PERCEIVED SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE ON THE CHOICE OF NATIONAL
CANDIDATES IN 2022 PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS AMONG SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS OF GSCNSSAT
A Research Proposal
Presented to the Faculty of Senior High School Department
General Santos City National Secondary School of Arts and Trades
In Partial Fulfilment
of the Requirements
In Research Project
Joshua Pascua
Arven Fonclara
Janember Quiamco
Jhon Bryant Faustorilla
Brian Lei Padayao
Carl Anthony Intruzo
Jeny Babes Dante
Ailene Bentinol
Dangela Mayo
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
In this chapter, there are six parts which are the following: 1)
Introduction, which consists of general statements of the study as well as
the problem,purpose and its rationale; 2) Statement of the Problem,
which provides the general problem and the sub problems; 3) Scope and
Delimitation, which states the specific inclusions and its limitations; 4)
Significance of the Study that details the advantages and benefits that
may be obtained from the results of the study; 5) Definition of Terms
which lists the operational and conceptual highlight terms used in the
study; 6) Theoretical Framework which contains the theories that serve
as guide or basis of the study.
INTRODUCTION
While the May 2022 Philippines national and local elections will be the
first to be held under a global pandemic, its outcome will likely be shaped
by social media. The 2016 presidential contest was already widely
considered as the first mainstream “social media election” in the
Philippines. Reliance on social media in the campaign strategy of
candidates is expected to rise given the increased usage by Filipinos to
this technology, and the physical restrictions imposed by the Covid-19
pandemic.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Generally, this study aims to examine the influence of social media on
the choice of national candidates in the 2022 elections among Senior
High School students in General Santos City National Secondary School of
Arts and Trades.
Specifically, it sees to answer kthe following questions:
1. .What are the perceptions of the senior high students on the
positive influence of social media on their choice of national
candidates in the 2022 Philippine national elections?
2. What are the perceptions of the senior high students on the
negative influence of social media on their choice of national
candidates in the 2022 Philippine national elections?
3. How do the senior high school students deal with the influence of
social media on their choice of national candidates in the 2022
Philippine national elections?
SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
This study will be conducted to determine how social media
influences the choice of national candidates in the 2022 election among
the General Santos City National Secondary School of Arts and Trades
Senior High School Students. The researchers would like to know how
social media can influence their choice in the 2022 national elections. The
Researchers will conduct the study through an online survey among the
Senior High School students of General Santos City National Secondary
School of Arts and Trades, Senior High School Department only. The
selected respondents in the study are bonafide students General Santos
City National Secondary School of Arts and Trades - Senior High School,
enrolled in the school year 2021-2022, Facebook and Twitter are the
social media platforms that the researchers will be focusing on as these
are the most influential or widely used social media platforms.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study would be significant and useful to the following:
To the students, this research may be helpful to them because it may
shape their political choice and perspectives related to campaign
election.
To the teachers, this study will help them to understand the impact of
social media on their students’ choice of political candidates and may
deduct from how to use social media to further enhance their teaching
strategies.
To the netizens, this will help them to recognize their ideal candidate
through the influence of social media. With this, it will be easier for them
to vote with no hassle.
To the voters, this will help them have an idea on how much social
media can affect their political stand, and be wiser in choosing the
rightful candidate lead.
To the parents, not only for the students but also for them because it
will help to shape their ideal candidate for the upcoming election.
Moreover, it will be easier for them to recognize their particular
candidate because of the influence of social media.
To the future researchers, this study will benefit them because it will
assist them in their future studies. This may help them grasp the
significance of understanding the factors of one's experiences. With this,
it will inform them on how social media influences the choice of the
people.
DEFINITION OF TERM
POLITICS -The activities associated with the governance of a country or
other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties
having or hoping to achieve power.
TECHNOLOGY - Is the application of scientific knowledge to the practical
aims of human life or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and
manipulation of the human environment.
SOCIALMEDIA- Social media is an internet-based form of communication.
Social media platforms allow users to have conversations, share
information and create web content.
ELECTION - Formal process of selecting a person for public office or of
accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting.
NATIONAL CANDIDATE- A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective
recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered
for some kind of position
POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION -. Is the process by which people learn about
their government and acquire the beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors
associated with good citizenship.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Their role is important in politics where they are not just voters, but
active actors in politics themselves. Therefore, this study aims to predict
the intentions of young voters in electing presidential candidates by
expanding the TPB. This study applied the TPB by adding a research
variable, namely, information from social media. In this study, TPB was
added with information from social media as an antecedent variable of
attitude. The addition of this variable is because social media is the main
element in the daily lives of young people. And social media is also
becoming the dominant channel in political marketing. Specifically, social
media is also used as an important tool in political campaigns where they
can be used for sending political campaign advertisements. Further,
social media is believed to shape individual choices especially in election
context (Biswas et al., 2014). Several studies have shown the influence of
social media in presidential and legislative elections.
DEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
CHAPTER II
Review of Related Literature and Studies
INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH
This chapter presents understanding similarities and differences
among the literature review, theoretical framework, and can help novice
and experienced researchers in organizing, conceptualizing, and
conducting their research in a qualitative method.
THE PHILIPPINE ELECTION
Clean elections should never be an expression of the power of money,
arms and propaganda or the abuse of authority. Fraudulent and
dishonest elections will undermine the honesty and ability of the
government to be truly oriented towards public
service(Quitangon,G,2005). Electing public officers is the most exciting
event in the Philippines. It is when friends turn to enemies and relatives
insignificant all in the name of the candidate they supported. The
research unveils the rationale behind this exciting event. This research
resolves the common practices before the election(Velmonte,G,2022).
Experts argue that social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.,
were not intended for political purposes at the outset. But as IT
technologies evolved, many have noted their potential for political
mobilisation. Driven by profit, big social media firms have taken
advantage of how users share their information, including their political
ideologies, opinions, and policy viewpoints. It is now fairly established
that disinformation has become rampant because of its power to harness
emotive reactions and therefore gain more engagement from social
media users. Social media algorithms built within the technology itself
seem to fit well with the nature of electoral campaigning. In other words,
social media and electoral campaigns seem to make a perfect match; one
serves the profit motive of tech companies and the other the wish of
candidates and parties to garner votes.The Philippines is an appropriate
site to examine the mobilisation power of social media during an election
campaign. This article argues that the 2022 election campaigns so far
have displayed increasing utility of social media as a highly evolving
information and communication technology which at the same time
addresses some of the contact limitations imposed by the Covid-19
pandemic. Election campaigns so far have also exhibited a more intense
and varied use of social media to sow disinformation and fake news to
either support or undermine certain candidates. Unfortunately, these
concerns can currently not be addressed, given the inadequate
regulations and the absence of a specific law that regulates social media
use in electoral campaigns in the Philippines(Arugay,A,2022).
VOTERS EDUCATION
Voter education means providing citizens of a democracy with basic
information about participating in elections. Voter education is often
provided by the state itself, often through a national electoral
commission, so it is therefore important that it is politically non-partisan.
Government departments that focus on voter education are often highly
scrutinized by a third party. In addition, there are various private
institutions whose mission it is to strengthen democratic values by
increasing voter education. The focus is often on how to vote rather than
who to vote for(Brown,M.,et al.,2010). Voter education provides
potential voters with the necessary information to make an informed
choice in the voting booth. Voter education should also include
information on when, where and how to register to vote (see Voter
Registration), as well as when, where and how to vote (see Polling
Stations). Election management bodies (EMBs) typically conduct voter
education through televised messages, in addition to using radio and
print. Increasingly, EMBs are also adopting new media, such as social
media, to engage citizens during elections. For the 2014 elections, the
Election Commission of India (ECI) developed a video game, “Get Set
Vote,” to promote voter awareness and education among citizens of all
ages. The game covered topics such as registering to vote, ethical voting
and engaging with the EMB. It was made available on the commission’s
website in both Hindi and English.Why does voter education matter?
Elections cannot be genuinely democratic unless voters understand the
differences among the contestants so that they can cast an informed
vote. Voters must also understand how to vote on election day, or risk
missing the opportunity, having their ballot disqualified for being
improperly marked, or facing another issue that restricts or eliminates
their ability to participate. Information about electoral contestants and
voting procedures should be made available well in advance of election
day. Voter education campaigns, which might be conducted by the EMB
or civil society organizations, should aim to provide all voters with the
information they need. Outreach to citizens with visual or hearing
impairment should be conducted. Information in minority languages
should also be made available. If information is only published in English
but large portions of the population only speak Spanish, for instance,
then there is a risk that many voters will be unable to make informed
decisions or know how to cast their ballots. Example voter education
data, Voter education data consists of all pertinent information about the
electoral contests, the candidates and parties running, and any referenda
or ballot initiatives up for vote. In many countries this information is
available in multiple languages. Information on voter registration and
election day voting procedures should also be made available to citizens.
Often, EMBs make these materials available on their website and
document whether they have made public service announcements in the
mass media (Moog,S,2011).
SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS
While the May 2022 Philippines national and local elections will be the
first to be held under a global pandemic, its outcome will likely be shaped
by social media. The 2016 presidential contest was already widely
considered as the first mainstream “social media election” in the
Philippines. In that election, Rodrigo Duterte swept into office with the
help of what appeared to be an “army” of dedicated social media
followers. Scholars of Philippine politics attributed the victory to the
Duterte campaign’s savvy use of social media to the point of spreading
fake news. However, to say that Duterte’s victory was solely because of
his savvy social media strategy exaggerates the power of virtual
manipulation during that time and ignores the symbiotic relationship
between online fervour and grassroots political mobilisation. Reliance on
social media in the campaign strategy of candidates is expected to rise
given the increased usage by Filipinos of this technology, and the physical
restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. While it remains doubtful
that a candidate can win the presidency through a successful social media
strategy alone, there is a realization that this type of technology is
becoming an indispensable part of the contemporary electoral “political
machine” (Arugay,A,2022).
EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON STUDENTS
The introduction of social media in the Philippines has changed the
information game in that country. Since 2013, Meta’s (née Facebook)
Free Basics program has partnered with local carriers in the Philippines to
provide Facebook to users at no cost. Requiring only a smartphone and a
C$1 prepaid SIM card to facilitate internet access, Facebook has become
the de facto internet for many Filipinos. By 2015, it had become the
number one site used in the country. In 2016, the true impact of social
media came to light during the national election in which then-candidate
Rodrigo Duterte used social media to coordinate large elements of his
campaign in lieu of traditional methods. Additionally, his campaign used
social media bots on a large scale to intimidate his critics and promote
pro-Duterte hashtags and pages to boost his popularity. In response to
the alarm raised by some in the Philippines, ahead of the 2019 midterm
elections, Meta introduced new platform bans like the one on Twinmark
Media Enterprises, fact-checking partnerships, and digital advertising
rules to limit the type of disinformation that had been so prevalent in the
2016 election. Meta also took the initiative during the 2019 campaign
season to remove accounts that engaged in “inauthentic behavior.” Here,
inauthentic behaviour refers to online activities designed to be perceived
as actions by a specific group when in reality, they are being done to
mimic their actions. During an election season, it can be done to mobilize
a specific political group with malicious intent.Despite these changes, the
Liberal party, the main opposition to Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko
Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) party, seems to have taken an “if
you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude and adopted some of the tactics
that Duterte used during the previous election in an attempt to boost
their own campaign. Meanwhile, social media use has continued to grow;
as of 2021, about 81 per cent of the Philippines is on Facebook. And
although the internet is notoriously slow in the Philippines, companies
such as Facebook and YouTube, in particular, have made their platforms
more convenient for sharing and consuming information(Koff,M,2022).
Senior High School students have great interest in social media. For the
purpose of this study, social media was defined as Facebook, YouTube,
Instagram or Twitter (Martin, 2018). Social media is playing an outsized
role in the lead-up to the May 9 presidential elections in the Philippines.
Government lockdowns and other COVID-19-related restrictions have
made it difficult for candidates to hold in-person campaign events. These
limits on large gatherings, combined with more than 90 percent of
Filipinos getting their internet access via social media, have meant that
the candidates are heavily relying on social media to capture the
attention and votes of the electorate. These campaign conditions are
happening against the backdrop of a longer-term trend in the Philippines:
An accelerated shift away from traditional media and towards social
media, where information may be free and accessible, but not always
accurate. This new media landscape, however, is fertile ground for
candidates and their supporters to turn increasingly to disinformation
tactics on social media rather than traditional media techniques. In fact,
many of the presidential candidates are reprising strategies that were
leveraged to spread disinformation via social media in past election
cycles, most notably the 2016 election, which brought current President
Rodrigo Duterte to power. By allowing anyone to instantly share
information with thousands of followers, social media accelerates the
flow of information and does so in a way that disrupts the top-down
hierarchies and editorial oversight imposed by traditional television and
print media. This has had the cumulative effect of warping important
national public discussions, including what is at stake for Filipinos in this
upcoming election( Grounds,K,2022).
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter aims to explain and present the methods used by
researchers to accomplish the purpose of the study. It also includes
instruments, data collection, analysis, and data interpretation.
RESEARCH DESIGN
This research study will use the Quantitative research design,
specifically the Descriptive method. The researchers will use Descriptive
method design to get the correct and the appropriate data. Researchers
will use this method because the purpose of this study is to find out if
social media have an impact or influence on the choice of national
candidates in the 2022 elections among Senior High School students.
Researchers can perform data collection/gathering in two specific ways.
First is the interview and second is the making of a survey or
questionnaire given to the respondent or participant through social
media. The respondents in this research were only Grade 12 Senior High
School students of General Santos City National Secondary School of Arts
and Trades. They will be selected using the “Random Sampling” process..
This research aims to explore the impact and influences of social
media on the choice of national candidates in the 2022 elections among
Grade 12 Senior High School Students which lead to a reason to use such
design. Answering the questionnaires given to respondents requires
thorough research.
THE SAMPLE
The respondents of the study are Grade 12 Senior High School
Students of General Santos City of National Secondary School of Arts and
Trades, the number of students who will participate in the “random
sampling” is (30) thirty respondents, but out of (30) thirty respondents,
(20) only twenty will be accepted by the researchers in case of a
calculation error in response to the margin of error. The researchers will
carefully and effectively evaluate the positive and negative responses of
the students regarding this study. All of these respondents were selected
through random sampling. This sampling method is conducted where
each student of Grade 12 Department has a capability to become part of
the sample.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE
This Chapter will present the methods, instruments, and
procedures that will be used for this study. It will also describe the
subjects that are going to be the participants for this study.
This Study aims to determine the impact and relationship of
social media in the choice of national political candidates for the 2022
elections and the methods that are going to be used will be necessary to
obtain the data to reach an answer..
Method of Research Used
The main methods that will be used in this study will mostly be
survey methods. The reasoning behind it is that most survey type data
collections are fast and easy to conduct. This will be helpful as we are
going to cover quite a decent population. This type of method can also
answer the basic questions that are present in this study.
SUBJECTS OF THE STUDY
The subjects of the study are the ones who will be the participants
that will be used to get data through the methods. In this study, they will
be mainly composed of senior high school students who will be randomly
selected to create a randomized population. The capacity of the
population will be 50 students. The data that is going to be presented will
only be statistical and will not disclose any of the subject's personal
information when it is deemed unnecessary. 5 of the 50 students can
potentially be chosen for a test run when validating our methods.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENT USED
In the survey, we will mostly be using questionnaires which will
have yes or no questions, this is because the study only seeks to answer a
specific question.
VALIDATION OF INSTUMENTS
Our teacher sir Samuel Rosal Will validate the instruments that
are potentially used for this study. His opinions, assessment, and
corrections will be taken into account if another validation is required.
For this, 5 students will take part in the questionnaire and will be tested
for reliability.
Procedure of Data Gathering
There will be 5 stages to gathering our data
Stage 1 "Gathering our Participants": We will begin by randomly
choosing our participants from the senior high school range for our
surveys.
Stage 2 "The Creation of our Instruments": This stage will involve the
creation and validation of our instruments, the said instruments will also
be tested for reliability on 5 participants.
Stage 3 "The Implementation of the plan": This stage will involve the
actual conduct of the study using both instruments that have been
approved by the assessor.
Stage 4 "The retrieval of data": In this stage we will be retrieving the
collected data from the conductors of the study.
Stage 5 "The analyzing of data": Lastly In this stage we will analyze, proof
check, tabulate, visualize, and interpret the collected data. We will be
using a few tools to help us with this task.
STATISTICAL TREATMENT
1.) Percentage, Arithmetic mean, and Standard deviations.
2.) Using graphs to easily visualize our data.
SURVEY RESULTS
The methodology, instruments, and procedures that has been
performed by our group will be able to give answers as to how social
media can affect your decision as a senior high school student in the 2022
elections.
The survey concludes that for every 3 students there are 2 that are
politically active (2:3) (66% out of 50 students) on social media. 40% of
the students believe that social media affects their choice of national
candidates negatively and thus most of these choose not to indulge
heavily in politics on social media, whilst exactly half (50%) of the subjects
confirms that it affects them positively. The rest of the 10% has stated
that they feel neutral about politics in social media.
