Altermidya

Media literacy 101: the alternative press and media

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The phrase “alternative press” gained currency in the last years of the Marcos terror regime, when Jose Burgos’ Malaya, We Forum, and other newspapers, magazines and news agencies were published to provide Filipinos and the rest of the world the information about human rights violations, environmental issues, the conflict in the South, the state of the economy, and other issues of public concern that the dominant, government-regulated press and media could not and would not provide.
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Reinventing Mocha Uson

Mocha Uson
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How does the appointment of blogger and die-hard Duterte partisan Margaux “Mocha” Uson as an assistant secretary in the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) mesh with President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration last March 10, during the launch of government channel PTV4’s Cordillera hub, that he would open the government media system to Muslim groups and to the members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) so they can air their grievances and explain their views to a larger audience? Or is this latest presidential appointment an implicit repudiation of what at the time looked like an enlightened media policy in the making?

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Journalism and General Education

UP DIliman rally vs. GE curriculum change
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The March 21 decision of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) University Council (UC) to cut the number of General Education (GE) units from 45 to 21 — or from 15 three-unit subjects to seven — means that undergraduate students will be required to take fewer humanities and social science subjects in UP’s flagship campus. Among those who will be affected are journalism and communication students, many of whom become professional journalists after graduation.

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