RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The researcher used a self-made essay-type questionnaire that is composed of five (5)

questions to determine the impact of social media to the upcoming election 2022. The

functionality of the study will be determined through the questionnaires.

RESPONDENTS

The researcher had come up with fifteen (15) selected citizens from Polillo, Quezon

that are in the age group between sixteen (16) and thirty-six (36) to be the respondents of this

study. The selected citizens were given a questionnaire for them to answer with regards to

their knowledge level on the impact of social media on this year’s election.

DATA GATHERING PROCESS

The researcher had gathered information by interviewing and providing a self-made

essay-type questionnaire to the selected citizens from Polillo, Quezon. The set of questions

that were provided by the researcher is all about this study. The researcher printed the

questionnaire and handed them out to the respondents; however, some of those respondents

live far away, so that’s why the researcher interviewed them and sent them the questionnaire

through Messenger. The collection of data that was gathered, will be presented and analyzed.

14
 CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

This chapter presents the findings and analysis of data on the impact of social media

to the upcoming election 2022.

FINDINGS

1. What are the demographic profiles of the respondents?

There were fifteen (15) respondents in total, and the majority of them were

female, eleven (11) out of fifteen (15), and four (4) were male. They were in the age group

between sixteen (16) and thirty-six (36). There were five (5) respondents that were sixteen

(16) years old, which is the greatest number of respondents among the selected citizens from

Polillo, Quezon. Those who belonged to the age of nineteen (19) years old have a number of

four (4) respondents. Those who belonged to the ages of seventeen (17) and twenty (20) years

old, each have a number of two (2) respondents. And only one (1) respondent has the age of

twenty-seven (27) and thirty-six (36).

2. What are the people’s opinions about the use of social media as a platform for the

election campaigns?

From the results of the interview and the questionnaire, it is apparent that social media

15
is used in many ways by voters and candidates during a political election cycle. Of those who

responded to the interview and the questionnaire, most claim that social media is effective,

flexible, and helpful because it is the best way to spread knowledge, information, and news

from one part of the world to the other. People can be aware of what is happening with the

ongoing election campaigns during the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the use of

social media, people are also able to educate themselves about the elections and know the

political candidates better. However, most of the respondents also said that social media has a

lot of disadvantages when it comes to using it as a platform for election campaigns. Because

in terms of campaigning of the different political candidates or party lists, there is a lot of

fake news going around on social media, people sometimes use social media to disguise

themselves as somebody else and ruin the candidate’s image or reputation, because, in social

media, people often believe what they saw right away. As a result, social media as a platform

for the elections has its own pros and cons, so, it is neither good nor bad for democracy.

According to Capili, Macapintal, and Delgado (2016), the effects of social media

are not only purely positive. Different social media platforms have been a source of

information but as well as different negative effects such as misinformation, harassment, and

discrimination under the pretense of freedom of speech and expression.

3. Do people modify their views about a particular political candidate because of a

certain post they saw on social media?

In accordance with the results, all of the respondents stated that they do modify their

views about a particular political candidate because of a certain post they saw on social

media. There are a lot of posts on social media that are specifically about the political

candidates
 16

themselves and their election campaigns, and having read those informations, it makes them

change their thoughts about that political candidate, either in a good way or a bad way. But

don’t get them wrong, the respondents also said that they are making sure that whatever it is

that they are about to read is based on facts or at least proven. They either watch the news on

TV or use the Internet to check some informations about politics and the political candidates

so that they can know if the news and informations that they read on social media are true or

proven.

According to Spierings & Kristof (2014), social media serves a direct effect by being

a showcase of a campaign poster. The Facebook platform allows politicians to add details

about their political views and socio-economic characteristics that give potential voters a

glimpse of their interests and insight into the politicians. When people find the details

sufficing to their standards of an ideal politician or they have the same point of view in

politics as the politicians, it urges them to support the politician with the same perspective.

Another impact of social media as an advertisement effect is that having social media gives

the impression to the people that a politician is open to modernity and is not merely old

school or old fashioned; this is among young voters.

4. Do people personally follow political figures on social media?

The majority of the respondents, thirteen (13) out of fifteen (15), said that they do

personally follow political figures on social media and the ones that they are following are

the ones that they are supporting in the election. They follow those political figures mostly

because they want to be informed or updated on the plans their chosen political candidate
wants to do in the future and the activities that they are doing in the present. And the

types of political

17

figures that they follow are the ones that are genuine and are not corrupt. Why? Simply

because they are amazed by their work, their authenticity, credentials, and their passion to

serve, with their charities and with their advocacies. They don’t follow those who are corrupt

and irresponsible.

According to Enli (2017), in the 2020 United States presidential election campaign,

social media platforms were drastically utilized as direct sources of news circumventing the

editorial media. With the candidates’ millions of followers, Twitter became a platform for

communication and the candidate’s essential online information channel. Similarly, social

media created a stage platform for discussion and critiquing the conventional media by

campaigns and their networks.

5. What comes into people’s minds when they see posts and discussions on social media

about the political candidates running for the election and their election campaign

platforms?

There is a lot happening on social media with the campaigns and the political

candidates themselves. There are so many advocacies posted that everyone should look

forward to. There are also fake news and internet trolls that people should be looking out for.

So, when most of the respondents said that “chaos” is the first thing that comes into their

mind, it is because whenever they see supporters of the different political candidates, arguing

and debating with each other on social media, it totally bothers and worries them. Since it is
the election season, opinions are a dime a dozen, everyone has something to say, and it

sometimes comes to a point where people try to humiliate each other because of their

differences in political views. Some people can also use social media to manipulate others by

posting fake news about the political candidates and making groups protest and ruin the

candidate’s name.

According to DiFonzo, Beckstead, Stupak & Walders (2016), social media is a

complex information environment susceptible to misinformation. People tend to bias toward

politicians because of conformity; if their politics conform to their beliefs, they tend to

become biased toward the conforming politician. Similarly, Kuklinski, Quirk, Jerit,

Schwieder & Rich (2000) stated that inaccurate beliefs threaten the foundations of

democracy. Citizens shape the social and political surroundings through their engagement

with politics, and mainly via their participation in elections. Deceptions in social media

sabotage democratic processes by influencing the people’s decision-making. Support for a

candidate or policy depends on what one believes, and deceptions can manipulate an

individual's judgments.

6. What are the challenges of using social media as a platform for election campaigns to

the people?

From the results of the interview and the questionnaire, the political challenges of

social media campaigns to the people are: First, the information that people see on social

media might not be true and not verified, which can make the people change their views

about that political candidate in a bad way. Second, more fights and debates are happening on

social media because of the particular reason of having differences among the people’s

political views or opinions. And lastly, the popularity impact that can be gained on social

media. Because nowadays, people are bandwagon, they support those who are more famous
than the ones who are more considerate towards the people. This kind of decision can be

unfavorable for the future of our country, the Philippines.

According to Esposo (2010), with the existing provisions passed by the COMELEC,

there are still however rising challenges, relevance, and impact of social media in the

19

Philippines. There are still weaknesses in the existing regulations and laws of COMELEC.

Fake news and false information, for example, circulates during elections on social media;

however, no existing law or regulation is catering to such challenges. The absence of such

law or regulation would undermine the essence of a fair and credible election which is a very

important feature of democracy. As the campaign strategies continue to evolve with the

utilization of social media, the regulatory environment must be prepared to address issues that

add to this trend. Also, a new mandala report (2019) states that there is a rising spread of

fake news in the 2019 midterm election. There was a change from the utilization of online

celebrities who influence millions of social media followers, from the influencer’s lifestyle

content, it became embossed by political contents aiming audiences to vote a certain way.

Disinformation does not solely rely on click baits but has changed to form online

communities (Ong, Tapsell, & Curato, 2019).

 20

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of the findings obtained, the conclusions based on

the findings, and the recommendations offered on the impact of social media to the upcoming

election 2022.

FINDINGS

1. What are the demographic profiles of the respondents?

There were fifteen (15) respondents in total, and the majority of them were female,

eleven (11) out of fifteen (15), and four (4) were male. They were in the age group between

sixteen (16) and thirty-six (36). There were five (5) respondents in the age of sixteen (16)

years old. Four (4) respondents are at the age of nineteen (19). Two (2) respondents are at the
ages of seventeen (17) and twenty (20). And only one (1) respondent has the age of twenty-

seven (27) and thirty-six (36).

2. What are the people’s opinions about the use of social media as a platform for the

election campaigns?

Of those who responded to the interview and the questionnaire, most claim that social

media is effective and helpful because it is the best way to spread knowledge, information,

and

21

news from one part of the world to the other, especially with the ongoing Covid-19

pandemic. However, most of the respondents also said that social media has a lot of

disadvantages when it comes to using it as a platform for election campaigns because of the

fake news going around on social media and the way people use it to ruin a certain political

candidate’s reputation or image. As a result, social media as a platform for the elections has

its own pros and cons, so, it is neither good nor bad.

3. Do people modify their views about a particular political candidate because of a

certain post they saw on social media?

In accordance with the results, all of the respondents said that they do modify their

views about a particular political candidate because of a certain post they saw on social

media. Having read those informations, it makes them change their thoughts about that

political candidate, either in a good way or a bad way. But don’t get them wrong, they are

making sure that whatever it is that they are about to read is based on facts or at least proven

and they do it by watching the news on TV or using the Internet to check if those

informations that they read are true or proven.

4. Do people personally follow political figures on social media?

The majority of the respondents, thirteen (13) out of fifteen (15), said that they do

personally follow political figures on social media and the ones that they are following are

the ones that they are supporting in the election mostly because they want to be informed or

updated on the plans their chosen political candidate wants to do in the future and the

activities that they are doing in the present. And the types of political figures that they follow

are the ones that are genuine and are not corrupt.

22

5. What comes into people’s minds when they see posts and discussions on social media

about the political candidates running for the election and their election campaign

platforms?

Most of the respondents said that “chaos” is the first thing that comes into their mind

because whenever they see supporters of the opposite political candidates, arguing and

debating with each other on social media, it totally bothers them. Some people use social

media to humiliate someone because of their differences in political views. Some people can

also use social media to manipulate others by posting fake news about the political candidates

and making groups protest and ruin the candidate’s name.

6. What are the political challenges of social media campaigns to the people?

Most of the respondents said that the political challenges of social media campaigns

to the people are: First, the information that people see on social media might not be true and

not verified. Second, more fights and debates are happening on social media. And lastly, the

popularity impact that can be gained on social media, because people nowadays are

bandwagon.
 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the followings of this study, the following conclusions are drawn.

1. The researcher, therefore, concludes that the majority of the respondents were females

and most of them were at the age of 16 years old.

23 using social media as a platform for election
2. The researcher, therefore, concludes that

campaigns is effective, flexible, and helpful; however, it also has a lot of

disadvantages.

3. The researcher, therefore, concludes that the use of social media in politics has a

significant impact on the views of the people about a certain political candidate or a

political party according to the information perceived from social media.

4. The researcher, therefore, concludes that some people follow political candidates on

social media, mostly because they want to be informed or updated about the political

candidates and their latest activities.

5. The researcher, therefore, concludes that the fights and debates happening on social

media these days causes chaos and it bothers and worries a lot of people.

6. The researcher, therefore, concludes that there are a lot of challenges in using social

media as a platform for election campaigns.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The following are the recommendations:

To the Registered Voters

The researcher recommends that they should familiarize themselves with the

candidates that are running for the election so that they can vote wisely and have a leader that

will guide the country and the citizens to a better future. I also recommend that whenever

they use social media, they should double-check their sources and wordings before making a

post about a political candidate.

24
To the Political Candidates

The researcher recommends that they should use social media as a sort of alternative

to traditional newscasts, so that they can directly convey their messages and interact with

voters and non-voters alike.

To the Legislative Body

The researcher recommends that they should take heed of the challenges of social

media as a tool for election campaigns and also create laws to prevent the reoccurrence of the

existing challenges of utilizing social media as a tool for the electoral campaigns that are

experienced by the voters and the candidates.

To the Youth

The researcher recommends that they should be aware that social media and politics

aren’t a free-for-all. In a day and age where posts about politics are considered public

records, there are real-world consequences that go along with a politician’s social presence.
To the Future Researchers

The researcher recommends a follow-up study with regards on the impact of social

media to the upcoming election 2022.

25

APPENDICES
 APPENDIX A

Mt. Carmel School of Polillo

Polillo, Quezon

Greetings of Peace

May I respectfully endorse, JUSTINE MEGAN CACERES, a Grade 11-STEM

student, who is currently conducting a survey on the topic, THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL

MEDIA TO THE UPCOMING ELECTION 2022.

 Your response is seemed important to our budding researcher, in her gathering of

Data Analysis for her Final Defense.

Looking forward to your support and cooperation as she journeys towards her goal of

success.

Sr. Gloria De la Cruz, SPC Ms. Mary Rose

Azores

Principal Research Adviser

APPENDIX B

INFORMED CONSENT

This is to certify that I of

(Name) (Address)
will fully affix my signature, as I agree to this term and conditions of being a participant of

the study research entitled, “THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE UPCOMING

ELECTION 2022”.
 Signature

APPENDIX C

Mt. Carmel School of Polillo

The Impact of Social Media to the

Upcoming Election 2022

Name: Gender:
Age:

Questions:
1. With the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, what is your opinion about the use of social media
as a platform for the election campaigns?
 2. This election season, have you modified your views about a particular political
candidate because of a certain post you saw on social media? Why? Why not?

3. People follow political figures on social media for a number of reasons. Do you
personally follow political figures on social media? Why? Why not?

4. Thinking about the posts and discussions you see on social media about the political
candidates running for the election and their election campaign platforms, what comes
to your mind?

5. What are the political challenges of social media campaigns to the people?

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