FICS Theses and Dissertations

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Theses and dissertations by graduate students from the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies.

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    Digital Social Marketing in Philippine Mission-Centric Social Enterprises: Exploring Founders' Influence and Strategic Approaches
    ( 2024-11-20) Santos, Joseph Emil N.
    This dissertation examines how founders' cultural-cognitive orientations and communication practices shape digital social marketing strategies in Philippine mission-centric social enterprises. The research introduces the Founder-Driven Authentic Digital Storytelling Framework through digital ethnography and case studies as a novel theoretical contribution integrating cultural sensitivity with strategic communication in digital spaces. The study reveals that effective digital social marketing emerges from founders' ability to authentically adapt communication while aligning with their cultural values and social missions. The research demonstrates that successful digital engagement requires founders to balance cultural understanding with strategic storytelling across digital platforms. The findings establish authentic digital storytelling as the primary mechanism for building trust and fostering meaningful connections with target communities. The introduced framework provides a structured approach to understanding how founders' personal narratives and cultural backgrounds influence their digital marketing strategies. This work makes significant theoretical contributions by synthesizing authentic digital storytelling with cultural-cognitive and communication accommodation perspectives in social enterprise marketing. The practical implications offer actionable insights for social enterprise founders seeking to enhance their digital marketing impact while maintaining mission alignment.
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    Digital Communication, the K-pop Army, and the Filipino Collective Psyche
    ( 2024-08-12) Ligeralde, Karina Angela B.
    The arrival of the Hallyu Wave made a big impression globally and was warmly received by Filipinos. South Korean pop culture introduced K-pop, a music genre famously known for its impressive lyricism and deliberate production, which captured the interest of listeners. As literature suggests, music is a powerful driving force that has the ability to enable a group or community to move or think as one unit, such as how jazz musicians harnessed the power of music to communicate their social struggles. Deriving from this premise, the question this study aimed to answer was “How does digital communication shape the K-Pop Army that translates to the Filipino Collective Psyche?” I explored my lived experience as a member of the K-pop army by employing an autoethnographic study. I used vignettes to synthesize what it meant to be a member of the K-pop army, acclimatized its culture, and made sense of my K-pop journey. Each experience discussed in vignettes showed a clear picture of the journey that thickened the discussion throughout the research. The vignettes served as an example of how the Filipino Collective Psyche was shaped. More than the provision of world-class entertainment and global popularity, the K-pop Army follows their K-pop idols because of their altruism and actions to address social issues which have always been evident in digital communication platforms. With the proliferation of social media and the K-pop Army’s exposure to these communication platforms especially during the time where being “connected online” was the norm, it was evident that the fandom moved as if with one mind, reflecting the very essence of the Filipino Collective Psyche.
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    Communication Leadership in a Community from the Perspective of a Development Worker: A Rhetorical Study
    ( 2024-09-27) Gando, Valentin E.
    This study is situated under the Rhetorical Tradition of Communication Theory and the research paradigm is Qualitative Communication Research and is supportive of the Philosophy of Development Communication, Participatory Communication Theory, and Theory of Communicative Actions. It attempts to answer two research questions; a) What are the rhetorical practices in communication leadership in a community?, and b) What do the rhetorical practices in communication leadership in a community intend to accomplish? Using autoethnography and rhetorical study, the ten songs I wrote about my work were analyzed to come up with answers to the research questions. The results show that my work as a development worker is to establish community communication and facilitate the community development process within a defined timeframe, in which process local leaders develop communication and leadership skills through experience, which enable them to perform communication leadership. The results reveal a rhetorical model of communication leadership, where communication leadership is central to the participatory communication system. The rhetorical practices in communication leadership of building relations, understanding community problems, conceptualizing solutions, empowering leaders, mobilization/action planning, mobilizing, evaluating, synthesizing learning, and transitioning roles are approaches in communication leadership that intend to accomplish good communicative relations, collective understanding of problems, collective concept of solutions, empowered leaders, action plan, realized solution/s, understanding of strengths and weaknesses and recommendations, collective  knowledge, and sustained communication leadership.
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    An Autoethnographic Analysis of Social Enterprise's Advocacy Communication
    ( 2024-01-20) Hostalero, Alessa Shainne L.
    This comprehensive study on Autoethnographic Analysis of Social Enterprise’s Advocacy Communication explored my journey as a social entrepreneur and a communication scholar, showcasing the evolving motivations, transformative shifts in purpose, challenges, through my life’s experiences and exposures. In this research, I utilized vignettes, immersion, and reflection guided by theories and principles of ontology, epistemology, teleology, and praxeological positions. These key findings and contributions created knowledge that challenges some traditional research standards unmuting my voice to integrate personal narratives and empower the study through personal experiences as primary values of autoethnography to contribute to the field of social entrepreneurship and its context of advocacy communication. Valuable insights in the research denotes silent empowerment as a fundamental factor in advocacy communication, as it centers its role on credibility, lasting impact, and authenticity especially in the digital landscape. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in this said context uncovers positive workplace behavior as a crucial aspect in the success of an advocacy and of an any organization. Moreover, this study also concluded that digital platforms are fundamental for advocacy communication. It recognizes the paramount significance of technology in identifying markets, reaching broader audience, and effectively communicating an advocacy of a social enterprise. Storytelling and leadership are also remarkable results that this research was able to unveil. The importance of both signified a positive reception of advocacy from the audiences and considered key tools that affect insights, behavior, and culture of a market or an organization especially in the field of social entrepreneurship. Through my social interactions and reflections in social entrepreneurship and past journeys leading to it—in this comprehensive delved of knowledge and experiences, I was able to gain insightful and remarkable definition of what social entrepreneurship specifically is: Social entrepreneurship refers to pursuing purposeful and socially driven business process with equal prioritization to its profitability. It surpasses traditional corporate social responsibility approaches, as it is not merely an auxiliary business afterthought but centers its conception and existence on its social causes. This research concludes a reflection on personal growth and overcoming doubts and overall challenges in business, furthering the role of being an advocating and integrating it with entrepreneurship. Silent empowerment in this study affirmed as a powerful conduit that places value on actions and behavior as an essential consideration in advocacy communication in the field of social entrepreneurship. This autoethnographic study enriches knowledge of the intricate relationship between social entrepreneurship and advocacy communication. This research did not only address research questions but also provided practical insights for those piloting the dynamic landscape of social impact through advocacy communication in a social enterprise.
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    Perspectives of Grade 12 Private School Students on Combined Modes of Communication in Remote Learning: An Analysis of Position Papers on its Implementation in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic
    ( 2023-10-31) Orial, Roli Alexandra N.
    This study explored the perspectives of Manresa School academic year (AY) 2020-2021 grade 12 students on synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication in remote learning and the consequences of the combined modes of communication in their learning process. The data was gathered from the participants’ position paper about the implementation of remote learning in the time of COVID-19 pandemic–a requirement in the course the researcher teaches in the study site. The phenomenological research design was utilized as the researcher conducted an inductive thematic coding in the analysis of the data. The study revealed 13 themes describing the perspectives of the participants on the combined modes of communication: (1) self-paced, (2) undetermined response time, (3) time-efficient, (4) flexible location, (5) open to more distractions, (6) internet-dependent, (7) mediated by electronic and information technologies, (8) utilization of online and multimedia resources, (9) less interpersonal connection, (10) utilization of social networking sites and online messaging applications, (11) flexible interaction, (12) limited to no supervision, and (13) control over response. The study also discovered that the combined modes of communication had two major consequences on the participants’ learning process: (1) discovery of their own learning strategies, and (2) acknowledgement of their deficiencies in the nature of education for their future.