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Date Posted: 17:56:45 09/07/03 Sun
Author: mr.e
Subject: On Campus Journalism

On campus journalism

Why spend millions for obsolete campus journalism?
This is a national issue if you consider the fact that we live in the Age of Communication or Information Age. The issues: Is campus journalism contributing to national development? Does it help resolve national issues? Does it make students aware of national issues and crisis situations? Does campus journalism convey the opinions, feelings of millions upon millions of students and parents on crucial issues to the attention of our leaders in the executive, legislative and judiciary levels? Does it make the students more communicative and/or enable them to participate in local issues and development problems?

Campus journalism as practiced today by both public and private secondary schools cannot satisfy the 5 questions I have raised for the following reasons:

1. It is obsolete because it confines itself to the publication of a campus newsletter coming off the press only twice a year and this fact alone renders the paper ineffective as a communicator.

2. It is ineffective, elitist, because it involves only a very limited and exclusive number of students moderated if not controlled by the school paper adviser. A status symbol, campus writers often see themselves as �franchise holders� of exclusive privilege to communicate and look at the rest of the student population as recipients, readers of whatever they dish out to them. Elitist considering the fact that we live in the age of cell phones and communications and access to information have been democratized and available to the poorer segments of our population who day by day participate in Game Ka Na Ba? Text to Million and daily opinion surveys by half a dozen national TV stations and hundreds of radio stations versus the twice a year school organs manned by a few chosen writers.

3. It is irrelevant! This writer believes communications is not neutral issue-wise. Communications by nature should reach out of the campus as the schools� window to look at the nation and the world and through which national events, issues, crisis, policies can enter for the information and response of the campus population. The way it is practiced campus journalism seems to have been caught in a time warp practicing journalism for journalism's sake without any advocacy for anything. Thus, grab a typical campus paper and you will find up to 90% of its contents dealing only on school affairs, sports, science, literary, honors and prestige of the particular school, etc. Take for example an article in one campus paper in Ilocos Sur about the death of the Mayor. It only said the Mayor died � goodbye, Mayor; who killed the mayor, much less condemn the murder as a violence assault on the whole town and on all peace-loving people. Where is the very much talked about values education? The cellphone users on the other hand, participate in national search for consensus and decision making on crucial issues by text messaging fearlessly their views and opinions to the daily opinion surveys of TV and radio stations nationwide.

4. It is expensive; not cost efficient! Why spend millions of pesos for obsolete, elitist irrelevant, and ineffective campus journalism? I interviewed several public school teachers who claim each high school student contributes anywhere from P20 up to P50 per school year and a province like Ilocos Sur with about 100,000 students spends from P2M to P5M every school year and at 78 provinces nationwide the bill can reach tens of millions of pesos every year. That amount should be spent for something more useful, more relevant and more participative activity for such is the cry of the moment.

I would suggest that the DECS re-examine the set up of campus journalism. As we move from one crisis to the other; struggle for national economic survival and fight to make our fragile government and democracy stronger in the midst of divisiveness, too much partisan political activity, and the recurring rumors of coups, not to mention the Abu Sayyaf, MILF, NPA scourge of the nation, we need to come out with something more cost-efficient and more useful to the nation.

On my part I propose a move from campus press journalism to campus communications for development, for government stability; communications for democracy; communications for liberation from all forms of political, economic, social injustice; communications for the eradication of poverty. This would involve a basic re-orientation of the campus communications advisers and of the entire student population to lead them to critical awareness of national events, crises, and issues. This would also enable them to participate in the national consensus and decision making by voicing out their views and opinions in their numbers and as instantaneous as possible through the use not only of a campus paper but better and faster by the use of the now ubiquitous cell phones.

Under such setup, the traditional campus paper adviser would now become a communications facilitator, practitioner of advocacy media, and surveyor of public (students and parents) views and opinions. I would envision the social science teachers to be very informed persons. For we are living in this Age of Information. They would be explaining local, national, world events, issues presented to them by the school communications facilitator. The Values Education teachers would help make the students more competent in identifying and deciding on what is right or wrong, moral or immoral, just or unjust, pro people, pro poor or elitist. The minority cell phone owners in one classroom would them become agents of advocacy communications who will survey their classmate�s opinions on certain issues which they immediately transmit to the campus communications� facilitator.

Local executives and their cohorts are often more undemocratic, more oppressive, violent, and averse to any form of criticism than their national counterparts. Many of them live like tyrants, despots, and people to be feared. Under the proposed campus communications advocacy media the students/parents can just frankly text their true opinions without fear or favor and without mentioning their names on local issues to the mayor, governor, congressman, head of office as the case maybe. The concerned �insulted,� �aggrieved� official would be at a loss for he would not know the names; he knows only what he is doing is unjust or �mal-odorous� to the people. Done repeatedly or regularly the students can participate in community building, local governance, and liberation from local tyranny or despotism. I believe the old campus journalism should now be re-examined by DECs Secretary Raul Roco and if need be by our legislators. The stakes are high: Stability of our government, national economic survival, freedom of expression, and a truly participative democracy.

by
Rev. Fr. Loreto G. Viloria
Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur

(The author was barely one year in the priesthood in 1971 when he was initiated and �hooked� by Fr. James Reuter, SJ into the �madness� that is journalism and radio production. He begun in 1971 as a rural mimeo press publisher and went on to become a publisher of weekly provincial/diocesan newspapers in South Cotabato and later on in Vigan and was appointed executive director of radio station DZNS in Vigan in 1997 to date and is radio commentator Monday to Friday in the same station. He is at the same time Parish Priest of Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur. His advocacy journalism was inspired by his nephew Jose /burgos Jr. of We Forum/Malaya fame who was jailed by the President/Dictator Ferdinand Marcos for his anti-Martial Law crusade. He has attended several world gatherings and seminars of Catholic journalists and broadcasters in Europe, India, Southeast Asia and Canada the past 30 years.)

This article was first published in Metro Mail, a paper circulated in Metro Manila.

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