Constructing Online Political Habitus: Unpacking Filipino Generational Political Facebook Posts Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Abstract

Social networking sites had become influential as a platform for discourses, social interaction, and self-presentation (Delise, 2014). Facebook (FB) had become mainstream that its feature of posting political posts and information impacts the society. It is the objective of this study to explore the nature of online political posts and its users. A purposively sampled participants were selected (n=200), and their online political posts were coded and analyzed. Using exploratory sequential mixed methods, six major motivations to use social media was identified thru content analysis. Multiple correspondence analysis was done to cluster individuals into defined groups, namely: political activism, political slacktivism, and politically enmeshed. Moreover, the structure of online political habitus was constructed. It is cognitively structured by the individual level of political knowledge and socially constructed by political participation. Implications of the result show the crucial role of values formation during the early formative years in a person’s life. The established beliefs and values later dictate a person’s online political engagements. Moreover, educational attainment also contributed to the development of online political habitus of individuals wherein they are instinctively motivated to do political posting.