CampusJourn University is a place where students of this connected generation can learn and do campus journalism.
It brings together the expertise, the insight and experience of educators, advisers and even former campus journalists, the power of internet and social media, and the flame of passion that burns within the budding campus journalists to operate this collaboration platform we call CampusJourn University.
Coaches chattering, kids taking photos, others taking down notes, some did audio and video recording. Well, this is what campus journalism looks and feels like when we once attended a Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC) at Hilongos, Leyte . But surely not enough.
When we were kids we were trained to write, read and draw. Lines by lines, from straight to cursive, from letters to words. Same as becoming a campus journalist in the future. One must be taught in accordance with the ethics and norms in order for them to become not just a campus journalist, but being a real and responsible journalist. An agent of truth in all its forms.
The RSPC 2015 attended by different schools in the region, both elementary and high schools was a big opportunity for us to give and share our perspectives and ideas of campus journalism. Mr. Jed Asaph Cortes, a teacher and a media practitioner from the Department of Development Communication in Visayas State University, served as the keynote speaker of the event in reaching out to young journalists and huddle them together into a common pursuit. Pulling them off from the very reason they attended – the competition, into an honorable goal – of becoming a voice.
Mr. Cortes highlighted the idea of using our voices to express the right out from the wrong and to distinguish wrong from something we thought is right. Conveying truth with integrity, passion, objectivity and to present it with sensitivity and wisdom that respects the opinions, griefs and the convictions of all.
This is the essence of campus journalism, to give someone a voice. Our role as journalists is to amplify authoritative voices of those who lacked access and the means to spread messages, the very aim of CJU; where we are also given the power to give depth and context to a story, even if we don't own them.
Writing is not enough. We must see that the stories we tell, the experience we illuminate, the public policies that we explore, the communities we describe – the entire body of the very work we do – must reflect the same diverse reality; a revolution in campus journalism that CJU started.
Likewise, the Amaranth, in collaboration with the university administration helped by popularizing the CampusJourn University to the young ones. We even gave away few Amaranth magazines from the last year's issue to serve as their reference tool during the battle. We saw a lot of prospects and aspiring journalists. We also introduced the Visayas State University as the best communication school in the Visayas in an invitational way.
However, we saw those young kids as the future of journalism. We opt to give them brighter perspectives of what campus journalism really is, even if we cannot get the assurance that all of them will become successful in their careers as agents of truth in the future. But yes, we hope that someday, while we scroll on our timeline pages, we could see their names and taglines bringing us forth to a sustainable and developed future. And with hope, we say, they will. For campus press freedom, to the nation and beyond!
"The pen is mighter than the sword."
This is the CampusJourn University motto. You might wonder what CampusJourn University is or where it was located. Well, it's everywhere. Just visit www.campusjourn.com
and you are in!