About me
I am an early career researcher studying on the mediation of platforms, algorithms and digital technologies in cultural production, politics, and public discourse in the Philippines.
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Research, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines but I will be moving on in a few months as an incoming PhD student at Northwestern University.
My research interest centers on the the interplay between software and politics emerging from the socio-technical relations between platforms, publics, and political actors, including institutions such as states and big tech companies, and amateur and computational actors such as influencers and trolls. I study this by interrogating how platforms enact and codify ontological and/or epistemological structures that configure the conditions where politics is constructed. A knowledge of these conditions then supports me in critically examining how political actors wield influence and facilitate action through their strategic and subversive use of platform affordances and logics.
Since the beginning of 2020, I presented and published in top conferences and journals in my field such as Media, Culture and Society, Convergence and AoIR or the Association of Internet Researchers about a range of pertinent topics: political influencers and platform governance on YouTube, ad hoc social movements and digital memory on Twitter, and the cultural algorithms and media infrastructures of Netflix. I have also worked with government, civil society and media organizations to identify evidence-based policy recommendations and interventions to address disinformation and political manipulation in the Philippine context. Currently, I am also leading a public research project called Digital Public Pulse, a digital media monitoring research that conducts a cross-platform assemblage analysis of the 2022 Philippine Elections using network, content, and discourse analyses.
I have three and a half years of teaching experience as both part-time and full-time faculty at the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University and University of Sydney. The courses I teach range from communication and media history, communication and media theory and methods, to specialists classes on digital cultures and research at both undergraduate and master's levels. Before joining the academe, I was working as a Digital Engagement Strategist for Ogilvy Philippines for almost 5 years working on local and regional clients and campaigns.
I have a Master’s degree in Digital Communication and Culture from the University of Sydney under the Australia Awards Scholarship and a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communication, Magna cum laude, from the University of the Philippines. I will be spending the next 5 years working on my PhD degree and research at Northwestern University, Illinois.