#MoveTagum: Rappler trains young writers for sports coverage

TAGUM CITY, Philippines – Three days before the Palarong Pambansa 2015 begins, Rappler, in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), gathered young campus journalists, school paper advisers, and bloggers from different regions in preparation for the coverage of the annual sports competition, Thursday, April 30.

Around 90 participants joined the news site’s crew, spearheaded by reporters David Lozada, Jane Bracher, and Rodneil Quiteles, in gearing up to give the best reports on Palaro 2015.

“We’re expecting more good stories to come out because of this workshop. When we cover multi-sports events like this, we’re usually selective on the events we cover. But now we can cover more ground thanks to our citizen journalists,” Lozada said on his expectations after the workshop.

According to Lozada, Rappler’s citizen journalism arm MovePH has been conducting workshops in different provinces to recruit citizen journalists and help them cover local issues they think deserve national attention. They also help promote the movers’ local advocacies.

Rappler has been a partner of DepEd for the Palarong Pambansa since 2012. This year, they expanded their partnership to commission high school campus writers to undergo training from the Rappler team. 

The group discussed the advantages of social media and the emerging multimedia reporting that will be utilized in the coverage during the games. 

The campus journalists also underwent a short crash course on sports news and feature writing, video production, and social media to prepare them for the week-long coverage.

The movers are expected to be on field starting Sunday, May 3 during the Palarong Pambansa opening ceremony until its closing day on May 9. – Rappler.com

Pathrick Fernandez, a student from Manila Science High School, is the most outstanding student journalist of the National Capital Region during NSPC 2015.