Astudillo, B. (2014). The role of online communities in the formation of critical opinion and discourse on current issues in Philippine society. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines, Diliman.

This thesis study describes how Filipino online communities aimed at critiquing and effecting social change promote the formation of critical opinion and stimulate discourse on current issues in Philippine society. It is guided by findings from previous studies which suggest that the success of an online community is determined by several influences and attributes such as: the community’s purpose; its degree of technological mediation; the usability and sociability of communicative platforms used; and the characteristics of the population of its members who interact with one another, such as their personal backgrounds and motivations for participation, as well as the size of the population itself. Using a framework of concepts integrated from media richness theory, participatory communication models, activity theory, Habermas’ theory of communicative action, and media system dependency theory, the study analyzes popular online communities Filipino Freethinkers (FF) and Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS) as media for social action by: profiling members in terms of their socio-economic characteristics, social and political orientations, participation in the community, and media dependency; analyzing the content, socio-political orientation, and structural and functional attributes of these online communities; and examining the impact of community activities (both online and offline) on participants’ interaction with one another and response to social issues.