15. Media Literary

On the 25th of November 2015, a seminar entitled "Media Literacy: Mobilizing the Millennials as Socially Responsible Prosumers". The seminar was held at the Asia Pacific College Auditorium. The seminar was an initiative brought by the Publications Office to promote media literacy in APC by particularly tapping the RAMpage editorial staff. The RAMpage is the official APC magazine published for all stakeholders in APC.

The objective of the seminar was to:

1. To develop sense of social responsibility among RAMpage editorial staff and APCians in general; and
2. To create a discourse on media literacy among APCians. 

There were 3 speakers invited to address the student body;

1. Edmallyne Remillano whose accreditation's include being the head writer for the State of Nation with Jessica Soho and the secretary; talents of GMA Network
2. Jan Maynard Nualla whose accreditation's include being the program producer for Global Conversations on CNN Philippines and affiliated with Talents Association of GMA Network and Society of Asian Journalist
3. Lian Nami Buan whose accrediatations include being the associate producer for segments on the State of Nation with Jessica Soho, Associate Editor for Subselfie.com and affiliated with Talents Association of GMA Network.

Ms. Lian focused her talk on the encouragement of writing. She talked about the basic steps needed in writing a story by breaking down each step. Showing the step by step process of writing a story was quite interesting. Personally I already knew the steps being taught because it had been taught to me already. However I found it interesting on her personal approach to writing stories. I especially liked the real life examples she stated. For example when she conducted interviews and reported on certain events, Ms. Lian mentioned that besides the pre-set questions, always have back-up questions based on the answers that you receive. It will allow for a better flowing interview. And also note taking is very important. Only jot down the important phrases that would enhance the news report when writing. 

Ms. Jan focused her talk on the influence of social media on news reporting and our impact as millennial in today's modern society. She mentioned quotes from her favorite author that tied in her message. Ms. Jan implied that we all have a voice that can be heard, that we all are news reporters in a way. She encouraged us to be more active in spreading news and important events. By utilizing our social media accounts we can become the voice of the impoverished, sick, dying etc. An important message she also emphasized on was that we should not be easily influence by things we read online and by social media. She stated the example of the recent terrorist bombing in Paris and on how Facebook users quickly changed the profile pictures and used the hash tag #prayforparis to show their support. However no-one showed support when women and children died in Syria in retaliation of the Paris attacks. The messaged that I retained from her speech was to 'think again, don't be influenced by one perspective'. 

Ms. Edmallyne was almost a culmination of both Ms. Jan and Ms. Lians speech. She talked about her experiences in writing and on how news reports in the Philippines is different from other countries. I liked her talk because she was very interactive with the students body. 

After all the speakers delivered their talks, their was a Q&A session. The questions and answers were usually very subjective in the manner.

The speakers of the seminar from right to left: Mason Davis(myself), Ms. Jan Maynard Nualla, Ms. Lian Nami Buan and Ms. Edmallyne Remillano

The only major criticism I had of the seminar was that the speakers predominantly spoke in Tagalog. I do understand that this is the Philippines and majority of the students are Filipino but still there was the few anomaly like myself that do not fully understand. This hindered in my complete understanding of the message being conveyed.