Summary

Given the mediatized nature of modern-day politics, Filipino audiences have been migrating to the digital sphere of Facebook for news about politicians. Previous studies have already warned that women in politics are considered to be outsiders of the public sphere. Thus, there remains a need to investigate how Filipino women are covered by the press under the country’s current misogynist socio-political landscape. This study employed the Reception and Framing theory and placed emphasis on the existence of echo chambers in Facebook. Third World and Socialist Feminism were then used to synthesize the operational framework. This study investigated the news posts in the National news section as shared by Rappler, Inquirer, and Manila Bulletin to their Facebook pages. From 64,731 news articles that were collected through web scraping, a sample of 400 were randomly selected and analyzed through content analysis. Aside from using textual analysis to uncover emergent frames, Corpus Linguistics analysis was also used in documenting the lexical units which were used by the press in their coverage. A total of 15,355 words were collected. Congruent with previous literature, the findings revealed that Filipino women politicians were given limited coverage. The women were typically framed in paradoxical characteristics as harridans and mothers. Furthermore, they were placed in story-like narratives by the press with varying frames and valence. However, the findings also suggested acts of resistance. Women politicians manifested norm-breaking identities, and the journalists did not adhere to homogeneous coverage.