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COLUMN: ONLINE MEDIA:
In the immortal words of AC/DC, "It's a long way to the top..."
If you want to rock and blogroll.
The debate, on whether online media in its many forms will replace the more traditional forms of media, has been argued endlessly since I stepped inside the hallowed Plaridel Hall. (That's the College of Mass Communication in the University of the Philippines, for those of you who for some strange reason stumble into my site.) The debate has been there before me, has been, in fact, since a Canadian programmer named Andrew Smales launched the first free tool enabling ordinary citizens to publish their writings to a massive audience, the Internet. But over the recent years the dispute has grown more heated, due in part to the rise of Web 2.0, with its characteristics of openness, freedom, dynamic content, and collective intelligence-- a new kind of democracy which allows users to participate more.
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Lozada Feature:
The UP Side of the Force
If Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada is a Jedi, then the Iskolars ng Bayan are willing to be Padawans.
Judging from the recent actions of students from the University of the Philippines (UP), youth activism is still alive and kicking, and—despite the lack of an official statement from the state-run institution—the nation’s scholars are ready to support the knight fighting against the Dark Side. |
 LOZADA |
Lozada, the Senate star witness for a ZTE-NBN deal involving an alleged $130 million, has had the support of the students since the issue exploded. In explaining why she believed Lozada, UP Los Bańos student “Nina” explained in her online journal that “being in a state university, our professors constantly remind us that our education is subsidized by the people’s taxes so we must and should do our best to study hard and somehow contribute to society after we graduate. We realize the gravity of this responsibility so we do our part.”
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ACLE:
A Chartered Cost: the UP Charter
“It’s a very lucrative business, education,” Alvin Peters of the National Union of Students of the Philippines said. He added in Filipino, “It shouldn’t be, but it is.”
In the Alternative Classroom Learning Experience (ACLE) held by the League of Filipino Students, the Union of Journalists of the Philippines-UP Diliman, and the Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (STAND-UP), students exhaustively discussed proposed amendments to the UP Charter, and how these changes might privatize the university, a state-run institution.
The two bills being fought out at the time were Senate Bill 1964, Sen. Francisco Pangilinan’s version of the UP Charter, and the House Bill 2845 known as the Zialcita Bill. Students and concerned members of the academe were eagerly anticipating a bicameral conference that would take place four days later, to resolve the two bills.
| Members of the UP-Wide Democratization Movement and Student Regent Terry Ridon said of the two, the Pangilinan Bill is a pro-commercialization charter, with STAND-UP declaring it to be “the single most pressing threat to the democratic character of our university and to the future Iskolar ng Bayan.” |
 | | TERRY RIDON |
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