This study assessed the effectiveness of digital platforms in enhancing information dissemination within the municipality of Boac, Marinduque, to provide a basis for a Strategic Communication Plan. This study utilized a descriptive-correlational research design, the study surveyed 245 barangay officials, including captains, secretaries, treasurers, councilors, and SK chairmen – selected through stratified random sampling. The data was collected through a validated four-point Likert scale questionnaire with high internal consistency reliability, featuring Cronbach’s Alpha indices ranging from 0.80 to 0.93. The findings revealed that the municipality relies exclusively on social media, specifically Messenger Groups with 50.6% and Facebook Pages with 49.4%, which were rated as Highly Effective with a weighted mean 3.58 across the domains of accessibility, audience reach, and public announcement. However, the respondents identified significant obstacles, particularly in countering fake news and managing limited budgets, which were rated as Highly Challenging with weighted mean of 3.36, most notably the difficulty in verifying information and countering fake news with a weighted mean of 3.42, alongside insufficient budgets for ICT equipment with weighted mean 3.41. Meanwhile, statistical validation through the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) confirmed a significant agreement among respondents (p < .05), rejecting the null hypothesis. Moreover, the study concludes that while digital platforms are successfully adopted in the municipality of Boac as their primary communication innovation, its efficiency is hampered by technical infrastructure and informational integrity threats. The developed Strategic Communication Plan prioritizes digital literacy workshops, infrastructure upgrades, and verification protocols like a Fact-Check Task Force. Therefore, these interventions aim to transition the municipality from basic notification to dynamic community engagement, ensuring a resilient digital governance framework tailored to the rural island context.
Logmao et al. (Sun,) studied this question.