GEMMA BAGAYAUA MENDOZA

Follow her on Twitter via @gemmabmendoza
Email her at: gemma.bmendoza@rappler.com

Gemma is a journalist and a geek. After finishing AB History at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, she played around with databases, crashed a few computers and learned to put them back together again along the way. She received her web publishing training at the Stockholm University in Sweden as well as in multimedia journalism at the SEACEM in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

At home with gadgets and gizmos, the instinct to tinker as well as the determination to manipulate the forces of technology to serve the ends of journalism continues to move her today. Gemma facilitated the transition of Newsbreak magazine from print to the World Wide Web. As Editor-in-chief of ABS-CBNNews.com, she played a key role in developing the online and social media components of the highly interactive Harapan series of ANC and ABS-CBN towards the 2010 elections. At Rappler, she serves as the bridge between the editorial and the technical.

She co-authored Newsbreak's latest book, "The Enemy Within," on military corruption and civilian neglect. Her stories on governance & corruption, the security sector, disasters, and other social issues have won recognition in the Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Investigative Journalism, the UNICEF-Philippine Press Institute Awards for Child-friendly Journalists, and the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Developing Asia Journalism Awards.

Offline, Gemma prefers action-suspense and romantic comedies over art films, and will eat any part of a chicken, except for the legs.