TACLOBAN CITY – The DILG Regional Communications Team took an initiative to conduct Journalism Writeshop and Multimedia Production Training for the Documentation of Locally Funded Projects to capacitate the Information Officers, and Project Evaluation Officers of different provincial offices.
“Capturing the Scene: Journalism Writeshop and Multimedia Production Training for the Documentation of Locally Funded Projects,” held last April 21-22, 2022, at the DILG Region VIII Training Center, was attended by 24 participants from the provincial and regional offices.
The training aimed to capacitate the Information Officers, Project Evaluation Officers, and DILG 8 personnel across the region on the basics of journalism, multimedia, and social media management.
It covered the introduction of journalism, news, and feature writing, copy editing and proofreading, social media management, and basic layouting and photo documentation.
According to Mr. Myles Colasito, former Regional Information Officer of the Department, there is a paradigm shift in the communication tactics of DILG.
“Before the DILG Information Officers focus on press publicity and media relations to inform the public. Now we focus on social media and DevCom,” shared Colasito.
Claerchille Jhulia Robin-Tan, head of the Regional Communications Team said that most of the newly employed Information Officers and Project Evaluation Officers do not have a background in writing and social media management.
“This training was spearheaded by the Communications Team. We recommended it because I saw that most of the Information Officers do not have a background in journalism and in social media management. I know that the management is hoping that field offices are independent and active in social media updates because it’s the trend now,” said Robin-Tan
Further, Mr. Robertgie Piañar, one of the keynote speakers, said the training aimed to retool and enhance the writing skills of the participants and upscale their writing experiences to be able to produce tangible outputs.
“This training is more on retooling, enhancing, and upscaling writing experiences. We believe that most of you already have the skills. We just need to ignite and refresh your mind on the knowledge of journalism so that you are able to produce tangible materials, like newsletters, newspapers, and other multimedia products,” said Piañar.
Piañar added that at the end of the activity, the participants were expected to be able to write news articles based on the techniques discussed in the workshop.
“There is a writeshop in every unit. I want you to feel at the end of the session that you are able to write based on the training,” shared Piañar.
The invited resource persons were Mr. Jufran Agustin for Introduction of Journalism, Feature Writing, and Copy Editing and Proofreading, Mr. Robertgie Piañar for Newswriting and Social Media Management, and Mr. Ed Tiquen for Basic Layouting, Visuals Creations, and Photo Documentation.
– Darlyn C. Diang
