Dr. Joshua Uyheng and host Pia Hontiveros engage with the audience during the inaugural lecture of Ateneo Breakthroughs last January 26 at Escaler Hall, Ateneo de Manila University.
How do online and offline narratives—from political speeches to news coverage to social media talk— make and unmake a democracy?
This is what computational social scientist Dr. Joshua Uyheng, director of the Ateneo Political Psychology of Democratization Laboratory and Assistant Professor at the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Psychology, and his interdisciplinary team are seeking to understand.
In a recent public lecture entitled Narratives, Networks, and Democracy Today, Uyheng touched on current issues and invited his audience to rethink what democratic life looks like when attention, identity, and community are mediated by algorithms and social ties.
Using computational techniques including text analysis, network analysis, and machine learning, he and his team found that Filipinos often cluster into sharply different narrative groups: the same political issue can evoke hope and euphoria in one camp, but fear and skepticism in another. Polarization can even track language use—i.e., Filipino vs. English—and the values that each side holds—e.g., public security concerns and anti-elite grievances, vs. human rights, rule of law, and democratic principles. He noted that people gravitate toward like-minded communities especially during crises, which can polarize and influence even offline outcomes such as policy formulation.
Importantly, Uyheng cautions that while bots and coordinated actors can accelerate division, some emotional spikes can arise largely from organic human behavior, with inauthentic accounts acting like “gasoline” on already-existing flames. Still, he offers grounded optimism: narratives of cooperation and global unity closely correlate with better collective outcomes in crises, and deliberately reshaping who talks to whom can also shift the stories groups tell about each other. This suggests that repairing democracy is, at least in part, a practical project of rebuilding meaning and relationship in online communities. 
Introducing Ateneo Breakthroughs lecture series
Narratives, Networks, and Democracy Today marked the formal launch of Ateneo Breakthroughs, a public lecture series designed to ignite innovative conversations on the most urgent social questions of the day. Envisioned by Ateneo de Manila University Vice President for Higher Education Dr. Maria Luz C. Vilches, Ateneo Breakthroughs highlights research that engages public discourse and informs social action.
“Breakthroughs are not only the results that we publish in very prestigious journals; breakthroughs also happen when we awaken curiosity, and when we continue to hope despite evidence to the contrary,” said Dr. Filomeno Aguilar, Jr., Assistant Vice President for Research, Creative Work, and Innovation, on behalf of the University President, Fr. Roberto Yap, SJ.
For interview requests, you may reach Dr. Joshua Uyheng at [email protected]. For other inquiries, please email [email protected]. Visit archium.ateneo.edu for more information about our latest research and innovations.
