A Communication Approach Towards Decent Work Measurement: The Case of Filipina Gig Workers Using Online Platforms
Article
This paper proposes the use of a communication approach to decent work measurement, arguing on (1) the interdisciplinary nature of decent work, (2) the mediated aspect of gig work using platforms, and (3) the use of a communicative lens to center the experiences of women in the Global South. As a communication theory, Dutta’s Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) tenets—culture, structure, and agency—were applied to the narratives on working aspirations (i.e., opportunities, social protection, adequate working time and workload, meaningful remuneration, and health and safety) of Filipina gig workers using online platforms. With the goal of empirical saturation, in-depth interviews were conducted among thirty-two informants, including those involved in transactional transfer work in major delivery services, local delivery services, and independent work through social media. The online platforms included applications by major transport and delivery service providers in the Philippines (i.e., Grab, Angkas, Joyride, Lalamove) and those that use social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Facebook Messenger. Findings reveal rich and gendered work experiences on working aspirations. These narratives were then translated into decent work measures.
Revealing the Differences: Resexualization in the Textual Pluralities of Video Games
Article
Video games can be graphically or narratively overhauled through remasters, remakes, or other forms of textual pluralities to adjust to current game platforms. One of the adjustments is resexualization, narrative and mechanical transformations of bodily and gendered identities of the revisited characters. Drawing upon Gill’s (2003) resexualization of women’s bodies in media, Klein and Palmer’s (2016) textual pluralities, Purnomo et al. (2019) intertextual losses, and Krauss’ (2006) narrative negotiation on a corpus of games along with their textual pluralities, we attempted to explain resexualization in games by classifying resexualization, intertextual losses, and strategies to prevent intertextual losses. Spradleyan domain, taxonomy, componential, and cultural theme analyses were applied in the study. We formulated two types of resexualization namely resexualization type 1 (RT1) and type 2 (RT2) with the former related to gender-bending and latter to sexual objectification and de-objectification. These resexualizations trigger intertextual losses on identity and belonging. To prevent intertextual losses, three strategies are also formulated namely signaturization, alternation, and intratextualization. Game developers could employ the results of this study as a consideration when deciding to resexualize their characters in the context of textual pluralities.
Ang Paglalaro ng Politika, ang Politika ng Paglalaro: Ang Kulturang Politikal sa Sistema’t Disenyo ng Video Game na Political Animals
Article
Abstrakt
Sinusuri ng artikulong ito ang Political Animals, isang turn-based election strategy game na nilikha ng isang Filipinong video game developer na Squeaky Wheel at inilathala noong 2016. Binibigyang-tuon ng pagsusuri ang disenyo’t sistema ng paglalaro ng Political Animals at kung paano nito tinatangkang hulíhin ang kulturang politikal ng halalan sa Pilipinas tulad ng pagtuon sa personalidad, ang pamamayani ng politikal na pagpapadrino, at ang pamamayani ng paggamit ng eskandalo bilang estratehiya ng pagtutunggali ng mga kandidato. Pinahahalagahan ang mga tagumpay at limitasyon ng video game ng pagsasasistema na ito ng kulturang politikal at tatalakayin kung ano ang sinasabi ng laro tungkol sa halalan at politika ng Pilipinas. Mula sa formalistikong pagsusuring ito’y binibigyan ng pansin kung paanong maaaring maging paraan ng pagpapamulat ang mga video game tulad ng Political Animals sa mga isyung panlipunan at politikal ng Pilipinas. Magtatapos ang artikulo sa pagtatáya sa iba’t ibang paraan na maaaring magamit ng mga video game tulad ng Political Animals hindi lamang upang magpamulat sa mga manlalaro kundi maging pundasyon tungo sa posibilidad ng politikal na pagbabago sa labas ng video game.
Abstract
This article analyzes Political Animals, a turn-based election strategy game that was made by the Filipino game developer Squeaky Wheel and released in 2016. The analysis focuses on the design and system used by Political Animals as it attempts to capture the political culture of elections in the Philippines especially the focus on personality politics, the dominance of patronage politics, and prevalence of the use of scandal in the battle between candidates. The successes and limitations of systemizing this political culture is highlighted and what the game says about the elections and politics in the Philippines is also discussed. From a formalist analysis of the game, the article discusses how video games like Political Animals can be a means to show social and political issues of the Philippines. At the end of the article, the different strategies that are used by video games like Political Animals is discussed and how these not only raise the political consciousness of players but also how these can be a foundation for political change outside the video game.
Constructing Hope in Hopelessness: Politics of Hope and Playful Resistances of Affective Publics in TikTok’s #corecore #pinoycore
Article
TikTok has been a site for increasing political activities. But what exactly constitutes political activity? I analyzed #corecore, a trend in the social media platform TikTok that portrays hopelessness in our present realities, and its localization through its combination with #pinoycore. I located the affective political performances of the trend’s creators. Employing thematic analysis to 37 videos, I firstly identified the themes of playful affordances that allowed for the (re)production of #corecore #pinoycore videos. I argued that sound bites, hashtags, and weaved short clips in a single short-form video allows for the constant production and reproduction of #corecore #pinoycore. Second, I identified three affective themes – (1) affective news, (2) tragic reality of social, political, and economic conditions, and (3) recollecting the past – that allow the trend to carry intense emotions in its political performances. The playful affordances and affective intensities that exist in #corecore #pinoycore allow politics of hope and playful resistances to be performed through the trend. Such is seen through a critique of Philippines’ present realities and a reimagination of future possibilities. These affective political performances unearth the role of emotions such as hope and hopelessness in shaping the political, along with its performances and possibilities.
Voices on the Air: Speech Education and Campus Radio in the Postcolonial Philippine University
Article
In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, faculty and students of the newly organized Department of Speech and Drama (later Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts) at the University of the Philippines (UP) were at the forefront of managing the radio station DZUP, mounting radio productions on campus and shaping the academic curricula for classes in radio speech and writing. These pioneering contributions, though significant, have yet to receive due documentation from communication scholars, researchers, and historians in the country.
In this essay, I address this gap by bringing into focus archival documents—photographs, newspaper accounts, official memos, and personal correspondences between academics and administrators—that clarify the academic department’s role in the early systems and operations of DZUP. I argue that these efforts are important because of four main reasons. First, they highlight the often-overlooked relationship between speech education and campus radio in the national university. Second, they emphasize the ways in which the radio booth worked alongside the public speaking platform and the theatre stage as a fundamental space where speech-related pedagogies, performances, and practices played out. Third, they show disciplinary genealogy that links the disciplines of speech communication and mass communication in the University of the Philippines. And finally, they shed light on the pedagogical process involved in teaching, training, and transforming Filipino students into a kind of speaking subjects in the postcolonial Philippines.
