TWO JOURNALISM seniors were awarded the “best news documentary” for their entry in the 2023 Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC).
Under the news documentary category of the Chit Estella Journalism Student Awards, journalism seniors Wendell Adrian Quijado and Aira Nerize Bernardo bested eight other entries from various universities nationwide.
Their winning entry, “Dalawang Daan,” follows the story of a 21-year-old college student who had to make do with a daily allowance of P200. It also tackles the impact of inflation on Filipino students.
The two revealed that the piece was initially meant for one of their major courses, which they later submitted to the conference “for fun.”
“We could not believe it when we became finalists and eventually won,” said Quijado.
“It also feels great to be able to contribute to UST. I hope we made our professors proud,” he added.
When asked about their preparations for their entry, Bernardo shared that they did not do any.
“We also didn’t tell anyone because as I said, we only joined for fun and didn’t expect anything to happen,” she said.
Four other entries by UST journalism students were also recognized under the journalism research – general academic research category.
Journalism seniors Reine Juvierre Alberto, Alexandra Pelonia’s “Where the Filipino Gen Z’s Are: Perception on Journalistic Roles and Journalists’ Credibility of Tiktok Content,” Jacqueline Martinez and Angeline Tanqueco’s “Journalism and cancel culture: A case study on online self censorship among Filipino campus journalists,” and Gabriellea Pariño, Chelsea Denise Din and Louise Alexandra Gallardo’s “Philippine Crime Wave 2022: The Incorporation of Trigger Warnings into Graphic Crime Articles” qualified as finalists. The groups were advised by Mr. Alexis Romero.
Journalism alumni Maria Cecilia Pagdanganan and Isabel Gallego, advised by Ms. Marishelle Medina, “An analysis of online news media’s framing of the Covid-19 vaccines as a determinant in fostering Filipino pregnant women’s vaccination intent” was also among the list of 13 finalists.
The University of the Philippines Diliman’s Renz Joshua Palalimpa and Rhenzel Raymond Caling won the category with their work “The Robot Fact-Checker: Prospects and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence Use for Facto-Checking in Online Philippine Newsrooms.”
This year’s PJRC was themed “Journalism and Generation Truth,” and was held at the Plaridel Hall of the University of the Philippines Diliman last May 5.
The annual Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC) is an extension project of the University of the Philippines Department of Journalism that started in 2012. The University of Santo Tomas and Polytechnic University of the Philippines co-organized this year’s event. F
