Student-journalists employ workshop learnings, tips for growth

To uphold their skills and pave avenues in campus journalism, student-journalists from State Universities and Colleges (SUC) embarked on a series of lectures from prominent speakers during the three-day National Training Workshop on Campus Journalism spearheaded by the Organization of Student Services Educators, Inc. (OSSEI) on September 28-30 at Crown Legacy Hotel, Baguio City.

After the lectures, tasks were given for the student-journalists to utilize the trainings: hard or soft news about Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election from other student-journalists’ opinion; editorial cartoon about campus journalists in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI); video to assess their skills in creating a quality content; and layouting.

Consequently, Irish Jean Junio, staff artist of The Kawayan Communicator, clinched the second place on editorial cartooning workshop event.

Topics from each lecture ranged from the government and its influence on the people, journalism principle and structures, and other relevant matters such as artificial intelligence and its effect on modern journalism.

Melvin Gascon from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, discussed the key differences between hard news and soft news, journalism principles; stating that journalism is primarily to inform, entertain, educate, interpret, mold opinion, enable decision-making, hold power to account, and act as an agent of change.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Domingo, a freelance visual journalist, delved into multimedia storytelling, multimedia production, visual journalism, true documentary, the language of the image, and the power of expression, among others.

Domingo further emphasized that multimedia journalists rose to fame because of the internet and imprinted in the student-journalists that the four owners of an image are the photographer, subject, viewer, and editor/publisher.

Moreover, Ever Samson from Department of Education (DepEd) Cabanatuan, provided insights into editorial cartooning and its basic instructions, including additional tips to enhance the message of the editorial cartoon, consistency, and elements.

Samson advised them that editorial cartoons inform through commentary using caricatures, wit, and creative elements to express political and social messages on personalities, events, and policies.

Furthermore, Professor Regidor Gaboy from Central Luzon State University (CLSU), tackled the significance of page design and layout in school papers and shared some tips on how to enhance the pages of the tabloid in terms of size, format, frequency, lines, shapes, and more.

Gaboy mentioned that a layout artist should have a strong reading comprehension ability in order to carefully arrange articles and elements effectively.

On the third and last day of the workshop, Managing Editor of the Manila Standard, Joyce Pañarez, covered the rise of Advertorials and how to spot fake news in distinguishing manipulated writings and photos.

The evaluation results of each campus publication present concluded the three-day training workshop, aided by insights given by respective resource speakers on where the student-journalists could improve themselves upon to deliver quality and ethical news to all.