This year’s Globe Media Summit and Davao Media Freedom Day was co-hosted by the university’s Mass Communication Department and held at room F213 last November 23. Seasoned journalists from all over Davao arrived to give talks about the evolving media.
The 8th Davao Media Freedom Day was organized by SunStar Davao, ABS-CBN Davao, GMA Davao, Mindanao Times, Philippine Daily Inquirer, MindaNation, and Globe Telecom.
Its theme was “Traditional/Digital: The Changing Medium” which aimed to further encourage media excellence in civic, investigative and explanatory journalism.
Among the speakers of the event was Carlos R. Munda from MindaNation. He explained how social media is becoming a huge part of our everyday lives.
“Social media is not just a medium to share information. It’s a way to communicate,” he said.
Modern technology and social media have not only affected people’s way of communicating, but also the way news is portrayed.
Fake news, especially, has become more prevalent in the online medium.
In her talk, “Print’s Not Dead, It’s Transforming, Fast,” editor-in-Chief of SunStar Davao Stella A. Estremera shared how journalists should be responsible when it comes to writing news.
“Our strength is in journalism, not the medium. Be journalists, not the media,” Estremera said.
The Davao Media Freedom Day also welcomed communication students from different universities.
Leigh Paulien Jallorina, a 3rd year Communication Arts student of the University of Immaculate Conception shared how credibility is an important factor in telling whether a news article is genuine or fake.
“We should be careful in reading news online. Unknown websites usually have fake news.” she said.
In his talk on broadcast journalism, Tek Ocampo from GMA Davao explained how journalism is not always glamorous.
News is oftentimes unpredictable and some events such as the war on Marawi affect journalists psychologically and emotionally.
Despite all that, Ocampo said that journalists go through it so the people may be informed.
“I’ve been in the industry for 22 years but I still get nervous when I go on air. Every day is a learning experience,” he expressed.