WHY do students learn to become journalists by writing stories from police blotters?
This was posed by Evelyn Nacario-Castro, executive director of the Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center, during the Sept. 4, 2008 briefing the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) gave to Mass Communication sophomores of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu College (UPVCC).
The question implies not just consternation with a convention in journalism training. It also perhaps reflects the perception shared by citizens, non-government organizations (NGOs) and other sectors of civil society that media should focus more on inroads in development, rather than the isolated, peripheral and sensational.
While many news professionals also look askance at “development news” as a variety of public relations, more attention has been recently given on citizen journalism.
Known also as “public journalism,” it involves the greater participation of citizens in shaping news, information and opinion disseminated in either mainstream media or “user-controlled” portals like web logs, websites and newsletters.
The purpose of all forms of citizen media is to generate the “independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information” required in a democracy, notes Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis in their report, “We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information.”
From ivory tower to grassroots
One approach to imbue news content with relevance can be carried out through collaborations between the academe and the government and non-government sectors.
To end their “sheltered and unworldly intellectual isolation,” schools should be reaching out to their immediate communities. Many in-school Sangguniang Kabataan representatives, let alone average students, are not aware of the interplay of governance stakeholders, from people’s organizations and NGOs to local government units and national government agencies.
Immersion in communities should close the gap and empower teachers and students to share the stake in development.
Academic institutions with outreach programs and community extension service should use such avenues for monitoring and documenting successes and failures in development work, specially highlighting the challenges and future undertakings that need community participation.
Beyond the campus
Campus journalists are also a potent force for citizen media. This year, seven Mass Communication organizations from the Cebu Institute of Technology, Cebu Normal University (CNU), St. Theresa’s College, Southwestern University, University of the San Jose-Recoletos, University of the Visayas and the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu College organized the Cebu Alliance of Mass Communication Students (Cams).
During their launch at CNU last March 2008, Cams members vowed to “improve their craft as future media professionals,” as well as “meet the demands of the dynamic media environment.”
Aside from undertaking continuous learning projects in broadcasting, Cams recently sponsored a film caravan showing the winning works of amateur film makers taking part in The First Quisumbing-Escandor Film Festival for Health (QEFF).
For a class assignment, UPVCC sophomore Maria Shiela C. Pacinio wrote about the local students’ reception to the QEFF indie films exposing the ills besetting the country’s health system. But driven by her own interest, Pacinio pursued a follow-up feature on Bryan Albert T. Lim, the UP Manila fourth-year medical student involved in organizing The First QEFF. She contributed both articles to local papers.
After taking part in the RAFI briefing, Pacinio decided to cover the Sept. 6, 2008 “Best of Young Minds” Conference, Awards and Graduation. On its second season, Rafi’s Young Minds Academy trained emerging youth leaders, who came up with project proposals addressing community health-related issues like primary health care, nutrition, maternal and child care, adolescent reproductive health, teenage pregnancy, rehabilitative care, health education and health care delivery.
Pacinio, who expressed last June that she was “not so confident” about her writing skills, has found her groove as a citizen journalist promoting health advocacy.
