Projects

Children in a Converged Media World: Television Viewing, Convergent Media Use, and Media Literacy Among Filipino Children

This study examines Filipino children's television viewing habits and convergent media use in the context of a rapidly transforming media landscape. Building on the 2025 National Council for Children's Television (NCCT) baseline study, which documented that 86.50% of child participants owned smartphones while only 29.58% owned television sets, this Phase 2 research expands geographic coverage beyond the National Capital Region to include children in the Visayas and Mindanao, and extends its analytical scope to encompass YouTube, TikTok, Netflix, Facebook, and other convergent platforms. The study pursues two analytical strands. The Television Strand examines viewing habits, content preferences, perceptions of child-friendly and educational programming, and interpretations of media violence. The Convergent Media Strand investigates cross-platform behaviors, algorithmic content exposure, and children's encounters with violent or inappropriate digital content. 

Mobile Phone Use Among the Elderly in the Philippines: Navigating Digital Exclusion and Fragmentation

This study examines how Filipinos aged 60 and above use mobile phones in daily life, focusing on the patterns, barriers, and enablers of adoption and use. Employing an interpretive phenomenological design informed by the indigenous Filipino method of pakikipagkwentuhan, the study will conduct semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 30–40 purposively selected participants across three sites representing urban (Metro Manila), urban-rural (Laguna), and rural (Catanduanes) contexts, with maximum variation across socioeconomic indicators. 

Strategically communicating science: Communication audit and capacity-building for
the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute

Aligned with the framework of strategic communication, the research project looks into the role of communication in achieving goals by taking specific and deliberate steps leading toward measurable outcomes. The proponents take off from the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach, which focuses on the needs of communities and target organization/s. Thus, the planning approach to be utilized is based on the organization’s decisions on which aspects need to be covered in the Communication Audit. The communication and learning tools used during the audit aim to assist the members of DOST-SEI to understand and analyze their own conditions of production and evaluation and ultimately, the end product will mainly benefit the organization.

The Social Life of Crypto:
How Digital Currencies Impact Informal Economies in the Global South

This project examines how cryptocurrencies have become integrated into everyday informal economic practices in countries at the margins of financial and technological power. It asks what problems they solve for participants in these informal economies and explores the social practices that form around them. It further investigates what new intermediaries gain importance in these novel financial arenas, what communities they afford, and how trust is negotiated in them.

Communicating the plans for a drainage management system (DMS)

The need for a communication plan and strategy to support a drainage management system is necessary. This project enables stakeholders to be informed and involved in the creation and execution of the Quezon City Drainage System.

UP RI-UP NOAH Center on the formulation of the Valenzuela City Drainage Master Plan (VC DMP)

The Valenzuela City DMP Phase 1 is designed to provide a long-term framework to address city’s recurring flooding problems. This initial phase will focus on baseline data collection, drainage surveys, flood scenario modeling, and the preparation of preliminary assessments for priority barangays. 

Communication plan and strategy for PLANMNL2030

Managing the knowledge products and communicating these to the residents of Manila are the main goals. The tasks include risk communication profiling, and communication planning, strategizing, and evaluation of the created knowledge products. 

Communicating COVID-19 in post-quarantine Philippines (Qualitative Research Team)

The goal of the project is to develop a research-based COVID-19 communication plan that will be used to instill healthy behaviors and practices in the post-quarantine Philippines to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19, including communication strategies to support initiatives toward the transition to the “new normal”. Along with this sample/ prototype
communication materials will be crafted in order to improve COVID-19 literacy of the
the general public and specific audiences; redefine perceptions of COVID-19 risks, and make recommendations about the communication strategies within the health communications ecosystem, including the special audiences/populations (e.g., urban poor, transport sector, retail and delivery sector, MSMEs).