Civic Journalism

Beyond the mere transmission of factual information, journalism bears the responsibility of doing so in an objective manner that is both balanced and ethical.  When journalism empowers citizens to make informed decisions and engages them to take an active role in society towards nation building, civic journalism is in play. It reinforces media's role as the Fourth Estate.

Facilitating Public Information and Discourse

In alignment with the Philippine government’s public information drive in 2018 that was intended to explain the proposed federal system of government to the public, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) joined hands with the Pimentel Institute for Leadership and Governance (PILG) in collaboration with the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) in bringing information about federalism as a system of government to the media.

In three seminar-workshops held in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao for media practitioners, the late Former Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr., known in the Philippines as “Father of the Local Government Code” and “Father of Federalism,” elaborated on the draft Federal Constitution entitled “Bayanihan Federalism: Power to the People, Power to the Regions.”  He was joined by an international expert from Germany as well as local experts on federalism who delved into the principles and working examples of federalism and related systems functioning in different countries.  The Cordillera Autonomous Region, the Bangsamoro Organic Law and the peace process of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao were also discussed.

A seminar on related topics for educators, communicators and students was organised in Quezon City in collaboration with the Philippine Information Agency.  Plans for the formalisation of the HSF-PPI partnership were announced during the PPI’s National Press Forum in 2019.

Adapting to a Changing Environment

New challenges came with 2020, when the HSF-PPI partnership for the 2020-2022 project cycle became official.  The global health situation affected people in every walk of life, including media practitioners, who are amongst the frontliners.  With discussions and information dissemination thrust into the cybersphere, technologies emerged that facilitated the continued communication and exchange of insights and experiences online.  The HSF provided the PILG with computer equipment for use in the preparation, organisation and execution of online and offline activities. 

The Cagayan de Oro Press Club, Inc. (COPC) in the Northern Mindanao Region and the PPI, who was one of the Foundation’s equipment beneficiaries, sought to prevail over the new challenges and to support capacity building of journalists in their craft in relation to good governance and ethical standards amongst press members, and to promote civic journalism.  Believing in the need for the public to be kept informed as the circumstances continued to develop, the HSF supported various online and hybrid information and training activities with PILG-PPI for the youth, and the COPC and the PPI to capacitate media persons, and strengthen coordination and information dissemination.

Supporting Local Journalism

In aid of community journalists, the HSF began support for PPI News Commons (ppinewscommons.net) in May 2020.  This online news-sharing platform is where the institute’s member newspapers throughout the country can share community stories and have the potential of reaching the public across the globe.  To date, it holds more than fourteen thousand news stories from fifty-three contributing members.  Alongside was a parallel project for community journalists -- the monthly Chronicles -- initially focused on COVID-19 in 2020; then, on health and elections in 2021; and, on health and governance in 2022.  Through this project, the PPI gathers vetted content from journalists on the specified topics and publishes these in PPI News Commons.  In tandem therewith, “Sharing Sessions” with the journalists are held around twice a year to discuss how community papers and media practitioners are coping with challenges in the field.

Engaging the Citizenry

Current issues are brought to the public’s attention through the project’s monthly roundtable discussions, “Roundtable with PPI,” during which views from international as well as from local standpoints were exchanged and answers to pressing questions, offered.  Streamed live online, the RTD’s are held every third Wednesday of the month.

The occasional online public forum is held to tackle current issues of pressing public interest.  Certain activities were organised by the PPI with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation in collaboration with other media interest groups.  In 2022, regular activities have expanded into the local level in the regions where the establishments of local media councils is being deliberated on.  Dialogue and exchange has been elevated this 2022 to the international level in a forum held on “Journalism as a Public Good” where experts from Southeast Asian Countries joined as speakers and participants from the region were invited. 

In January 2022, as part of the HSF-PPI Civic Journalism program, the project expanded its reach with the launching of “The PPI Podcast.”  This series of audio and audio-video broadcasts focuses mainly on current issues confronting the Philippine media and matters of public interest.  Published at least once a month, the episodes are available on the PPI’s Website, its video and podcast service platforms and its social media accounts as well as in the Media Library of the Hanns Seidel Foundation’s Website and its social media pages.

Collaborating with Academe

In this day and age when practically every media consumer can also be a media producer, media practitioners see the need to educate the public, especially the youth, on mindful consumption of content and being responsible sources of information. 

Since 2021, the Scholastic Press Outreach Program, a seminar series for students and educators organised in collaboration with educational institutions nationwide, has been conducted on a regular basis.   Media and information literacy (2021) and how media has been coping with and covering the health crisis (2022) are discussed.  Initiated by the PPI in cooperation with the PILG, the activities are intended to upskill the youth and enable them to do fact-checking, identify misinformation and differentiate disinformation from mal-information.  The idea was for the participants to gain competency in managing information, avoid being led by false information, and hone these skills towards becoming discerning, proactive and responsible consumers of media as well as engaged citizens of society.

Leading up to the Philippines’ 2022 general elections, the PPI published a series of explainer videos on voter education in collaboration with the academe and the government as part of the program.  These videos were intended to provide Filipino voters with basic information about their participation in the upcoming elections and to help contribute to the strengthening of democratic values.  To serve as public service announcements, the series was developed in consultation with the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) as part of the Scholastic Press Outreach Program on Voter Education of the PPI organised in cooperation with the Pimentel Institute for Leadership and Governance (PILG) and also with support from one of its corporate partners.

Research projects in collaboration with universities were conducted in 2021 (Democracy Resilience) and in 2022 (Filipino Journalistic Practices in the aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic).  The results contribute to the content for the scholastics seminar series and other information activities that are part of the project cooperation.  These activities aim to help the youth become discerning consumers of content, develop skills in fact-checking and assist in increasing their numbers by passing on their knowledge and skills.

Strengthening Media

Support for the local media organisation COPC in Region 10 extended in the period 2020-2022 was realised through seminar-workshops for media practitioners on topics as: ethical journalism, press freedom, and reporting in specific situations (e.g.: elections, global health situations).  Later, plans for the formalisation of the HSF-COPC partnership were announced.  Meanwhile, training activities for members of the PPI were also held.  Topics spanned the gamut from data journalism and visual storytelling, to covering elections and government transparency and accountability.

Through a digitalisation project, twenty PPI-Member community newspapers (ten each in 2021 and in 2022) gained online presence with the creation of their own news Websites where they can reach vast numbers of audiences online.  These news outfits are now taking advantage of their Websites’ Progressive Web App (PWA)- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) functionalities, which help them in converting traffic experienced by their Website into revenue. 

The PPI Journalism Fellowship Program was launched in 2021 as part of the project cooperation with the theme “Civic Journalism in the Time of Pandemic” at the height of the pandemic and led to the publication of thirty news articles, which provided insightful reporting on concerning health situations communities were fraught with.  The second edition held in 2022 was themed: “Health and Local Governance.”   Likewise, thirty articles were published online or in print.