The Philippines has been most affected by natural disasters in the last few decades. Given the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters, there is a need to inform the public of the dangers of such disasters to mitigate risks and reduce damages and casualties. The media thus plays a crucial role in disseminating information before, during, and after natural disasters. However, it is also important to ensure the safety of journalists who cover disasters because they, too, are vulnerable to forms of physical and psychological harm in covering disasters. Against this context, this study documented and assessed the current newsroom policies and journalistic practices related to occupational safety and health (OSH) when covering natural disasters in the Philippines. Through in-depth interviews with Filipino journalists and editors who covered a range of natural disasters from 2013 to 2021 across different media, the study found that OSH policies in covering natural disasters vary from newsroom to newsroom, lack cohesiveness, are inconsistently applied, and do not adequately meet the needs of journalists before, during, and after their deployment. Based on the experiences and recommendations of the media workers, we identified the gaps in the practices such as the lack of briefing, training, and safety equipment; inadequate budget; prevailing attitude of prioritizing the story over the safety of reporters; absence of hazard pay; absence of specific safety guidelines, and issues on workflows. Grounded on the findings of the study, we proposed a set of safety guidelines that newsrooms and journalists can adopt to ensure the safety of Filipino journalists in the Philippines. The findings of the study have implications for the media industry, the ix instruction of journalism, and policymaking toward the protection of journalists in the Philippines.

“Boys’ Love” (BL) is an emerging genre in the Filipino media industry that offers an opportunity to challenge the country’s ambivalence on the gay community. As a scholarly inquiry, this study aimed to analyze the emerging discourses of men-loving men representation in selected Filipino BL films across three sites: the films themselves (texts), the audience’s reception, and the discursive practices that surround their production. Guided by the Theory of Multimodality, Cathy Cohen’s insights on heteronormativity, McInroy and Craig’s grounded study, Schroder’s reception model, and J. Neil Garcia’s works, we analyzed four selected BL films, 12 Filipino MLM informant insights, and 12 secondary-sourced interviews from the film’s cast and crew. Analysis of the discourses revealed that while there are certain divergences and convergences on the matter of representation, all three showed a mutual agenda for visibility, albeit constricted by limited and limiting conditions that they face.

This study explored how station operations influence the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) programming of Mega Manila FM radio station Monster RX93.1. With their continued relevance and wide reach, the music programming of FM stations like Monster serve as viable platforms for the wide promotion of local music and artists. However, this potential of radio can be hindered by factors related to the inner workings of each station.

Using Jarl A. Ahlkvist’s programming philosophies and Jonathan Hardy’s critical political economy, the researcher entered inquiry assuming that radio in the Philippines is of a commercial orientation and thus had certain practices and inclinations towards music programming that were informed by key forces behind the scenes, such as ownership, programmers, and radio jocks, among others.

The study found that Monster RX93.1’s nature as a niche station laid the foundation for heavy collaborative ideation, but final decisions for programming depended on the authority of the programmer. Anchored in its owners’ orientation towards innovation, the resulting philosophy for the station was a non-rational approach that prioritized station aesthetics and immersion in its upscale target audience, leading to a curated niche programming whose OPM offerings noteworthily provided platforms to both mainstream and independent Filipino artists. Monster RX93.1 sets an example for a vision towards programming that enriches art and culture amidst commercial interests.

The overconsumption of single-use plastic (SUP) in the Philippines has resulted in a plastic pollution crisis leading to frequent flooding, risks to human health, and threats to marine biodiversity. In response, Filipinos adapted single-use plastic avoidance behavior (SPAB), such as the use of ecobags, to minimize their SUP consumption.

This study examines how attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control shape SPAB of Filipinos residing in Metro Manila. Anchored on Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior, the study conducted in-depth interviews with Filipinos practicing SPAB to surface how these factors shape their behavior.

The findings reveal that while there is growing awareness and concern about plastic pollution, SPAB remains influenced by competing priorities, socio-economic limitations, and structural barriers. Positive attitudes toward the environment are not always enough to translate into action, especially when sustainable alternatives are inaccessible or inconvenient. Social influences from peers and family, as well as policies such as the ban on plastic, play critical roles in promoting SPAB, although their effectiveness varies. Furthermore, the study highlights that ingrained habits and time constraints significantly impact individuals’ ability to adopt consistent SPAB.

The Philippines had long relied on labor migration, with Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) celebrated as bagong bayani or modern-day heroes. While the sacrifices of domestic workers had been widely studied, those of Filipino factory workers remained largely overlooked. This study explored how Filipino factory workers in Taiwan used TikTok to narrate their sacrifices in a transnational and mediated sense. Drawing on need sacrifice (Holding et al., 2019) and multimodal digital coherence (Meier, 2022), the research examined how migrants expressed sacrifice through TikTok’s affordances, focusing on maintenance routines, psychological struggles, and lost leisure, shaped by their social and personal contexts. Using a qualitative approach, the study analyzed 45 TikTok posts and conducted 15 in-depth interviews with migrant workers based in Taiwan. Findings showed that TikTok served not only as a space for entertainment, but also as a digital diary of their sacrifice and endurance. Through captions, visuals, sounds, and trends, migrant workers portrayed sacrifice as material, emotional, and temporal, embedded in their daily transnational life. For them, TikTok functioned as a space to assert agency, foster solidarity, and resist stereotypes. This work contributes to migration and media studies by illustrating how digital storytelling enabled marginalized workers to humanize their labor and own their narrative at the face of global precarity.