Module 3 Activity 2 and 4

Contrary to the earlier Western views of the “self” as a single identity, the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI)takes a broader approach to the conception of identity. According to the CTI, since humans are social being, our identities are continuously being formed through our relationships, the communities we are in, and even by how we communicate. For example, when we are born, we immediately have the identity of being our mother’s child, and this can only happen because we have a relationship with our mother. Another example is that a child often has the identity of being a child because our community has established an age norm that separates a child from an adult.

In CTI, communication is not just an expression of identity, but it is identity as well. Identity defined through communication can be defined both directly and indirectly. Communication defines identity directly when we use language to convey who we think we are in terms of characteristics and other terms. Communication defines identity indirectly when we reflect on who we think we are and who others think we are based on how we express ourselves. This differs from personal identity because our identity formed through communication can change depending on how we communicate or act.

There are 4 layers/frames in CTI. They are personal identity, relational identity, enacted identity, and communal identity. The personal frame is about what a person thinks of himself. For example, I identify as being a basketball player because I like to watch and play basketball. The relational from of identity is our identity with regards to our relationship with other people. I’ve already given an example of this in the first paragraph, where children can be considered their mother’s child because their mothers gave birth to them and the inherent relationship born out of this. The enacted frame of identity is the identity we create for ourselves through communication, both directly and indirectly. Lastly, the communal identity is our identity based on characteristics that society has grouped together and given a name to. For example, society has differentiated a male from a female based on certain sex organs. These identities are not siloed off from one another too. They affect each other as well, and Hecht & Jung (2004) have identified 11 different combinations of the 4 frames. They could be combinations of 2 or 3 or even a combination of all 4. An example of a combination is a personal-enacted identity. For example, I think of myself as a good son (this is personal identity), so I do what I think good sons do (this is enacted identity); because I do what good sons do, my parents say they are very proud of me, and I internalize this, reinforcing my belief that I am a good son.

When the 4 frames of identity interpenetrate each other it does not always mean that they agree with each other. There are times when frames may contradict each other, and this can cause inconsistencies in the identity of the person. I think an example of a contradiction between frames would be my pride in being a Filipino and what I’m currently doing to help the country. Inside, I’m proud to be a Filipino, and I’m proud of my culture, heritage, and roots. However, all this doesn’t reflect in my actions because most of the times I’ve been constantly consuming all the bad news that I hear happening around our country and I’m doing nothing about it because mostly I’m young and I don’t know where to help and contribute and because I feel hopeless about our situation with an inept, incompetent, and bull-headed government.

After watching Siyanda Mohutsiwa’s Ted Talk about social pan-africanism and social media’s role in it, I too started to realize and reflect on how social media has affected and can further affect racial and regional identity construction, both in other countries and here in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. I think the most well known example of construction of racial identity on social media is the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The struggles of the African-American community have been long and hard-fought, and I think now is the only time in history where African-American youth have the power at their fingertips to communicate with each other from around the United States to bring attention to their struggles and to organize protests and rallies as fast as overnight. Another recent example of construction of racial identity on social media is the unity between all Asian groups against Asian hate crimes happening across the United States. In the past, Asian communities used to be separated according to their country or their similarities like Chinese-Americans, Indian-Americans, or Filipino-Americans, but now because of the rise in Asian hate crimes, all these groups have come together, united by their continent of origin, to have a unified voice and bring attention to these atrocities. Then hopefully, bring action to put an end to them. For an example more closer to home, I’ve noticed a regional construction of identity here in the Philippines between those from the NCR and those from the other provinces. In social media, you can sometimes see a division between Manileños and people from the provinces. Since I’m from Cebu, I have a bias towards those from the province. I sometimes see Manileños ask people from the provinces online if we have popular chains like Starbucks or H&M, or one of the worst tweets I saw was someone asking people from the province if we rode on carabaos for transport. I don’t know if these were intended as jokes or just ignorance, but these ideas really bring to light the stereotypes between people from Manila and people from the provinces. Another factor that contributes to the creation of regional identities between people in the Philippines is the differences in the languages we speak. People online who are from Luzon tend to communicate using Tagalog or Filipino, while people from Visayas and Mindanao tend to communicate using Bisaya.