Beyond the Lens

       Here's a photo collage showing what happened on last week's event

                                                                                                             --Jerryca Marie Dolon

Went Beyond Expectations

                A digital production doing an event for journalism students? Not bad at all! Well, technology and dissemination of information now go hand-in-hand, anyway. Thus, the one held by “Go Beyond Studios” last February 28 surely was helpful for PUP Journalism juniors (including the girls of Augenblick). And surprisingly, it wasn’t all about techy stuff after all but a useful guide in being successful in our future careers.

                Jeffrey Fontecha started the talk with what the company does in a nutshell.  With all those apps and games they’ve made, it’s undeniable that they can really make magic happen. Moreover, the audience-favorite probably was the “insta-print”. Oh, many of us got pretty excited on instantly printing our “selfies” (with a corresponding hashtag,  #ilovePUPCOC)posted on instagram. 

They also have prominent clients- Uniliver, Clear, Tang, and Mashable to name a few. Yup, the company is big-time. But can we work there? Ofcourse! Mr. Fontecha explained that we could help on the content by doing write-ups.  Ok, journ students who are currently looking for a job, you know what to do.
 

The next speaker was Melchor Jamero, the COO of the company. He first did a little background of his business and how he met his co-workers. After that, he proceeded to tackle his main topic, #ForwardFriday. It is an online social movement that aims the people to make most out of their days. Furthermore, this campaign invites us to post a dream or a plan every Friday. Well, studies show that the more you express your goal the more chances to achieve it. Thus, being a “#forwardfriday warrior“ surely is a good idea.

In addition, we were thrilled by his activities in which each of them has a corresponding lesson. Yup, Mr. Jamero surely taught us a lot about life and how not to live by mere “simple existence”. We learned the importance of attention and energy and such phrases like “a target you cannot see is a target you cannot hit”, “hindi talaga pwede and pwede na”, “Talangka mentality is for crabs”, and the one that struck me the most “You’ve been programmed since birth. But you have the power to escape, reboot and write your script”. Oh yes, let’s go beyond mediocrity.

The last speaker was Oddy Miranda who tackled about SEO. Through our online journalism subject, we already had a background on SEOs and how it’s useful on websites. Nonetheless, we still learned more about it, thanks to Mr. Miranda. He also introduced us to such terms most of us weren’t aware of like  Google Adwords, metadata, algorithm, indexing and web spiders. He had so many interesting topics, our low-quality facilities almost weren’t able to cope up with him.

All in all, the event was awesome! In such a short period of time, we learned a lot which were way beyond the lessons we had in school. Thus, I do hope this is just the first of so many events that Go Beyond Studios make in our University.

                                                                                              --Christine Joanne Reyes

Exploring Niches

        Everyone who uses the popular social networking sites of course wants to interact. But our need to interact with other users doesn’t mean that we have to sacrifice our privacy. Even we are in Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, it doesn’t mean that we want everyone to know about every move we make. But these sites giveaway information about our activities, so much hassle that we have to endure until niches came into picture.

        The blog will start on showing the things that exhaust people in the usual social networking sites, the hassle of annoying posts and the lack of privacy among its users.  It will show the need for private space even in the world of internet.

         It will introduce the idea of niches in social media through its advantages and disadvantages. First, it will deal on the privileges niches can bring. Then will latter show the downsides. After the character learned about these new things in the internet, she’ll leave the all-techno adventure. She will explore the world outside the web and will see that she can turn the virtual world into reality.

---Joyce Velasco

Hashtag: OnlineJourn

          I remember reading in an article that ‘laziness’ is killing Journalism and apparently, that laziness pertains to Online Journ. Funny it may seem but a lot have been nodding their heads in the comment box below that article while I deliberately shake my head and raise a placard with a huge, bold, underlined ‘NO’. A lot of people think online journalists are laid-back story tellers who earn their cash by lying on their couches and type, type and type whatever they want. But let me tell you something: they’re not. They are online JOURNALISTS; just the same as your traditional news makers, only online. Still don’t get it? Take a look at these set of pictures and see what fills an online journalist’s normal day.

          To be an Online Journalist, you have to welcome deadlines, surprise interviews, on-the-spot news coverage, headache-generating digital codes, too much coffee, maybe even a sulky boss, and more deadlines with open arms. Yeah, you got to love your deadlines for in the world of online journalists, being first if the best. It is not like that of the newspaper which is published only every day. Being online means you got to be fast. You got to be the first to post that flaming news. You got to be the source. Which is why every tick from that intimidating little wall clock can scare you. I don’t know about you but I can’t see any laziness there.

          Online Journalism is not a martyr’s job though. It also got some extra fun stuff to keep you fueled up. It can make you ride an airplane to anywhere, give you gadgets, free tickets, movie passes and VIP concert seats! Plus, more friend requests from strangers on facebook, which may also be considered as fans in some ways. You can also get instant feedback on your articles through that comment box that can make you feel important or lift you up like a flying cheerleader. Well, yes, you can also receive bashes but you got to think positive, right?

          Being an Online Journalist is a fun and exciting job. As a responsible online journalist, you can be certain to keep journalism alive, in control and smile while riding the flow of each change you have to absorb. So why would an online journalist change career? Besides, since 2008, he/she may just also win a Pulitzer Prize.

---Jolina Landicho
(c) photos by Jerryca Dolon and the awesome world wide web