FROM A to Z – that’s the distance already bridged early this school year by journ.ph, the online journalism platform of Smart Communications Inc. (Smart).
The journ.ph program was recently introduced to the whole Zamboanga Peninsula when the regional office of the Department of Education (DepEd) conducted a campus journalism training for advisers and selected student editors in Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur. About 250 participants representing 80 high school and elementary school papers participated in the campus paper editorial and management training which was highlighted by the Smart online campus journalism training, said Dr. Visminda Valde, regional school publications supervisor.
Dr. Valde invited Smart to conduct the online journalism training after learning of the telco’s program at the National Schools Press Conference held in April in Puerto Princesa City where journ.ph was introduced to a nationwide audience.
“It is, indeed, a blessing that Smart brought the online journalism technology to our region, thus our publications are now given the opportunity to be part of a pioneering digital media initiative,” Dr. Valde said.
With the recent connectivity of the Zamboanga Peninsula with the Smart program, journ.ph is now actively operational in three regions. In the high school level, it was implemented in Western Visayas in 2010 with the support of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) – Region VI and early this year in the MIMAROPA Region.
In the collegiate level, the program had been introduced earlier in Cebu and Davao cities as well as in Region VI, where it is enjoying a wide following much more so with the third year of a five-phased ongoing 2012 training series in partnership with PIA in Iloilo City and Bacolod City.