How UPLB students became citizen journalists

Voltaire Tupaz

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'We realized the power of a community newspaper. By reporting accurately and being at the center at the community, we were able to help contribute to shepherding a local agenda into the national agenda.'

LB TIMES. The UPLB publication has embraced social media as a tool to inform, engage and empower Los Baños and nearby communities. Photo by Hoang Vu 

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines – Campus crisis turned students into citizen journalists.

In March 2012, 19-year-old Ray Bernard Peñaranda, a BS Agriculture student of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), died of a fatal chest wound in a robbery near the campus.

Los Baños Times, the community paper of UPLB, broke the story on Twitter. Using online and traditional platforms, it also chronicled the rest of the gruesome killings and robberies that happened between 2011 to 2012 in Los Baños, considered a “quiet science and nature city” in Laguna.

The spate of killings stunned Los Baños, particularly the UPLB community, as some of the crimes were perpetrated in their grounds and victimized their own. It also awakened the 32-year-old community publication.

“That gave us a surge of fresh blood, of getting a second wind. This was our community, we were development journalists, we should stake our claim in this story,” said Dr Serlie Jamias, director of the Office of Public Relations of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and moderator of the LB Times.

With this duty in mind and a sense of urgency, student journalists of LB Times became confident in covering stories in the field. They interviewed people and went to municipal halls, to the crime scenes and to the police stations.

“They talked to mayors, the chief of the police, the kin of the victims, university officials. They hounded them, stalked them to get the story,” Jamias recalled.

DEVELOPMENT JOURNALISTS. LB Times adviser Dr Serlie Jamias believes that social media is expanding the reach of development journalism. Photo by Hoang Vu

Turning point

Jamias shared the story of this defining moment of the LB Times to a crowd of more than 400 students and teachers which gathered for the 7th leg of Rappler’s “Social Media for Social Change Chat Series” held on September 19 at UPLB.

“That was a turning point — the best of times in the worst of Times (LB Times) because as the news got more gruesome, confusing, and convoluted, those were the times that we shone brighter.”

During those emotional and confusing times, the people and even mainstream media turned to the community paper for first-hand and accurate information, Jamias said.

“We had to be there to keep on posting, updating tweets and postings on Facebook, from the accounts of our reporters in the field. Some took the night shift to post updates on what was happing out there. The students were not only digital natives. They had amazing networks of contacts and assets everywhere.”

Social media

Not even resource limitations could hinder the student-journalists to pursue the story they strongly felt had a huge impact on the security of their immediate community.

“They learned how to raise funds to publish their newspaper, while using the free services of social media. And they realized that with the social media and the newspaper, they could do that,” Jamias said, praising the resourcefulness of her students.

As a result, LB Times‘ social media platforms rapidly increased in following. From 31 followers on Twitter when it started, it now has close to 2,000 followers. Its Facebook page now has more than 1,000 “likes.”

Jamias said it was hard and awkward for LB Times to gain more views on Facebook and followers on Twitter because of its stories about crimes and death that hurt the community and created deep wounds. But it had to assume the responsibility as a voice of the community.

“What we just did was to create change as much as we can, by means of providing our fellow community members with factual, valid and accurate reports. That’s the only thing that we put in mind, to do our duty as a development journalist and a development communicator,” Jamias said.

Jamias said that the experience nurtured in the student journalists a deeper commitment to the community.

“We truly felt how it was to be part of the community of Los Baños. They felt the need to post and update the story, to find the perpetrators, to bring them to justice,” Jamias said.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL CHANGE. Rappler held its 7th leg of the Move.PH chat series in UP Los Baños. Photo by Hoang Vu

No longer a niche

Jamias, a development journalist herself, recognized that social media is also expanding development communication as a specialization.

“It is changing the paradigm about how we produce, manage, and share news…It enlarges our capacities, our world, and our niche,” Jamias said.

Development journalists are trained to think that they should complement mainstream media, [reporting] issues that are not commercial, like development, science and technology, according to Jamias.

But Jamias admitted that development journalism is no longer a niche field as it can mainstream stories from the community through social media platforms.

“We realized the power of a community newspaper (including its online platforms). By reporting accurately and being at the center at the community (right time, right place), we were able to help contribute to [shepherding] a local agenda into the national agenda,” Jamias added.

Jamias said that social media is becoming an integral tool that helps development journalists perform their role “to illuminate, engage, facilitate, to give voice to the marginalized sectors, all for their empowerment.”

#MOVELB. More than 400 UPLB development practitioners, students, and teachers participated in the Los Baños leg of Rappler's "Social Media for Social Change Chat Series." Photo by Hoang Vu

Pushing development forward

Jamias said that the chat series in UPLB which carried the theme, “Pushing Development Forward,” affirmed that the academic institution is in the right direction of changing its curriculum to keep pace with the changing times.

“Integrating social media into our communication program was just an idea. Now we would like to be advocates. That was the venue where we got support from the officials and the community,” Jamias said.

The UPLB leg of the chat series was organized by Move.PH, Rappler’s citizen journalism arm. Rappler consists of journalists committed to informing Filipinos and inspiring them to interact and participate in nation-building by providing a credible, creative, and interactive platform through social media.

Rappler CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa headlined the event with her keynote address about the power of social media and how it can bring about social change. Veteran journalist and Rappler’s citizen journalism director Chay Hofileña also gave insights on how development issues can find their way into mainstream media. Social media head Michael Josh Villanueva discussed how social media platforms can be used to push development concerns. Finally, Patricia Evangelista, one of Rappler’s multimedia reporters, talked about the importance of telling compelling stories.

The Los Baños leg of the chat series was sponsored by Smart Communications and organized with the Office of the UPLB Chancellor, the Development Communication Graduate Student Association (DEVCOM-GRADSA), Office of Public Relations (OPR), College of Development Communication (CDC), and the UPLB Foundation Inc (UPLB-FI). — Rappler.com

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