The Philippine Media Monitoring Laboratory (PMM) is set to begin the weekly release of the findings of its Digital Pulse Project, a pioneering interdisciplinary research investigating the networks of actors, issues and practices relating to the 2022 national elections:
- Jan 12, 10AM – YouTube Network Analysis
- Jan 19, 10AM – Twitter Network Analysis
- Jan 26, 10AM – Facebook Network Analysis
- February 2, 10AM – Comparative cross-platform analysis
Using big data, computational methods and critical analysis, the DPP project collected and analyzed hundreds of thousands of public content in social media to generate its database for the periods of May 9 to July 31 and August 1 to October 31:
By looking at public conversations in the largest social media platforms in the Philippines, the DPP identifies the dominant personalities, organizations, topics, and issues in the run-up to the elections. Through the use of network graphs, DPP depicts the interconnections among various accounts, channels and pages in social media and their construction of political discourse. In so doing, it surfaces potential digital campaign operations, citizen-led movements and influencer mobilization during the 2022 presidential elections. DPP team leaders Fatima I. Gaw, MA and Jon Benedik Bunquin, MA employ their pioneering assemblage approach to demonstrate about how different users communicate online and how digital media are being used strategically by online users to influence election-related conversations.
The PMM is a consortium of researchers in the fields of communication, political science, and data science. Together with Gaw and Bunquin in the DPP core team are Julienne Thesa Y. Baldo-Cubelo, PhD, Fernando dlC Paragas, PhD, and Ma. Rosel S. San Pascual, PhD, colleagues at the Department of Communication Research at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. Collaborating with the PMM Lab are Dr. Jalton Garces Taguibao, from the Department of Political Science at the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, and Dr. Geoffrey Solano, from the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics, College of Arts and Sciences in UP Manila. Rappler is partnering with the PMM Lab for the Facebook component of the DPP.
The next report in April 2022 will cover the main campaign and pre-election periods, while the final report in July 2022 will reveal the evolution of election-related online conversations.
