My research examines the intersections of digital cultures and social justice. I probe the historical and social conditions surrounding the access and use of digital media by marginal populations, their representations in digital spaces, and how these technological engagements reshape politics, society, and marginality. I have explored four key sub-themes: 1) minority groups and online political mobilization; 2) digital infrastructures and inequality; 3) digital labor, organizing, and precarity; and 4) networked brokerage and the dynamics of aspirational content creation on social media.
a. Books
Lim, S.S. & Soriano, C. (eds.) (2016). Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture. Emerging Phenomena, Enduring Concepts. London & New York: Routledge
Soriano, C.R. & Cabalquinto, E.C. Philippine Digital Cultures: Brokerage Dynamics on YouTube. Amsterdam University Press (AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER)
Del Mundo, C., Mariano, G., & Soriano, C. (Eds.) (2021). The Critical Prosumer. Manila: Communication Foundation For Asia.
b. Peer reviewed journal articles
Horbyk, R., Löfgren, I., Prymachenko, Y. & Soriano, C. (2021). Fake News as Meta-Mimesis: Imitative Genres and Storytelling in the Philippines, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine. Popular Inquiry, 8(1), 1-26 (open access)
Soriano, C., Cabalquinto, E. & Panaligan, J.H. (2021). Performing ‘digital labor bayanihan’: Strategies of influence and survival in the platform economy. Sociologias. (open access)
Fox, J., Pearce, K. E., Massanari, A. L., Riles, J. M., Szulc, Ł., Ranjit, Y. S., Trevisan, F., Soriano, C. R. R., Vitak, J., Arora, P., Ahn, S. J., Alper, M., Gambino, A., Gonzalez, C., Lynch, T., Williamson, L. D., & Gonzales, A. L. (2021). Open science, closed doors? Countering marginalization through an agenda for ethical, inclusive research in Communication. Journal of Communication. Advance online publication. Open access preprint here
Soriano, C.R. & Gaw, F. (2021). Platforms, alternative influence, and networked political brokerage on YouTube. Convergence: The International Journal for Research into New Media Technologies. Open access preprint here.
Soriano, C.R. (2021). Digital platform labor in the Philippines: Emerging configurations and policy implications. Japan Labor Issues, 5(32), 56-66. (Open access).
Soriano, C.R. (2021). Introduction to the Special Issue. The Dynamics of Digital Communication in the Philippines: Legacies and Potentials. Media International Australia (Guest Edited with J. Lorenzana). Open access preprint here
Soriano, C.R. (2021). Digital Labour in the Philippines: Emerging Forms of Brokerage. Media International Australia [Special Issue: The Dynamics of Digital Communication in the Philippines: Legacies and Potentials]. Online first. Open access preprint here.
Soriano, C. & Cabanes, J.V. (2020). Entrepreneurial solidarities: Social media collectives and Filipino digital platform workers. Social Media + Society [Special issue on Marginality and Social Media. doi.org/10.1177/2056305120926484 [open access]
Cabalquinto, E. & Soriano, C. R. (2020). 'Hey, I like your videos, super relate!' Locating sisterhood in an online intimate public on YouTube. Information, Communication, and Society. Online First. [Read postprint here]
Tintiangko, J. & Soriano, C.R. (2020). Coworking Spaces in the Global South: Local Articulations and Imaginaries. Journal of Urban Technology, 27(1), 67-85. [Read postprint here]
Soriano, C.R., David, C., and Atun, J. (2019). Crystallizing the official narrative: News discourses about the killings from the Philippine government’s campaign against illegal drugs. Journalism: Theory, Practice, Critique. Online First. [Read preprint here]
Soriano, C.R. (2019). Communicative assemblages of the ‘pisonet’ and the translocal context of ICT for the ‘have-less’: Innovation, inclusion, stratification. International Journal of Communication, 13, 4692-4701. [open access]
Soriano, C.R., Davies, H. & Hjorth, L. (2019). Social surveillance and Let’s Play: A regional case study of gaming in Manila slum communities. New Media & Society, 21, (10): 2119-2139
Atun, J.M., Mendoza, R., David, C., Cossid, R.P., Soriano, C.R. (2019). The Philippines’ anti-drug campaign: Spatial and temporal patterns of killings linked to drugs. International Journal of Drug Policy, 73, 100-111.
Bernadas, J.M. & Soriano, C.R. (2019). Online privacy behavior among youth in the global South: A closer look at diversity of connectivity and information literacy. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 17(1),17-30.
Soriano, C. Cao. R.J., Sison, M. (2018). Experiences of ICT use in shared, public access settings in Philippine slums. Development in Practice, 28(3), 358-373
Soriano, C. (2016). Transmedia mobilization: Agency and literacy in ethnic minority productions in the age of spreadable media. The Information Society, 32(5), 354-363. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2016.1212620
Soriano, C.R, Roldan, MDC, Cheng, C. & Oco, N. (2016). Social media and civic engagement: The case of Twitter use during typhoon Yolanda. Philippine Political Science Journal, 37(1),6 -25. Doi:10.1080/01154451.2016.1146486 [open access]
Soriano, C., & Lim, S. S. (2015). The Virgin Mary with a Mobile Phone. Ideologies of Mothering and Technology Consumption in Philippine television advertisements. Communication, Culture and Critique, 8(1), 1-19. DOI: 10.1111/cccr.12070 [open access]
Soriano, C. (2014). Minorities and Online Political Mobilization: A Historical-Dialectical-Structurational Analysis. Journal of Creative Communications, 8, 89-106 [Read post print here]
Soriano, C. (2014). Constructing Collectivity in Diversity: Online Political Mobilization of an LGBT Political Party. Media, Culture and Society, 36(1), 20-36. [Access postprint here]
Sriramesh, K. Rivera-Sánchez, M. & Soriano, C. (2013). Websites for stakeholder relations by corporations and non-profits: A time-lag study in Singapore. Journal of Communication Management, 17(2), 122- 139. [on open access]
Soriano, C.R. & Sreekumar, T.T. (2012). Multiple Transcripts as Political Strategy: Social Media and Conflicting Identities of the Moro Liberation Movement in the Philippines. Media, Culture and Society, 34(8), 1028 – 1039. [Read preprint here]
Soriano, C.R. (2012). The Arts of Indigenous Online Dissent: Negotiating Technology, Indigeneity, and Activism in the Cordillera. Telematics and Informatics, 29, 33-44.
Soriano, C.R. (2007). Exploring the ICT and Rural Poverty Reduction Link: Telecenters and Rural Livelihoods in China, Electronic Journal for Information Systems in Developing Countries. 32 (1) 1-15. [on open access]
Soriano, C.R. (2006). The Challenges of Relief and Rehabilitation in Ongoing Conflict: A Mindanao Case. Kasarinlan, Philippine Journal of Third World Studies. QC: University of the Philippines Press, 21(1), 4-33. [on open access]
c. Book chapters
Soriano, C. & Cabanes, JVC. (in press). Solidaristic formations among cloudworkers in the platform economy: Entrepreneurial logics with resistant identities. In T. Flew (Ed.), SAGE Handbook of the Digital Media Economy. Sage.
Chen, Y. & Soriano, C.R. (in press). How do workers survive and thrive in the platform economy? Evidence from China and Philippines. In Graham, M. & Ferrari. F. (eds), Digital Work in the Planetary Market. MIT Press.
Soriano, C. (forthcoming). ‘Suddenly, virtual organizations’: Communication technology and the labor politics of work and time. In Lee, R. & Roma, D. (Eds.) Covid-19 Lockdown in the Philippines: Perspectives, Experiences, and Research Leads. Manila: De La Salle University Press.
Soriano, C. & Cabanes, JV. (2020). Between ‘world class work’ and ‘proletarianised labor’: Digital labor imaginaries in the Global South. In E.Polson, L. Schofield-Clarke, R. Gajjala (Eds). Routledge Companion to Media and Class. London & New York: Routledge. [Read full preprint here]
Ilagan, K.A. & Soriano, C.R. (2020). Data Journalism in the Philippines: New trends, new practices for old media organizations. In B. Mutsvairo, S. Bebawi, & E. Borges-Rey, Data Journalism in non-Western Societies: Comparative Perspectives. Palgrave. [Read full preprint here]
Soriano, C. & Panaligan, J.C. (2019). The rise of ‘skill-makers’ in the platform economy: Transacting digital labour. In (Athique, A. & Baulch, E). Digital Transactions in Asia: Economic, Informational, and Social Exchanges. London & New York: Routledge. [Read full preprint here]
Soriano, C. & Cao, R. (2017). Of Owned, Shared, and Public Access ICT: Constructs of Privacy and Publicness in Marginal Spaces. In (A. Telleria, Ed.) Between the Public and Private in Mobile Communication (pp. 77-98). London & New York: Routledge.
Soriano, C. & Cao, R. (2016). Minority groups and strategies of display and dissent in physical, virtual, and hybrid spaces. In Ong, J. & Rovisco, M. (Eds). Taking the Square: New protest movements, the media, and the struggle for democracy 'from below (pp. 207-228). Rowman and Littlefield.
Lim, S. S. and Soriano, C (2016). A (digital) giant awakens: Invigorating media studies through Asian perspectives. In Lim, S.S. & Soriano, C. (Eds). Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture. Emerging Phenomena, Enduring Concepts (pp. 3-16). London & New York: Routledge. [Read full preprint here]
Soriano, C. & Lim, S.S. (2016). Ritual and communal connection in mobile phone communication: Representation of kapwa, bayanihan and "People Power" in the Philippines. In Lim, S.S. & Soriano, C. (Eds). Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture, Emerging Phenomena, Enduring Concepts (pp. 100-118). London & New York: Routledge.
Sapitula, M and Soriano C. (2016). My Letter to Heaven via Email. Translocal Piety and Mediated Selves in Urban Marian Piety in the Philippines. In Lim, S.S. & Soriano, C. (Eds). Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture, Emerging Phenomena, Enduring Concepts (pp 33-51). London & New York: Routledge.
Soriano, C. (2015). Strategic activism for democratization and social change. In D. Holtzhausen and Ansgar Zerfass (eds.), Handbook of Strategic Communication (pp.424-438). London & New York: Routledge. [Access request here]
Soriano, C. (2014). Mobile technologies and gender rituals. In X. Xu (Ed), Mobile Media and Communications: Social, Political and Economic Implications (pp. 85-107). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
d. Book/article reviews
Soriano, C. (2015). Review: Proenza, F. J. (Ed.), Public Access ICT across Cultures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, 30(1), 130-133.
Soriano, C. (2015). Review: Rogers, R. (2013). ‘Digital Methods’. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Television and New Media, 16(8), 772.
Soriano, C. (2013). Review: G. Lovink, ‘Networks without a Cause: Critique of Social Media’. Mobile Media & Communication, 1(3), 373-374
e. White Papers / Commissioned Works
Soriano, C., Bernadas, JM, Torneo, A., Salvosa, F., Figueroa, C.M. (2021). ‘Designing a Health Communication Strategy for Local Government Units During Covid-19. In Torneo, A. & Hecita, I. (Eds.). Adaptive and Resilient Governance in Health Crisis Situations: Policy and Practical Considerations. Makati: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Available from https://www.dlsu-jrig.org/learning-materials
Magno, F. & Soriano, C. (2013). E-Government Services for Overseas Filipino Workers. Study funded by the National Research Council of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology.
Soriano, C.R. (2010). Online Deliberative Spaces and the Ethno-religious Divide in the Philippines: Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism? Published by the National University of Singapore-Communications and New Media White Paper Series.
Lallana, E. & Soriano, C (2008). Towards Universal Internet Access in the Philippines. Research funded by Ideacorp, Inc. and Intel Technology Philippines Inc. Available from http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub/resources/towards-universal-internet-access-in-the-philippines
Mendes, S. Alampay, E., Soriano, E. & Soriano, C. (2008). Innovative Mobile Applications in the Philippines (Lessons for Africa). Research commissioned by the Swedish International Development Agency. Available from http://www.sida.se/shared/jsp/download.jsp?f=SIDA38306en_Phillippines+web.pdf&a=33306
f. Invited Presentations and Speaker Addresses (2020)
‘From Precarity to Emerging Configurations of Solidarity Among Crowdworkers in the Philippines.’ Invited presentation for the Fairwork Southeast Asian Network, 3 December 2020.
‘Researching Digital Labor on Social Media.’ Invited presentation for Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 25 November 2020. View the talk here.
‘Platform Labor in the Philippines: Emerging Configurations and Policy Implications.’ Invited presentation for the 4th JILTP Tokyo Comparative Labor Policy Seminar, 9 November 2020.
‘Marcos' Historical Distortion in the Digital Space: YouTube and alternative political influence networks’ (with M.F. Gaw). Invited presentation for the BALIK KA/ SAYSAY/ AN online historical revisionism conference, ADMU Asian Center for Journalism and The Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation, Quezon City, 21 September 2020. View the talk here.
‘Platform Labor in the Philippines: Discursive Construction and Communicative Capitalism.’ Invited talk for Universitas Airlangga Indonesia Seminar Series, 22 October 2020. View the talk here.
‘Digital Platform Labor in the Philippines: Forms of Collective Organising’ (with JVC Cabanes). Presentation for the Association of Internet Researchers Annual Conference, 27-31 October 2020.
‘Brokering Labor in the Digital Economy’, Professorial Address, De La Salle University, 17 September 2020.
'Women and Digital Labor in the Philippines’ Invited presentation for UN Women - We Empower Asia, 13 August 2020.
‘Entrepreneurial Solidarities: Social media collectives and Filipino Platform Workers’ (with JVC Cabanes). Paper presented to the International Communication Association, Philosophy, Technology and Critique Division (Top Faculty Paper), 22-27 May 2020. View the talk here.
‘Designing a Health Communication Strategy for Local Government Units During Covid-19' (with JMA Bernadas, A. Torneo, F. Salvosa, CM Figueroa). Invited presentation for the Local Government Academy, June, 2020. Read the Policy Brief here.
‘Digital Labor Imaginaries in the Global South’. Invited talk for the Digilabor series, Unisinos University Brazil, 4 May 2020. View the talk here.
g. Media & Public Communication
Resource person/Guest for Early Edition on ANC: Social media and the midterm elections, Jan 9, 2019
Warning: Fake news can impact polls, ABS-CBN News, Jan 9, 2019. https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/01/09/19/warning-false-online-info-can-impact-may-polls
Resource person for “Who are the influencers?” Business World https://www.bworldonline.com/who-are-the-influencers/
Resource person for the episode on Social Media Ethics, Convo by Cheche Lazaro, July 11, 2018, CignalTV. https://www.facebook.com/ConvowithChecheLazaro/
Panel (with Peter Greste, Jean Encinas Franco, Clarissa David)- Democracy and Disinformation Conference, Ateneo Rockwell, 13 Feb 2018. Available fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF5Kxdadax0
Panel: Fake news and democracy: What educators and the academe can do? (with Clarissa David & GH Ambat). Truth, Trust and Democracy in the Age of Selfies, Trolls and Bots. The Green Sun, Makati, 28 Nov 2018.
Position paper submitted to the Philippine Senate: On Senate initiatives for the fight against online falsehoods, 31 January 2018. https://www.facebook.com/notes/cheryll-soriano/musings-on-senate-initiatives-for-the-fight-against-online-falsehoods/10155984104435502/2
Digital Labor: Deep stories and structures from online Filipino worker's lenses, Research blog, Newton Tech4Dev Network, July 2017 http://newtontechfordev.com/digital-labor-deep-stories-deep-structures-online-filipino-freelance-workers-lenses/
How social media changed the way we consume news. SBS Radio Australia, 28 April 2017 http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/filipino/en/content/how-social-and-digital-media-changed-way-we-consume-news
How social media changed the way we talk about issues. SBS Radio Australia, 2 Sept 2016. http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/filipino/en/content/how-has-social-media-changed-way-we-talk-about-issues
