The Science Journalism Praxis of Filipino Online Reporters During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-2022)
    ( 2024) Congjuico, Teresa S.
    The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented public health emergency which journalists have had to report on amid scientific uncertainties and public confusion, political bickering and disinformation, and socio-economic disruption and privation. It was also the first in which digital media platforms, such as the Philippines’ leading online news outlets, played a key role in the dissemination of science and health information. The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the preparedness, resilience, and resoluteness of news outlets as an institution and forced them to suddenly adapt to a new and somehow upended reporting environment. To understand the science journalism praxis of the Philippines’ online news outlets during the COVID-19 pandemic, a grounded theory on their science journalism practice was generated through a triangulation research process that examined their newsroom culture, science news reportage, and role performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, an episodic science news event from 2020-2022.