Over four hundred college and senior high school students from ten schools in Northern Luzon had a fun and inspiring learning experience about the different facets of the media industry in the first leg of the ABS-CBN Pinoy Media Congress (PMC) Caravan held recently at Saint Louis University (SLU) in Baguio City.
Headlined by multi-awarded broadcast journalist Chiara Zambrano, Star Music head of music publishing and new media Atty. Marivic Benedicto, and ABS-CBN Film Restoration head Leo Katigbak, the PMC Caravan drew participants from host school SLU and nearby universities such as University of Baguio, Urdaneta City University, University of the Cordilleras, Jinan University, Universitas Islam Kalimantan, Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka, SLU Senior High School, University of Baguio Senior High School, and Sablan National High School, who went home with greater love and appreciation for the field they are aspiring to join in the future.
According to student-delegate Don Asuncion, his biggest takeaway from Chiara’s session on what makes a multiplatform journalist is that the prime goal should always be exposing the truth. “Chiara has given me the fire to become a journalist who fights for his first obligation: the TRUTH. She taught me that journalism is a process in which a reporter uses verification and storytelling to make a subject newsworthy. Stories are not one dimensional.”
Amando Razalan, meanwhile, was left inspired by the talk of Atty. Marivic about how ABS-CBN is leading the local music industry’s digital shift. “She clearly explained how the business works. She inspired me to continue my passion, which is discover not only my talent, but others too. It’s very helpful.”
As for Patricia Ann Razon, who enjoyed the session of Leo, classic Filipino films are ‘more than contents of cinema.’ “It [classic films] is culture. And as a new generation, it is our job to preserve and pass it on.” She also added, “At the end of the day, we are all storytellers, in the service of the Filipino people.”
Aside from the talks, student-delegates also enjoyed a free film screening of the classic coming-of-age romantic drama, “Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising,” that they picked to watch via an online poll at the caravan.
Knowledge Channel head Danie Sedilla-Cruz encouraged students to join the “Class Project: Intercollegiate Mini-Documentary Competition,” while select student-delegates attended a workshop on documentary-making with Chiara and ABS-CBN DocuCentral production unit head Carmina Reyes.
Meanwhile, the next stop of the Pinoy Media Congress Caravan is in Lyceum of the Philippines University-Cavite on October 15, where it will be bringing acclaimed journalist Jeff Canoy, ABS-CBN business unit head Pete Dizon, and ABS-CBN head of creative communications management division Robert Labayen –another top-notch batch of experts in media. The PMC Caravan will also be heading to Cebu and Davao this year.
Launched 13 years ago, ABS-CBN and the Philippine Association of Communication Educators’ (PACE) Pinoy Media Congress has served over 12,000 communication students with talks and free workshops on various fields and topics in media. To reach and inspire more students, ABS-CBN began to broadcast the annual conference via satellite to host schools in Visayas. This year, ABS-CBN goes even further by bringing the PMC experience to different campuses in the Philippines to promote media literacy and help shape the next generation of media and communication practitioners in the Philippines.
