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The emergence of new communications technologies has provided a new space for initiating romantic and sexual relationships among gays who perceive social and physical places to be a traditional space that largely promotes connection among heterosexuals. Now, mobile networking applications like Grindr have made it easier for gay men to "cruise" and meet other men, and are seen to lead to the increasing number of sexual partners, being exposed to risks like sexually transmitted infections (STI), among others. Thus this study, framed within the theory of Mediatization – which critically analyzes the dialectic process in which both media and communications on one hand, and culture and society on the other, mutually shape and change each other in an interactional process – explores the question: How have gays' way of cruising, or the initiation of romantic or sexual relations (among others), in the Philippines been mediatized across history?

Studies of transnational families have explored the various approaches by which separated members of the family exchange care across distance. In the context of the Philippines, transnational caregiving is widely studied as transnational mothering, looking at how migrant mothers balance their breadwinning and mothering roles using available communications. In this article, I investigated how the circulation of global care among migrant families is increasingly and intensively mediatized in the past decades. Using Andreas Hepp's (2013) mediatization approach and Loretta Baldassar and Laura Merla's (2014) care circulation framework, I conducted interviews with 20 migrant parents in Hong Kong and their 25 left-behind children in the Philippines to reveal the stories of how digital and convergent technologies have altered the communicative practices surrounding the four main modes of transnational care circulation: gifts, cross-border mobilities, remittances, and transnational communication. I have also found how mediatized parenting is now a more intensive and embodied mode of distant caring that has sustained families across borders. This study aims to contribute to the mediatization research paradigm and draw practical implications for sustaining families affected by this transnational phenomenon.

Modern communications technologies are seen to have changed the way gay men initiate sexual or romantic relations in the Philippines. Dating websites like PlanetRomeo and mobile applications like Grindr are even said to have caused the "death" of Malate, the gay capital of the Philippines, as these now allow gay men to find partners without having to meet in-person and risk being "outed" in public or censured by heteronormative norms. Given this observation, this paper aimed to explore: How have gay men's practices of and places for relationship initiation with other men in the Philippines changed over time? A total of 36 informants for this study shared their narratives and traced out the physical spaces and the media ensemble where and through which gay relationship initiation happens. By looking at the communicative practices in these places and media ensemble, the notion of place-making of the physical and virtual spaces for gay meeting was discussed.

This study explores a framework for theorizing the participatory media approach by examining local experiences on communication and development through the perspectives of health communication technicians, their relationships with senders and receivers in health programs and projects, and how they conduct the process of communication planning, implementation, and evaluation. The study addresses the following three main questions: (1) Who are the health communicators and what are their roles in participatory communication? (2) What is the level of participatory communication in health programs and projects? and (3) What are the approaches and characteristics of participatory communication in health programs and projects in the Philippines? The study reveals that communication technicians perceive their communication strategies as long-term processes that address the felt needs of communities with the participation of beneficiaries in planning communication that is sensitive to the culture of, beneficial to the majority of, and owned by the community.

The "Bawal ang Epal Dito" (BAED) campaign was implemented to prevent politicians from taking advantage of the government's Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to further their political ambitions. Election campaigns were subject to assessment in preparation for the May 2016 national elections. Assessment covered: (a) the extent and nature of BAED campaign beneficiaries and stake-holders' awareness, knowledge, and behaviors; (b) channels and messages of the campaign; and (c) its efficiency; (d) and participation in the implementation of the campaign. This research employed a campaign evaluation research design, and used focus group discussion as its main method. The study shows that there are varying levels of awareness, knowledge, and behaviors among the campaign's primary and secondary audiences. Finally, it is in the matter of efficiency and participation that the campaign was perceived to have fared worst. Recommendations were generated for the enhancement of the BAED campaign for future implementation.