Influence of facebook on Filipino users' participation in humanitarian action during typhoons in the country

Date

4-2011

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Development Communication

College

College of Development Communication (CDC)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Aiza M. Balinos

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out how Facebook influenced Filipino users to participate in humanitarian action during typhoons in the country. Specifically, it sought to 1) identify the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents of the study; 2) determine their Facebook usage; 3) identify their experience of the typhoons; 4) identify their sources of information about the typhoons; 5) determine the kind of information that they gathered; 6) figure out how they participated in humanitarian action during typhoons; 7) find out if there is a relationship between the number of typhoons experienced and participation in humanitarian action; and 8) find out if there is a relationship between Facebook membership, frequency of use of Facebook, and length of use of Facebook and participation in humanitarian action.

A Facebook Group was created to gather respondents who had used Facebook as a source of information during typhoons and had done something to help others. All of the 141 members were asked to complete an online survey; however, out of the 81 who answered the survey, only 64 of the members satisfied its requirements.

Frequency counts and percentages revealed that the respondents were mostly female students aged 14 to 22 living in Luzon, with a highest educational attainment of college and an annual household income of 100,000 to 300,000. Most of them joined Facebook in 2008 and 2009. The usual means of access to Facebook was through the Broadband or DLS Internet service, and majority of the respondents logged in everyday and stayed logged in for over an hour. Popular activities on the site include reading and/or creating notes, comments, events, etc. and “liking” fan pages, comments, photos, etc., while the most “liked” or joined kind of fan page or group was Entertainment and Arts.

Almost all the respondents had experienced a typhoon before, with three typhoons being the most number of typhoons they had experienced. The top three sources of information on the typhoons were the Internet, television, and family. The Internet sources frequently used were social networking sites (SNSs), online newspapers, news websites, etc., and search engines. Specifically, the respondents accessed Facebook, Yahoo! News, and Google to find out about the province/s affected by the typhoons, which all the respondents did, and to know about the signal warnings that were set in various areas.

Results also showed that most respondents helped in only one typhoon, and the most frequent kind of humanitarian action given was praying. Meanwhile, the predominant reason for their participation was that it was in their nature to help others in need.

Through correlation analyses, it was found that the number of typhoons experienced and participation in humanitarian action had a strong positive relationship, while Facebook membership, frequency of use of Facebook, and length of use of Facebook and participation had a weak to moderate positive relationship.

The findings of this study suggest that, in general, Facebook had no influence on humanitarian action during typhoons in the Philippines, while the number of typhoons experienced did.

Language

English

Location

UPLB College of Development Communication (CDC)

Document Type

Thesis

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