Over the school break, MGC New Life’s (MGCNL) student journalists learned from the best as five media practitioners trained them in the first Lifenews Journalism Workshop held last July 12 to July 16 via Zoom.
Manila Standard News Editor Joyce Pañares, Esquire Philippines Associate Editor Paul John Caña, Malaya Senior Sportswriter Manolo “Bong” Pedralvez, Philippine Star Business columnist Iris Gonzales, and children’s book author and Palanca awardee Dr. Luis P. Gatmaitan conducted workshops to enhance the journalistic writing skills of Lifenews and Daloy staffers and to give them a better understanding of how each section of the publication functions.
Pañares kicked off the five-day webinar with a talk on news writing. She also urged Lifenews staffers to do fact checking to combat the information disorder. Pañares quoted Daniel Patrick Moynihan that, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
On the second day, Caña established the fundamentals of a good feature story and pointed out its essentials, qualities, and basic types—while stressing the qualities of a good writer. Caña said that good feature writers should have a natural curiosity and find the best way to tell a story.
Pedralvez taught the attendees how to write an exciting sports story in the third session. He stressed that sports journalists need to have a passion for writing and sports, but at the same time, enjoy the process.
Following sports, Gonzalez gave detailed step-by-step guidelines and tips on writing fact-based opinion articles. She also advised the attendees to not always join the bandwagon, but rather, to think for themselves.
The last day of the workshop had MGCNL’s SHS teacher Gatmaitan explaining the art of science, the responsibilities of being a science writer, and the elements of an interesting science article. Dr. Gatmaitan emphasized that the elements of good science communication are also applicable across other sections like news and features, not just science.
The attendees put into practice the teachings of the invited speakers through follow-up exercises prepared by, reviewed, and commented on by the journalists after their presentations.
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