“The day our people no longer believe in the media is the day our democracy dies,”
Thus warned Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manuel Mogato to staffers of Lifenews during the 2nd Lifenews Journalism Workshop held last August 3 to 4, 2022 at MGC New Life Christian Academy.
With the given theme of “Press Freedom During these Times,” Mogato admitted that Filipinos’ trust in mainstream media was already declining, as many tended to shy away from these news outlets, calling them “biased.” This is partly due to false information from internet trolls running rampant on social media.
Over a month after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. assumed the presidency, Mogato clarified that it is still too early to say whether or not the current state of press freedom under the Marcos administration will improve. However, with media companies like ABS-CBN and Rappler still being shut down or attacked, and President Marcos himself refusing to entertain controversial questions from the media, the veteran journalist reminded the students that it is up to them to search out the truth.
Mogato also shared his experience during the early years of the Duterte administration, when his articles about the drug war caught the ire of trolls, resulting in death threats that caused him and his fellow Reuters journalist Karen Lema to fear for their lives.
Despite the danger that came with journalism, Mogato argued that it was their responsibility as journalists to continue to spread the truth and fight false information. Only by joining hands together, he said, would Filipinos understand that they needed to rely more on and eventually believe accurate news sources.
Mogato also gave tips to the campus journalists on how to write headlines and leads, stating that news stories needed to be concise, straightforward, and compelling at the same time.
After the first two workshops given by the Pulitzer Prize winner, Lifenews section editors: Erin Kimberly L. Co (News), Beatrice Calee L. Lim (Layout), Raine Alexis S. Kho (Sports), Annika Kaitlynn S. Chong (Opinion), Nathan Gabriel S. Hao (Science), and Alexa Rae C. Tan (Features), led their respective sections in their training and discussions.
On the second day of the workshop, Lifenews Chief Adviser Richelle Kho gave advice to staffers about what to do when participating in journalism competitions. As an application of what they learned throughout the two-day workshop, the staffers then had to write articles within an hour in simulation of a journalism competition. The best article for each section will then be published online.
The workshop was held from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM on August 3 and from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM on August 4, with breakout sessions per section on both days.
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