By Precious Chyll Cabigan | The Paulinian
Cover Photo by Enrico Cabalfin | The Paulinian
BAGUIO City, Philippines — The Organization of Student Services Educators, Inc. (OSSEI) held its National Training Workshop on Campus Journalism on September 25-27, 2025 at Crown Legacy Hotel, Baguio City, with a total of 24 student publication attendees from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, including The Paulinian SPUM.
The three-day workshop consisted of extensive lectures and training on the ethical principles of journalism, correlating it to student leadership and how it can be applied in school publications. The training emphasized how responsible journalism can create a ripple effect for national progress.
Multimedia Journalism, Editorial Cartooning, Page Design, and Layout, as well as adapting to AI and engaging with the student body were covered through presentations from seasoned journalists and media practitioners.
DAY 1
Day 1 kicked off with a lecture about “New Media Vibes: How Digital Tech and AI Are Shaping Stories & Communities” by Mr. Voltaire Tupaz, Co-founder and Executive Director of community-oriented independent media outfit, FYT. Mr. Tupaz emphasized how news stories can be told by using social media trends in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. He said that campus journalists should have distinct skills that stretch beyond typical writing, and as one, they have the noble goal and responsibility to society to tell the truth. “The story is no longer just told. It is shared, shaped, lived,” he added.
This was followed by Professor Liana M. Barro’s discussion on the purpose of campus publications. Prof. Barro is a professor in Far Eastern University (FEU) and has been the adviser of FEU Advocate, the official student publication of the university since 2004. She expounded on how campus publications should function. In her discussion, she said that publications should focus on acting as a community paper, reporting social ills, and calling out wrongdoings. She also stated that “Truth-telling should be the heart of reporting.”
DAY 2
The second day invoked creativity in storytelling among the students as three out of four lectures focused on the artistic and innovative side of Journalism, which are Photo Essays, Editorial Cartooning, and Page Layout. An in-depth exploration of AI’s role in Journalism was also among the topics discussed.
Prof. Jimmy A. Domingo, the keynote speaker for Photo Essay, pointed out that photo essays must convey information, evoke emotion, and create a compelling experience for the viewer—focusing more on showing than telling.
Mr. Melvin Gascon from the Philippine Daily Inquirer discussed the correlation between Environmental Journalism and AI in uncovering corruption in public works. Mr. Gascon gave toolkits on where to get factual information with regards to government reports. These were COA reports, fund releases, project contracts, ground truth, and human trail. He also shared tips on how to utilize AI in the field of Journalism by using it for document search and clustering, contract red flagging, satellite imagery and analysis, and data scraping.
Mr. Ever Samson shared his knowledge about Editorial Cartooning, covering all aspects from conceptualizing to illustrating. He stated that editorial cartoons must persuade, provoke thought, satirize, and simplify complex issues for a wider audience.
Lastly, Mr. Regidor G. Gaboy talked about how Page Layout and Design contribute to the reach and effectiveness of the news report. He discussed the principles of page design, which involve: visual hierarchy, readability and simplicity, balance of text and visuals, and consistency.
The last day of the workshop was dedicated to Editorial Writing for Campus Journalists, a presentation by Dr. Danilo Arao, UP Diliman Professor, Media Asia Editor, PUP Sta. Mesa Special Lecturer and Associate Editor of Bulatlat.
In his talk, Dr. Arao outlined what an editorial article is and how it should be written. Key insights from his discussion that must be remembered when writing an editorial are: an editorial must articulate a stand against an issue and provide an analysis of issues from the students’ point of view in the context of campus journalism.
To end, awards and recognitions were given to participants for their exceptional performance and contributions in workshops for the past three days, as well as outstanding submissions for the categorical evaluation of student publications.
Awards were given for Best Investigative Journalism, Best Editorial Cartoon, Best Photo Essay, and Best Page Layout for the workshop.
On the other hand, Best Published News Report, Best Published Feature Story, Best Published Opinion Article, Best Published Sports Report, Best Published Development/Community/Sci-Tech, Best Tabloid/Semi-Broadsheet, Best Newsletter, and Best Magazine were the awards given in the overall evaluation of student publications.
Among the winners is The Paulinian SPUM, which garnered first place in the Best Magazine category with its A.Y. 2024-2025 release, Empower.
Read The Paulinian’s winning entry here: https://spumanila.edu.ph/the-paulinian/
