EXPLORATORY STUDY ON SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN PHILIPPINES AND AMERICA
Once accessed social media becomes the great equalizer, one can easily post thoughts with wanton abandon disregarding social classification. Such feature can be a boon or a bane in the proper hands. What more if these tools were placed on the hands of people with the power to lead and shape governmental relations? This study seeks to explore the mind of policy makers and how they go about reaching out to their audience using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, also we consider the impact of such tools to the traditional new media outlet. This study makes use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis employing double hermeneutic by combining the definition as used by the participants of the study and that of the researcher. This methodology also employs coding and analysis of the ideas, ramblings, and thoughts as posted by policy makers on social media and possibly explore how it affects their international relationship with other nations. Themes are generated to show these post and with selected interview tracts supporting these themes. From the collected theme, a general rule in handling and creating social media post are suggest to improve interaction.
International Relations, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Social media, Usage of Media Platforms