Status Ko: Vote for me: Using Facebook in Political Campaign for the 2010 SK Election

ABSTRACT

This study describes the political candidates’ adoption and usage of Facebook in the 2010 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Election. It delves into the complicated and ambiguous correlation between the medium used and the rhetoric of political candidates. This study explores how the medium’s properties, particularly of the social networking sites, shape the rhetoric in political campaigns. The assumption was that, the Facebook enhance the rhetoric of political candidates.

The onset of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election provided a good opportunity to study this correlation. The study encompasses traditional SK campaign strategies and usage of Facebook in campaigning. Marshall McLuhan’s Technological Determinism was used as guide to prove the assumption that media are active channels that extend the self or represent identities. Content Analysis and Rhetorical Analysis were employed to describe this extension or representation in Facebook.

Theoretical and empirical data reveals that Facebook improves the ethos appeal of political candidates through representation and re-performance of themselves even in the absence of face-to-face interaction.

Baguio, M.B. (2011). Status Ko: Vote for Me!:Using Facebook in Political Campaign for the 2010 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Election, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

View Thesis

Subject Index : Online social networking, Elections--Philippines