Amplifying the Deliberative Agency of Indigenous Communities in Philippine News Media

Deliberative agency refers to citizens’ performances of political justification in the public sphere. This chapter argues that the performance of deliberative agency in news media by those in poverty is not only normatively desirable but also politically possible. It presents the case of long-form journalism in the Philippines to demonstrate how Indigenous communities express political claims in spaces dominated by voices of political elites and middle-class constituencies that are often disparaging, if not hostile, to Indigenous claims. This chapter unpacks the conditions that create a hospitable space for the performance of deliberative agency by those in poverty as well as the constraints in today’s public sphere.