Reaction on the 1st International Convention on Media Communication

Last Saturday, August 8, I participated in an International Convention on Media Communication at UP Film Institute with 99 Comm. students and three faculty from the same department. That wasn't the first time that I've attended an international conference with my students. The first one was during the 17th AMIC Annual conference which was held at the Manila Hotel I attended that event with Manuel, MJ, Lucy, Jaimee, Charles and Ma'am Tina. The second one was when I went to New Delhi with Charles and MJ for the paper presentation of Charles' thesis during the 18th AMIC Conference.

The convention last Saturday was sponsored by ICCS, and was titled 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON MEDIA COMMUNICATION: TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE DIFFERENT AREAS OF BROADCAST JOURNALISM. Among the speakers were Karen Davila (ABS-CBN), Mark Francis (The Discovery Channel), Rico Hizon (BBC World News), Rolly Ng, Boy Abunda (ABS-CBN), and Kara David (ABS-CBN).

Here are some of the insights I have regarding the convention:

KAREN DAVILA

She was tasked to talk about Journalism ladder or career in the field of Journalism. Well, she was good and her lines were inspiring. She stressed that it is important that "You try and find out where you are most effective." She mentioned that people should find out what really drive them and think that FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. In this way, a person can easily invite success in their lives.

In order to succeed in Journalism, Davila said that you must be ready to do the dirty work and that there is no shourt cut to doing the craft in Journalism.

Another quotable quote from Davila: "I'd rather be a woman of substance than be a woman of beauty."

MY REACTION

Davila sounded so sincere in her speech. She made sense -- really. However, the only thing I didn't like about what she was saying was the quotes. Those quotes she uttered were not original. Well, maybe because of my age, I already heard what she said, but maybe for the students, she sounded original.

MARK FRANCIS

Francis simply showed some video clippings from the Discovery files and explained how the network operates. He emphasized that the Discovery Channel puts a lot of investment on the visuals so they make sure that their stories can be effective even without words. The pictures should be enough to tell the story, he said. Otherwise, it's useless to invest a lot of money on visuals.

RICO HIZON

I was assigned to synthesize Mr. Rico Hizon's lecture.

Presenting the plaque to Mr. Rico Hizon.
Beside him was Mr. Alex Baltazar, the Managing Director of ICCS.

I must be a biased participant. Even before the event, I already anticipated seeing him in the convention and I was really looking forward to hearing him deliver a talk. Hizon is the only Filipino who made it to BBC World News so I was really interested to what he has to say.

Rico Hizon talked about the mental qualities, physical attributes and journalistic skills necessary in succeeding in the media industry. Hizon emphasized that truth, accuracy, impartiality and objectivity are among the important factors that have to be considered in writing for the broadcast media.

It's good that Rico Hizon cited reading as an important activity that students need to do because according to him, there's nothing to write about if we don't read. Hizon also mentioned that we have to use the Internet to our advantage -- instead of just surfing the net visiting social networking sites like Friendster, Facebook, Myspace, etc.

REACTION

I never expected Rico Hizon to have such energy -- super lively and sounded so proud of what he is and where he is now. He's also very fluent in Tagalog. Indeed, he can mix substance/content with entertainment in the way he presented his topic.

ICCS staff actually assigned me to be the one who would be giving reaction on Rico Hizon's lecture. That gave me a chance to talk to him while on stage and hand the plaque of appreciation to him. Trina (one of the organizers) really knew how much I wanted to listen to and talk to this international broadcaster :-)

BOY ABUNDA

Abunda was supposed to talk about credibility of showbiz news but it seemed likehe failed to elaborate on that topic. In fact, if I were to condense his speech, it seemed like he was suggesting that showbiz is not a venue to demand for credibility. First he mentioned that not all showbiz news stories really are based on credible sources. Second, he stated that showbiz news thrives in controversy and not really on credibility. Third, Abunda emphasized that showbiz is based on things that we can't see and can't measure e.g. charisma.

Abunda, I guess, didn't really convince the audience that credibility can also be expected from the show business.

KARA DAVID

I like her speech -- short, organized, dramatic, and synchronized with the video clippings. She's absolutely good at what she does which is documentary production -- tackling children's plights.

However, no matter how good she is in her field, I can't convince myself to like her. I simply don't like her presentation style because she's too emotional. She capitalizes on emotional words and facial expressions. She even cries on some of her documentary shows (yes, I've tried watching her docu several times). I think showing too much emotions on such kind of program is her strength and also her weakness. She's good at it -- she can make viewers' hearts melt and make them "feel" for her docu subjects. But for me, to deal with emotions is a sign of lack of reasons. If she thinks laws can ba tailored based on her docus, well, I don't think so. Laws must be drafted based on the rationality of events and on measurable effects, not merely on random tears that fall from her eyes every time she writes a story on her subjects. I say this because I remember Karen Davila saying that after her documentary show titled Juvenile Injustice, a particular law -- the one that prohibits young people be jailed -- was passed into law because her show called the attention of law makers. I don't see it happening with Kara David' documentary program because she capitalizes a lot on emotions, not on facts and figures that imply greater impact on national development.

The event was hosted by media practitioners in the country: SOL ARAGONES, MARK SALAZAR, and SUSAN ENRIQUEZ.


[I apologize for not being able to write something about Rolly Ng's lecture because I left the event during his part -- I went to Chocolate Kiss to have coffee]

PHOTOS courtesy of Jonathan Barrera, ABMC 4, RJ Mallari, ABMC 4, and Cai Cuyugan, AB Comm. 3