Ella Marie Dimaculangan
4 March 2009
Other articles
�Yes� votes dominate in the Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection (CRSRS) referendum. Based on the final results, out of the 47, 365 students in the UP system, more than 55 percent or 26, 118 participated in the referendum. 19, 068 or more than 73 percent voted �Yes� while 6, 747 or almost 26 percent voted �No�. read more...
Isang Iskolar ng Bayan sa Ika-Isandaang Taon ng Unibersidad
Mula sa pagtataas ng matrikula at iba pang bayarin, hanggang sa rekonstruksyon ng ilang mga kolehiyo, mga patakaran o polisiya hinggil sa trapiko at iba pa, nabalot ng maraming pagbabago ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas nitong mga nagdaang taon. read more...
|
The University of the Philippines is known to be a center of excellence. When you say it is from UP, you mean it is of high-quality. Over the years, UP has been able to produce in various fields and disciplines graduates who are among the finest or the greatest. The UP College of Mass Communication, as part of the university, is also tagged with excellence and superiority. The college which offers four courses or programs (journalism, broadcast communication, communication research, and film and audio-visual communication) was the training ground of a large number of well-known and respected media practitioners. As the media landscape changes however, there arises a question of adaptability. Are the programs still good enough to produce graduates who will excel in the new and changing media landscape? For instance, journalism is not only about the print medium anymore. Aside from broadcast, it is also now concerned with what is called the new media or the Internet. The actual field is already multimedia media in character but have the training ground able to adapt or adjust? |
 |
In the present curriculum of the UP CMC journalism program, students have to be able to take a total of 147 units. 45 of which have to be General Education (GE) subjects in the Arts and Humanities domain, Math, Science and Technology domain and Social Sciences and Philosophy domain. Students are allowed to take 15 units of subjects in any discipline he/she desires. There are also a number of required courses in communication and other fields. Major subjects amount to a total of 14 subjects or 42 units. Of which, 27 units are explicit and specific. Among these required journalism subjects are concerned with the History of the Press, News writing, Ethics, etc. Students are free to choose 5 or 15 units of journalism elective. Electives to choose from vary every semester but popular choices include photojournalism, advertising, public relations, and online journalism.
 |
Seems pretty good? Actually, it isn�t. With the growing role of Internet or the new media in journalism and the advent and proliferation of online news sites and publications, it is questionable why online journalism is only an elective that students can do away with. The new media is dubbed to have provided empowerment to ordinary citizens. Through the Internet and the advent of blogging, ordinary citizens can now make information readily available to the entire public. What can the development of good online journalism course bring to this phenomenon? |
It can help differentiate professional journalists from the amateur ones. It becomes harder and harder to distinguish credible ones from the bulk of information available on the web. With this, it is the journalist who should raise its standard. He/she who is trained to have a better judgment when it comes to information should stand out from the rest.
While the basics might still be similar, online writing and reporting is largely different from print. A journalist who delivers well in print might not be able to deliver in the same excellent manner online.
Training in online journalism also makes students more flexible. Especially during these times of global financial difficulties, students must be equipped with enough knowledge that will allow them to straddle to different forms of media for work or employment.
Online journalism is continuously growing and it much of the opportunities now for journalism graduates come from it. Just imagine the loss of students who opt not to take online journalism.
CMC, however, faces other problems which might have been the reason why the college just made online journalism an elective course.
First, it lacks equipment. The journalism department has only one newsroom with less than 20 barely working computer units.
Second, the department has not enough professors or instructors who can teach online journalism. At the moment, only two professors handle online journalism classes.
If it would be a required course, more than a hundred students will have to take it and the available resources might not be able to accommodate them.
What can be done is to assign a specific year level in which only those who are already on that year can take the subject. This more or less would stabilize the number of students every semester who have to take the subject.
Despite all the seemingly difficult concerns that have to be met, the college must not forget that it is their duty to train excellent journalists and it is in their tradition to produce fully packed and equipped journalists.