For the first time, Rappler and the Global Editors Network (GEN) gathered leading Philippine media networks for a two-day hackathon to develop innovative tools for journalists last July 7-8 at the Rappler newsroom as part of the 5th season of GEN's Editors Lab program.
(The Global Editors Network is a cross-platform community
of editors-in-chief and media innovators committed to sustainable, high-quality journalism, empowering newsrooms through a variety of programs designed to inspire, connect, and share)
Amaranth and the VSU Web Team were both invited to the said event despite falling a bit out of category. Truthfully it was a bit intimidating to think that we were in a competition against the likes of Inquirer, GMA, TV5, and other prominent Philippine media organizations.
Each participating team was composed of a journalist, a web developer, and a graphic designer, the participants worked together in creating news prototypes such as apps, interactive visualizations, games, widgets, or even new features for their websites. The participants also presented their prototypes to a jury of media and disaster experts like Dr. Mahar Lagmay (Director, Project Noah), Mr. Felino Castro (Director, Information and Communication Technology Management Service, Department of Social Welfare and Development), and Former Undersecretary Alexander Pama (Former Executive Director, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council).
It was indeed a new learning experience for the Amaranth given the fact that we were the only student media organization who participated in the said event.
Weather or Not
After Super Typhoon Yolanda, people became more conscious of what a single weather term would mean and bring. Amaranth developed a prototype for 'Weather or Not': an application based quiz game that aims to familiarize players with the terms used for crisis reporting, both local and scientific. Combining the mechanics similar to 'Four Pics One Word' and 'Who wants to be a Millionaire', players will match crisis reporting terms with the most accurate pictorial representation and the closest synonyms they have in their local dialect. This facilitates the teaching of difficult terms, and can potentially address the gaps in crisis reporting, such as that of the disastrous “storm surge” misinterpretation of 2014.