PARTICIPANTS
Middle level journalists from print, radio, TV and online news sites who have had at least five years’ experience as certified by their editors, and who will be required to submit a folio of articles and other work.
The selection of Jaena Workshop participants is based on several criteria, among them their track records in journalism, their interest in the theme, their potential for growth, and their current levels of responsibility in their media organization. However, teachers of journalism as well as information officers from both government as well as private agencies have been, as in the past, accepted into the Workshop.
THE LOPEZ JAENA WORKSHOP
In reach, impact and relevance, the Graciano Lopez Jaena Community Journalism Workshop is an important outreach program of the UP College of Mass Communication.
The workshop was designed to address pressing problems in the community press, among them low skills and ethical levels, as well as familiarity with such community issues as environmental degradation and human trafficking. Although it was not held every year, it has “graduated,” since 1985, about 400 journalists, many of whom have gone on to become senior staff writers and editors in print, radio and television (please see the attached directory of participants). A network of its alumni in the community press blankets the country. Their training in the workshop, combined with their backgrounds and experience, have made many of them into skilled and ethical practitioners.
The killing of journalists, which escalated in 2009 with the Ampatuan town (Maguindanao) Massacre of 32 journalists and media workers, has made the training of community journalists even more urgent. Although the killings have persisted primarily because of the weaknesses of the justice system at the local level, low skills levels and unethical practice have also been among the factors responsible. Many community journalists are perceived as partisans in local conflicts, whose harassment and even assassination does not outrage the communities they’re supposed to serve because they are not viewed as assets to the community, but as self-serving tools of political and other interests. Raising professional standards and encouraging compliance with the ethics of the news media, as well as familiarizing them with the complexities of local issues are among the means through which journalists can improve their performance in print, radio, TV and online news sites, thereby enhancing their safety by encouraging the community to protect them.
The rapid changes in information and communication technology, together with the changes in the political, economic and cultural life of the nation, have also created new challenges to the news media in terms of familiarization and use of these technologies, which involve not only skills enhancement, but ethical and professional implications as well. While blogging has empowered millions, it has also created a situation in which too much so-called information and opinion coursed through the Internet is unreliable because it has not passed the verification and gate keeping systems in place in the old media (print and broadcast), even as the ethics of blogging has not developed as it has in old-media journalism.
BRIEF HISTORY[1]
 |
| The 15th Graciano Lopez Jaena workshop in session |
Although the workshop began 26 years ago, there were some years particularly 2000 to 2004, when no workshop was held. But the workshop was revived in May 2005 after that hiatus. It was held in Baguio City with “Covering the Mining Issue” as theme. Twenty-six participants gathered at UP Baguio for six days, visiting mining sites, and produced investigative stories at the end of the course. The best of those stories were published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The workshop was in the beginning and until 1998, a complete scholarship in that no fees were charged of the participants, whose accommodations and transportation were paid for by UPCMC and a co-sponsor, if any. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Tourism, the National Press Club, Shell Philippines, the San Miguel Corporation were among the institutions who have co-sponsored the workshop.
The 14th Workshop was held in October 2005 with “Gender Sensitivity and Covering Gender Issues” as theme. It was held with support from the Commission on Higher Education, whose designation of the UPCMC Department of Journalism as sole Center of Excellence in Journalism Education in the country required the Department to hold at least two Lopez Jaena Workshops. The Workshop was also conducted in coordination with the UP Center for Women Studies. It was held at the UPCMC and was attended by 20 participants. No workshops were held after 2005.
When it began, the Workshop program was more focused on communication theory. Although it took some time, the program eventually evolved into its present form of combining training in community issues and journalism skills. This evolution was based on feedback from Lopez Jaena graduates, most of whom said that what they needed most as media practitioners in the communities were journalism skills, plus a better understanding of crucial community issues.
As a result, the Jaena Workshop has in the past had such themes as covering children’s rights, the environment, mining, and tourism. Although these themes seem national in scope and concern, they also have specific impacts on the communities. Mining, for example, is of special interest in Baguio and the Cordilleras, while concerns over the impact of tourism on the environment are as immediate in Cebu as in the Ilocos. In the issues awareness part of the workshop, participants attend discussions, forums and lectures by experts on the workshop theme from government and non-government organizations, academic institutions, and media organizations.
 |
| Closing ceremonies of the 15th Graciano Lopez Jaena workshop |
Since 1994, an investigative report has been required of every participant, in the writing of which the workshop provides assistance with advice and by linking participants with groups and individuals and other sources of information. The best pieces have also been recognized through token prizes since that time.
Certificates of completion are issued at the end of the Workshop, on the condition that all requirements including attendance and submission of the investigative report are met.
Some Workshop alumni have organized themselves into an alumni group called JAENA (Journalists for the Advancement and Enlightenment of the Nation). Feedback from Jaena graduates show that they value the training their received from the Workshop, given the limited opportunities for skills and knowledge training in the communities.
Certificates of completion are issued at the end of the Workshop, on the condition that all requirements including attendance and submission of the investigative report are met.
Some Workshop alumni have organized themselves into an alumni group called JAENA (Journalists for the Advancement and Enlightenment of the Nation). Feedback from Jaena graduates show that they value the training their received from the Workshop, given the limited opportunities for skills and knowledge training in the communities.
