Labovian Analysis of Political Narratives in Sigma Kappa Pi and Sigma Delta Pi Facebook Discourse

Abstract

This study examines political discourse manifested through the Facebook page of Sigma Kappa Pi Fraternity and Sigma Delta Pi Sorority, non-traditional student organizations at the University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga, applying William Labov’s narratological framework to analyze how narrative structures construct political meaning and mobilize audiences. Analysis of six representative Facebook posts reveals consistent employment of Labov’s six narrative elements, including abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, resolution, and coda, though compressed to suit social media affordances. The evaluation component emerges as particularly dominant, performing ideological work through metaphors, intensifiers, contrasts, and moral judgments that position audiences toward particular political interpretations while mobilizing collective action. Posts consistently employ historical framing connecting contemporary issues to celebrated resistance traditions, including the EDSA Revolution and Martial Law resistance, performing memory work that legitimizes present struggles through continuity with honored pasts. The organizations construct a consistent political identity as historically conscious, morally uncompromising, popularly aligned, analytically sophisticated, and action-oriented. Findings demonstrate Labov’s framework remains productively applicable to digital political discourse with necessary adaptations, including recognition of narrative compression, evaluation’s centrality in political communication, hybrid genre formations, and activist codas that transform closure into mobilization rather than resolution.