Abstract
The dynamics of communication for social activism against politics and governance have changed through time. Multimodality became one of the most important features of digital communication for and about social activism such as the Oust Duterte Movement in the Philippines, which employed a variety of rhetorical actions to advance counterhegemonic initiatives against the Duterte administration in 2016-2022, most especially on issues that concerned War on Drugs and pandemic response. This paper discusses the rhetorical instrumentalities utilized by this movement and how these became tools in challenging cultural hegemonies. The author explored various forms of multimodal texts and understood their reproducibility as digital forms of communication that challenge ideologies circulated by macrostructure social institutions such as the government. In this paper, the power of memes and quiet activism are discussed in the context of the Oust Duterte Movement and the civic engagement these brought to social media that resulted in challenging ideologies on leadership, governance, and political rhetoric. Besides this, the author also investigated the shifts in the use of digital communication such as memes, digital arts, and hashtags as emerging forms of social activism that spark civic engagement among Filipinos online. This study hoped to understand how social media has become a platform for civic conversations and how digital communication has helped social activism bring its communicative presence to a wider global audience.
