Mamamayang Mamamahayag: Beat Talk 2010
The Philippines made it to headlines of world news several times last year – from victory of athletes and good Samaritans, to natural disasters and heinous crimes. Present in every breaking news are the people who raised their issues, pleas in both traditional and new media… and the technology that made them capable to do it. A new breed of journalists is born – normal, everyday citizens who have access to new media, with no proper training in the field of mass communication, became watchdogs of society. They are called citizen journalists and they are changing the landscape of media one blog or scoop at a time.
The UP Journalism Club organized the forum “Citizen Journalism in times of crisis, elections” to probe how citizen journalists handled the reporting of their news during the different plagues and issues that rattled the country last year, as well as to explore possibilities for their participation in the upcoming national elections. This was held in the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Mass Communication auditorium on January 29th, 10am to 12 noon.
The speakers were Tonyo Cruz from asiancrorrespondent.com, Noemi Lardizabal-Dado from blogwatch.ph, Sophia Dedace from GMANews.tv, John Nery from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Danilo Arao from Bulatlat and professor at the UP Diliman College of Mass Communication. Each speaker talked about how their sites/media organizations have defined and redefined the concept of “citizen journalism”.
The forum was attended by over 120 people including students from the University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Cavite State University, as well as guests from Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). CMFR also gave copies of their publication to the audience.