Self-presentation in Filipino personal home pages: An analysis of contextual dimensions and expressive resources of a computer-mediated communication

• Main Author: Gustilo, Leah E.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2006
• Subjects: Telematics; Computer-mediated communication; Websites > Design; Web site development; Linguistics; Reading and Language
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/149; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1148/viewcontent/CDTG004164_P__1_.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Considering the dearth of information about how self is presented on the web, especially by Filipino home page authors, this study investigated online self-presentation on personal home pages focusing on ways in which authors present themselves online using hybrid literacies that rely on the combined visual, linguistic, and audio resources available on the web. The study used a multi-method approach: online survey of the PHP authors, content analysis of the websites, and linguistic analysis of the self-description language data found on the websites. The online survey was conducted in order to describe the host characteristics and production processes involved in home page authoring. The content analysis focused on the content and formulaic categories of the different elements found on the home pages. The content categories consisted of demographics, self-expression/description, social memberships, and interests while the formulaic features include feedback mechanism, audio/visual features, and organizational features. The linguistic analysis delved into the self-presentation strategies and linguistic features of PHPs. Overall, the study highlights some features associated with computer-mediated communication. There is a trend among Filipino personal home page authors to display similar online strategies used by PHP authors in previous studies. Filipino authors present themselves online using the palette of multi-modal elements like favourite links, guest books, background music, linguistic descriptions, graphics, e-mails, and many more. The analysis of the language data of PHPs yielded findings pointing to the preference of self-promotion over ingratiation by PHP authors, reflecting an important traditional belief in the Philippine culture: education and qualifications are important factors in a person good life. Self-promotion is greatly exhibited by high-profile non-computer related individuals, computer related workers, and students. Ingratiation, on the other hand, is greatly preferred by homemakers, low-profile non-computer related workers, and a student it is less likely to be used in computer-related jobs. The test for significance between self-presentation strategies and linguistic features reveals that self-presentation strategies may influence the use of following features: modals, pronouns, and process types. When using the self-promotion strategy, first and second pronouns, high commitment modality markers, and material and relational processes dominate. When, on the other hand, authors utilize ingratiation strategy, third person pronouns, emphasizers, and mental process features seem to abound. The link between self-presentation and linguistic features and other expressive resources is established by relating the particular pattern found in the data to Goffman explanation of sign activity. The study posits that when individuals prefer particular linguistic patterns or design tools, the choices have to be understood as signalling something about the persons identity, because these linguistic choices are paralinguistic cues (corresponding to non-verbal cue in face-to-face interaction) that reveal something about an individual.