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Communication And Journalism Education In the Philippines

by

Crispin Maslog

Paper No. 11

ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library

Communication and journalism education in the Philippines is

still in its infant stage, although the first journalism school was

set up by the University of the Philippines in 1919* One reason

for the slow development of journalism education in the Philippines,

as in tlie United States, is the traditional disdain, indifference

•Litt.B., Ph.B., University of Santo Tomas; M.A., Ph.D., University of Minnesota. Dr. Maslog is professor of journalism and director of the School of Journalism and Communications at Silliman University.

Very little has been done or written about communication and journalism education in the Philippines. A research piece on this subject like this, therefore, has to start from scratch.

First of all, we don't know exactly how many communication or journalism schools there are in this country. Most communication educators themselves haven't heard about other schools outside of four or five.

The Philippine Press Institute lists 12 schools or departments of journalism in the Philippines (excluding the department of agricultural communication at the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines.)

Only seven of these schools or departments, however, could supply us with catalogues about their programs. The rest told us they were still revising their curriculums.

Of these seven schools or departments whose catalogues we studied, we were able to interview the heads of only four—the Institute of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Santo Tomas and Lyceum of the Philippines.

We had too limited a time to be able to interview the heads of all the schools, or to send out a questionnaire. At some future time, we might be able to do that.

We would like to thank here the four heads who gave of their time for these interviews—Dr. Josefina Patron, chairman of Ateneo's department of communication, Dean Gloria Feliciano of the U.P. Institute of Mass Communication, Dean Vicente Coloso of the Lyceum School of Journalism, and Mrs. Piedad Guinto Rosales, assistant dean, and Mr. Felix Bautista, consultant in journalism, of the U.S.T. Faculty of Arts and Letters.

Communication and Jou rna l i sm Education i n the P h i l i p p i n e s

by C r i s p i n Maslog*


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and suspicion that the practicing journalists have had for journalism

schools and their products.

Journalism cannot be taught in school, the old timers in the

newspapers used to say. Between a journalism graduate and a high

school graduate, we would prefer the latter, because he does not

have much to unlearn, the old timers also used to say.

Journalism education in the Philippines got its start in 1919,

when Dean Conrado Benitez of the University of the Philippines asked

an American, Walter Wilgus, to come and develop a journalism curri

culum in the university. The school did not last long because the

U.P. president displeased a legislator who eliminated the budget

2 for journalism education.

After this short-lived school of journalism at U.P., there were

only isolated journalism courses under English departments. In 1936,

the University of Santo Tomas established a journalism major within

the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, offering the degree of bache

lor of literature in journalism (Litt.B.).

The Faculty of Philosophy and Letters was founded by U.S.T. in

1898. In 196^, it was merged with the College of Liberal Arts under

the name of Faculty of Arts and Letters, which now offers the degrees

A.B. in journalism and A.B. in communication arts.

John A. Lent, in his unpublished manuscript on the Philippine mass media. A copy of the manuscript is in the reading room of the Silliman School of Journalism and Communications.

ibid.

5ibid.

4 Information given by the U.S.T. Faculty of Arts and Letters

catalogue, 1970-71, P- 21.


U.S.T.'s journalism program is the oldest surviving journalism

program in the country.

There were other attempts at journalism education in the country

by such schools as Far Eastern University, Philippine Christian Col

lege, Philippine Women's University, and De La Salle College. But

these programs came and went—and some came back again.

Meanwhile, journalism education was revived at the University

of the Philippnes under the English department. They offered a

bachelor of philosophy or bachelor of arts degree for journalism

majors.

Journalism education in this country continued to be haphazard

and half-hearted in the years immediately following the last war. I

still remember the days when I was a journalism student&t the Univer

sity of Santo Toraas. Most, if not all, of our journalism professors

were teaching part time because they were full time newspapermen

first. I remember vividly that most of the time, if not all of the

time, they came to class unprepared to lecture. They usually ended

up talking about their work in the newspaper. This anecdote telling

is good up to a point, but it can never replace a well-prepared

lecture.

Even today, schools of journalism in Manila, like those at

U.S.T. and Lyceum of the Philippines, continue to rely only on part-

time professors to teach their courses. These part-time journalism

professors and part-time consultants, needless to say, give only

part-time commitment to their schools and their students.

Looking at the situation from another angle, in terms of jour

nalism products employed by the mass media, the situation 'in the

years immediately after the last war was not heartening, either. Most

of the newspapermen staffing the Manila papers after the war were not

- 3 -


- k -

journalism graduates.

In 19^7, Unesco reported on journalism education in the Philip

pines:

Only a small percentage of the editorial staff members are graduates of colleges of journalism or have passed special examinations. Most of them are young men and women with ordinary high school certificates or university degrees entering the profession as apprentices and learning th$. trade as they work. The technical proficiency of most of the reporters, subeditors and other editorial staff members of Philippine newspapers is adequate, but on the whole they lack the necessary general technical background to be qualified journalists by European or American standards.

There are now a great many private schools, universities, and colleges in the Philippines, but only very few specialize in journalism, advertising or publicity subjects. There are no particular conditions of apprenticeship; promotion depends entirely upon efficiency.

Communication and Journalism Education Today

Today, however, the situation is changing. First of all, there

has been an expansion of the curriculum—from journalism to the broader

field of communication.

More communication and journalism graduates are getting into the

mass media. The publishers and owners of the mass media are recogni

zing the importance of a communication or journalism education for

their workers.

The editor of the Manila Times and the managing editor of the

Philippines Herald have master's degrees in journalism from Amrican

schools—Syracuse and Yale. The editor of the Manila Chronicle has

done graduate work in journalism in the United States as a Nieman

fellow at Harvard.

Unesco, Press, Radio and Film; Following the Survey in Twelve War-Devastated Countries, Unesco, Paris, 19^7»


- 5 -

The e s t a b l i s h m e n t of t h e P h i l i p p i n e Press I n s t i t u t e i n 1962 con

t r i b u t e d g r e a t l y t o t h e upg rad ing of the journal ism profess ion in the

P h i l i p p i n e s and t o t h e r e f u r b i s h i n g of the journal i sm e d u c a t o r ' s image.

The PPI h a s l e d t h e way in conduc t ing seminars and i n s t i t u t e s for work

ing j o u r n a l i s t s and s e n d i n g them abroad on va r ious t r a i n i n g programs.

The PPI , i n o t h e r words , has made the words journa l i sm educat ion r e s

p e c t a b l e i n t h e eyes of t h e ha rd -nosed working newspapermen in t h i s

c o u n t r y .

There a r e now more f u l l t ime journa l i sm e d u c a t o r s , e s p e c i a l l y a t

U . P . , Ateneo de Mani la and S i l l i m a n U n i v e r s i t y .

Accord ing t o t h e P h i l i p p i n e P r e s s I n s t i t u t e , t h e r e a r e 12 schools

or d e p a r t m e n t s of j o u r n a l i s m and communications in the P h i l i p p i n e s

today ( s e e Tab le I ) . Th i s l i s t does no t inc lude c o l l e g e s o f f e r i n g one

or two j o u r n a l i s m c o u r s e s a s e l e c t i v e s under Engl ish depar tments .

I t a l s o does n o t i n c l u d e t h e department of a g r i c u l t u r a l communi

c a t i o n a t t h e College^bf A g r i c u l t u r e , Un ive r s i t y of the P h i l i p p i n e s ,

which can be coun ted a s a s e p a r a t e u n i t , for a t o t a l of 1 3 .

I t i s i n t e r e s t i n g to n o t e t h a t of these 13 schools or departments

of communication and j o u r n a l i s m , only one i s l oca t ed ou t s ide the Manila

a r e a — t h e School of J o u r n a l i s m and Communications a t S i l l iman Univer

s i t y . Because of t h i s l o c a t i o n , S i l l iman decided to s p e c i a l i z e in

community j o u r n a l i s m (newspaper and r a d i o ) .

In a c o u n t r y where the community p r e s s i s n o t o r i o u s l y weak in

comparison t o t h e m e t r o p o l i t a n p r e s s , the S i l l iman School of Journalism

and Communications s e e s i t s mis s ion as the improvement of community

jou rna l i sm i n t he P h i l i p p i n e s .

P h i l i p p i n e Mass Media D i r e c t o r y , 1971, publ i shed by the P h i l i p pine E r e s s I n s t i t u t e , Mani la , 1971 , p . 102.


- 6 -

Table I - Schools and Departments of Communication and Journalism

University

University of the Philippines

Silliman University

Ateneo de Manila University

U.P. College of Agriculture, Los Bafios

University of Santo Tomas

Unit and When Established

Institute of Mass Communication - 19657

School of Journalism and Communications - 1966

Department of Communication

Graduate Program - 1966 Undergraduate Program - 1968

Department of Agricultural Communication

Faculty of Arts Q & Letters - 196^

Degrees Offered

A.B. in Journalism A.B. in Broadcast Com, M.A. in Journalism M.A. in Broadcast Com. M.A. in Communication

B.J. A.B. in Creative Writing-Journalism Minor in Journalism for B.S.E. & M.A. students

A.B. in Communication M.A. in Communication Concentration on: Radio-TV Film Theater Arts

Area of Empha of Strength

Metropolitan journalism, i communicatio: theory, rese. & public ser

Community joi nalism (newspaper and ra<

B.S. in Agri. Com. M.S. in Agri. Com.

A.B. in Journalism A.B. in Communication Arts

DevelopmentaJ communicatioi theater and film arts

Agricultural Communicatioi

Metropolitan journalism, advertising, public relati

Lyceum of the Philippines

School of Journalism - 1952

B.S. in Journalism A.B. in Journalism

Metropolitan, nationalistic journalism

Far Eastern University

Institute of Arts A.B. in Communication Major in theater arts, speech arts, mass communication

Speech and theater arts

Although the Institute of Mass Communication was set up in 1965i the first >urnalism school in U.P. and in.the Philippines was established in 1919* accord-Lg to a survey by John A., Lent. See footnote No. 1.

8 The new journalism and communication program at U.S.T. is under the newly


- 7 -

Table I - continued

University

8. Centro Escolar University

9. Maryknoll College

0. Philippine^ Women's University

St. Paul's College

2. St. Theresa's College

3. San Beda College

Unit and When Established

College of Liberal Arts

Department of Communication Arts



School of Journalism and Communication Arte

Department of Communication Arts

To achieve this goal, Silliman tries to produce journalism grad

uates oriented to working with the community press, cooperates with

the Philippine Press Institute in conducting seminars and workshops

for community newspapermen,' and conducts research in the area of the

community press.

It is interesting to note, also that even without consulting

each other, many of the schools have developed fields of interest or

specialization.

created Faculty of Arts and Letters (196*0, which is a merger of the former Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and College of Liberal Arts.


- v 8 -

The department of agricultural communication at the University

of the Philippines in Los Bafios, Laguna, specializes in agricultural

communication, by virtue of its location in the U.P. College of Agri

culture in a small town, although Los Bafios is only two hours by bus

from Manila. •

The Institute of Mass Communication, on the main campus of the

University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, has developed

its program^ in mass communication research, theory and public service.

Like two other schools in the Manila area, U.S.T. and Lyceum,

U.P. seems to be concentrating on turning out journalism and broad

cast communication graduates for the metropolitan mass media.

Ateneo de Manila University, on the other hand, perhaps because

of the kind of faculty it has, has specialized in theater and film

arts. It has defined its goal as the "cultivation of critical and

creative insights necessary for leadership in the areas of theater

9 arts and mass communication in a developing Philippine society."

• Lyceum likes to think of itself as wed to the goal of nationalism—

in line with the nationalistic sentiments of the founders and owners

of the school, the late President Jose P. Laurel and family. Their

main aim, as stated by some of their administration officials is to

produce nationalistic journalists. Lyceum was the first journalism

school in the Philippines to offer Tagalog journalism as a course, in

1952. It was followed later by the University of Santo Tomas.

Only two schools offer graduate courses in journalism and mass

communication—U.P. and Ateneo, having an average of 50 and ^0 students

According to the Ateneo de Manila University catalogue, 1970-71* p. 95.

Dean Vicente Coloso, interim dean of the School of Journalism in Lyceum, told this writer so in an interview last May 2.kt 1971.


- 9 -

per semester, respectively.

The big three journalism schools, as far as enrolment is concerned,

are those at Lyceum, U.S.T., and U.P., in that order, according to

enrolment figures in the past semester given thi6 writer by the heads

of these schools (see Table II).

Last semester the enrolments in these three schools were: Lyceum,

275; U.S.T., 230, and U.P., 190 (undergraduate only). If we add its

50 graduate students per semester, U.P. would be second with 2^0.

Of these 13, the quality communication and journalism schools are

reputed to be those at the University of the Philippines, Silliman

University, and Ateneo de Manila University.

The giant among all these schools, however, in almost all aspects—

enrolment, faculty, facilities, resources and quality—is the Institute

of Mass Communication at U.P.

The Institute is now housed in a million-peso communications build

ing appropriately named after Marcelo H. del Pilar, the great Filipino

journalist and propagandist of the Philippine Revolution of I896.

The Institute has spanking new facilities—air-conditioned faculty

offices, its own library, radio and television studios, and lounging

areas.

It has 21 full time faculty members, led by two Ph.D.'s in mass

communication, who teach one or two subjects a semester and spend the

rest of the time in research and writing.

The reason for this affluence, of course, is the fact that the

University of the Philippines is a state university, and is helped by

Unesco. The other universities offering communication courses (the

College of Agriculture at Los Bafios excluded) are all private- univer

sities and must live within their limited resources.


- 10 -

Communication/Journalism Curriculum

The old liberal arts-versus-professionalism debate, once a burning

issue in American journalism education, has never been a hot issue in

the Philippines, perhaps for the simple reason that nobody debates with

anybody on the subject of journalism education here.

Journalism educators just decide to set up their journalism or com

munication curriculums, consulting perhaps two or three catalogues from

other schools—and that's it. Thereafter nobody pays any attention to

them—neither their co-educators, nor the mass media people.

The question, therefore, of what kind of education to give our

journalism students—a broad liberal education or a technical education-

seems to have been resolved without having been debated. A look at the

curriculums of some communication and journalism schools in the Philip

pines will show that the schools have settled for a happy compromise—

about one-third technical and two-thirds liberal.

IVe computed the percentage of journalism (technical) units in the

curriculums of seven communication/journalism schools, and the percent

age ranged from 25 per cent to 37 per cent (see Tables III. and IV).


- 10a -

Table II - Enrollment & Faculty of Some Communication/Journalism Schools

Unit

.

Institute of Mass Communication, u.p. -

School of Journalism & Communications, S.U.

Dept. of Communication, Ateneo

Faculty of Arts i & Letters, U.S.T.

1 ! i School of Journal-1 ism, Lyceum

«

r _ . ._ . _ Average _

Enrolment '

Grad.

50

*f0

'

. — . _ Under-grad.

190

ko

65

230

275

Full time

21

2

2

1 1

0 j i !

°"i i

Part time

17

k

6

9

Indefinite

Faculty

Total

38

6

8

9

! ! i

1

1 i

j

Ph.D.

2

1

2

0

o i 1

Degrees M.A. M.S.

6

2

5

2

B.A. B.S.

8

3

l

7

'•

These figures are rounded off, based on the previous semester's

figures.

12These figures for U.P. are based on the I968-69 catalogue and are incomplete.


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Tab le I I I - Cur r icu lum of Some Communication & Journa l i s t i i Schoo l s (Undergraduate Only)

Schools

Silliman B.J.

Ateneo A.B. Communication

U.S.T. A.B.-Com. Arts

U.P. A.B. Broadcast Journ.

A.B. Journalism

Lyceum B.S.J.

A.B. Journalism

F.E.U. A.B. Communication major in speech arts

major in theater arts

major in mass com.

Total units*

143

144

166

146

146

• 142

133

142

142

142

Req.

24

24

•

45

44

35

42 _

33

51

51

» i

Major I El.

9

15

9

6

Units Total

33

49

45

53

43

42

33

51

51

51

%•* \ i

25

! 35 i

5 i

28

37

30 •

31

25

36

36 !

* ! i

General Un:

110

105

121

93

105 <(

100 •

100

91

91

91

*This does n o t i n c l u d e P h y s i c a l Educat ion and R.O.T.C. u n i t s (8 for men, 4 f o r women). A l l f i g u r e s in t h i s t a b l e a re based on the most r e c e n t c a t a l o g u e s from these s c h o o l s .

**This i s t he p e r c e n t a g e of major u n i t s in the t o t a l cur r icu lum.

i

For example:

Silliman requires 143 units for graduation with a bachelor's degree

in journalism (excluding ROTC and P.E.). Only 33 units, or 25 per cent

of the total, are journalism subjects.

U.P. requires 146 units for graduation with an A.B. in journalism.

Only 43 units, or 30 per cent of the total, are journalism subjects.


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Table IV - Curriculum of Some Coamunication & Journalism Schools (Undergraduate Only)

Schools

S i l l i m a n U n i v e r s i t y B . J .

Ateneo de Mani la A.B. Communication

U n i v e r s i t y of Santo Tomas A.B. Com. A r t s

A.B. J o u r n a l i s m

U n i v e r s i t y of the P h i l i p p i n e s A.B. Broadcas t J o u r n .

A.B. J o u r n a l i s m

Lyceum of the Philippines B.S.J.

A.B. Journalism

Far Eastern University A.B. communication major in speech arts

major in theater arts

major in mass com.

General units*

110

105

121

127

93

105

100

100

91

91

91

Eng.

19

18

27

27

15

15

2? 3*p<

2? —3SJM

21

21

21

Soc. Sci.

39

11

k2

k%

2k

27

36 teeh

30 tech

21

2k

2k

Breakdown of General Units

Span.

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

I2

Math.

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

Nat. Sci.

10

16

16

16

6

6

10

16

16

16

16

Rel.

6

16

15

15

\

•

Human.

/

16

3

3.

3

3

9

9

9

9

9

Gen Ele

12

27

27

•This does not include Physical Education and R.O.T.C. units (8 for men, k for women).


- 1 3 -

U .S .T . r e q u i r e s t he b i g g e s t number of un i t s—166 for an A.B. in

journa l i sm ( i n c l u d i n g 15 u n i t s o f r e l i g i o n ) . Of course , 39 u n i t s , or

25 per c e n t of t h e t o t a l , a r e j o u r n a l i s m or communication s u b j e c t s .

F . E . U . , p e r h a p s , had t h e h i g h e s t pe rcen tage of communication sub

j e c t s r e q u i r e d of i t s m a j o r s . Out of Ht2 uni-ts r equ i r ed for an A.B.

i n communication (mass communica t ion m a j o r ) , 51 u n i t s a r e in the major

f i e l d — o r 36 per c e n t .

J o u r n a l i s m Vs . O t h e r P r o f e s s i o n a l Courses

To g e t an i d e a a s t o how t e c h n i c a l o r t h e o r e t i c a l our journal ism

cur r icu lum a t S i l l i m a n i s , we compared ou t journa l i sm curr iculum with

the n o n - p r o f e s s i o n a l and p r o f e s s i o n a l cu r r i cu lum a t S i l l i m a n .

In S i l l i m a n , the s t u d e n t w o r k i n g for an A.B. i n biology has to

take 26 pe r cen t of h i s t o t a l u n i t s i n h i s major . The chemistry major

has to t a k e 21 pe r cen t of h i s t o t a l u n i t s i n h i s major.

A few o t h e r f i e l d s i n t h e C o l l e g e of Ar t s and Sciences r equ i r e a

sma l l e r p e r c e n t a g e of the t o t a l u n i t s t o be taken in the major f i e l d :

an th ropo logy , economics , p o l i t i c a l s c i e n c e , psychology and soc io logy ,

where the p e r c e n t a g e range from 18 t o 2 0 .

In the j o u r n a l i s m c u r r i c u l u m a t S i l l i m a n , as mentioned e a r l i e r ,

j ou rna l i sm s u b j e c t s compose 25 p e r cen t of the t o t a l r equ i rements .

Compared to/the p r o f e s s i o n a l c o u r s e s , l i k e n u r s i n g , eng ineer ing ,

music, e d u c a t i o n and law, h o w e v e r , j ou rna l i sm i s l e s s exac t ing in terras

of major r e q u i r e m e n t s .

For example, s t u d e n t s a s p i r i n g fo r a bache lor of music degree

(major i n compos i t ion) has t o c o m p l e t e 58 per cent of h i s t o t a l u n i t s

i n h i s major f i e l d .

The s t u d e n t a s p i r i n g f o r a b a c h e l o r of c i v i l engineer ing degree


- Ik -

•has to complete 3k per cent of his total units in his major field.

For a bachelor of science in nursing, 51 per cent must be in the field.

For a bachelor of laws, 50 per cent.

What do all these figures mean? They mean that although journal

ism is a professional course, it is more akin to the liberal arts

courses than to the professional courses. Which is all well and good,

as far as we are concerned.

Because journalism educators as well as practitioners now realize

that a journalist has to have a broad liberal education if he is to be

able to function as reporter and interpreter of the world around him to

his audience.

Problems of Communication/Journalism Education

The most common problem of these communication and journalism

schools or departments is the lack of facilities. Only the Univer

sity of the Philippines, because of Unesco aid in getting equipment,

does not have this problem.

The consultant for journalism at U.S.T. told us that his school

lacks facilities•for practical training. All they have is a small

radio studio. He said newspapers and othei^hass media in the city are

reluctant to accept their interns because of the responsibility involved

in case of accidents.

Ik

The interim dean of the Lyceum School of Journalism said that

because his school is privately owned, and relies mainly on tuition

fees for its income, it cannot afford to acquire the expensive equip

ment needed for the journalism students.

Felix B. Bautista, in an interview with this writer May 22, 1971.

Ik i

Dean Vicente Coloso, in an interview with this writer May 2k, 1971 •


- 15 -

Even Ateneo, a private school that gets grants from Ford and

other agencies for its educational program, complained of lack of faci

lities for its radio, television and film students. The school has

working arrangements with outside agencies, like commercial television

stations, and the government-owned National Mass Media Production Center,

for the training of its students. But the Ateneo communication depart-

15 ment head stressed that this is not the ideal arrangement. Under

this setup, the department has to adjust to the schedules offered by

the outside agencies. If the school owned the facilities, there would

be no problem of scheduling.

Silliman has solved this problem of facilities to some extent. It

is lucky to have a radio station, DYSR, affiliated with it. Although

DYSR is a separate legal entity, it works closely with Silliman Univer

sity. The station manager is a faculty member of our school, and the

school makes use of the station's facilities for training our radio

students. We have made use of our student newspaper, a weekly, as a

laboratory for our students.

To meet the need for more professional training facilities for our

newspaper students, among other reasons, a group of us faculty members

in the school pooled our private resources and organized a community

nev/spaper in Dumaguete City, the Negros Express. This is a private ven

ture, and it is edited by one of our first journalism graduates, who is

now a part time faculty member of our school. Beginning next year,

Silliman journalism interns will work with the paper. Meanwhile, also,

we will be sending other interns to work in community newspapers and

radio stations outside of Dumaguete City.

Another common problem to Philippine communication schools seems

Dr. Josefina Patron, in an interview with this writer, May 22, 1971


- 16 -

to be lack of local instructional materials.

The chairman of the Ateneo communication department viewed the

problem of lack of instructional materials from the dollar angle. Even

if the instructional materials relevant to the Philippines are avail

able in the United States, and even if the Ateneo student (who belong

to the upper class generally) can afford to buy them, Ateneo cannot

import them because of lack of dollars.

At Silliman we view this problem from another angle. First of all,

even if we can import these American instructional materials (and we

are able to, most of the time, because we have American church support

in dollars), our students (who come from the middle, or lower middle,

class) cannot afford to buy them. The prices become too prohibitive

when the dollar costs are translated into pesos.

Secondly, we feel that most of these American textbooks are not

relevant to the Philippine situation. We feel, therefore, that there

is a great need for communication and journalism textbooks written for

and by Filipinos.

Which leads us to a related problem—faculty. Two of the private

schools in Manila, Lyceum and U.S.T., look at this problem similarly.

First of all, they cannot afford, or do not want to, hire full time

faculty just to teach communication and journalism- courses. Because

the enrolment is relatively small, a faculty member (full load in these

schools is 2k units) might end up teaching all the subjects to all the

students, which is not a desirable thing.

Secondly, they find it difficult to find qualified people to abandon

the mass media for the halls of academe. So they end up with part time

teachers, who work with the media full time. "

There is an advantage to this kind of arrangement, of course. The

students learn from the experience of the working mass media people.


- 17 -

They also establish contacts, necessary when they start looking for

jobs later on.

But there are many disadvantages. One is that these mass media

people, who teach part time, end up neglecting their classes. They

come to class unprepared to lecture, or oftentimes, they don't come at

all, and students end up the losers.

This dependence on part time people from outside to teach also

results in an unstable faculty situation. The department chairman is

always unsure who will teach which courses from semester to semester, .

because these part time people in Manila are not always available at

the times you need them.

U.P., of course, because of its state subsidy, does not have this

problem of faculty—it has 21 full time and 17 part time teachers. Its

full time people teach about six units a semester, and spend the rest

of the time in research and writing.

Ateneo and Silliman, also, do not have this problem. Because of

the interdisciplinary nature of the Ateneo curriculum, the communica

tion department draws on the resources of the other departments of the

university. Silliman is again lucky to have the right people in town

who combine practical experience v/ith academic qualification to teach.

Silliman has two full time faculty members (including myself). In

addition, it has four part time people teaching—the station manager of

DYSR, the Philippine News Service correspondent, the editor of the Negros

Express, and the director of the Office of Information and Publications

of Silliman University. In a small town like Dumaguete City, the part

time people who work outside the university, are more available for

teaching assignments and so our faculty situation is more stable.

There is one problem mentioned by the U.S.T. administration offi-


- 18 -

cials, with which we at Silliman concur—the poor quality of journalism

students.

We have observed that our students' command of the English language

is becoming poorer and poorer. The cause can be traced back to our high

schools and elementary schools. The quality of instruction there has

been going down, English has been deemphasized, and grade VII has been

eliminated. All these contribute to the deterioration of the students'

knowledge of the English language.

This is a problem that is peculiar to the Filipino student, because

the language of journalism in the Philippines today is still English.

This, in turn, is tied to/the bigger problem of what should be the na

tional language of the Philippines, which we do not have the time nor

space to discuss here.

We wind up our discussion of the problem of Philippine communica

tion education by citing a problem of U.P., which does not have the

other problems we have mentioned so far. The problem of U.P. is the

problem of affluence. It is the problem of a developed institution,

like a developed country—the problem of attitudes.

The Institute dean said that at U.P. the students are rejecting

the traditional concepts of journalism, which are Western in origin.

For example, their students are rejecting the concept of objective jour

nalism for the concept of committed journalism. They are also demand

ing reading materials and newspapers from and about non-Western countries,

including Communist China and the Soviet Union.

Dr. Gloria Feliciano, in an interview with this writer May 24,

1971.


- 19 -

Conclusions and Proposals

Let us conclude by offering possible solutions to these problems

within the Philippine contest.

The problem of facilities, which seems to be the most nagging

problem of these communication and journalism schools, might be

solved to some extent by consortiums.

This idea was broached to us by the Lyceum interim dean of jour

nalism who said that his school is willing to accept help from founda

tions to set up facilities which might be shared by a number of schools

in the area.

The facilities, in our view, however, do not have to come from

foundations. Three or four schools in the Manila area, for example,

could pool their resources and set up a television or radio station

or a printing press, where they can fiend their students to work.

The second most nagging problem, lack of instructional materials,

can be solved by a systematic approach to the problem: two or threes*

schools can cooperate in writing textbooks, for use in more than one

school. The fact that the textbooks can be sold to students from

other schools will assure that the books will be a financial success.

The bigger problem related to this, however, seems to be the lack

of time among faculty members to write these textbooks. It is^somewhat

ironic that Philippine journalism and communication teachers, who are

supposed to be writing experts, do not write their own textbooks.

We might get our textbooks, however, if we find financial support for

the research and writing of these books.

The problem of part time faculty, which seems to be peculiar to

schools in the Manila area, can be solved the way U.P., Ateoen and

Silliman have solved them:' Employ full time people in the university,

although not necessarily in the department or school of communication/


_ 2 0 - . . . . . . ' •

j o u r n a l i s m . Or employ peop le wi th mass m e d i a exper ience a g r e a t p e r

cen tage of t h e t i m e , wh i l e a l l o w i n g them t o work i n the mass media p a r t

t ime , t o e n a b l e them t o keep i n t o u c h w i t h t h e work-a-day wor ld .

F a c u l t y s c h o l a r s h i p s and exchanges would a l s o c o n t r i b u t e to the

improvement of i n s t r u c t i o n i n t h e s e s c h o o l s . t

The problem of quality of students, perhaps, is the bigger, more

long range problem, which might be difficult of solution. Its roots .

are in our educational system. We can attempt to solve this^roblem,

however, by adding a fifth year to the journalism curriculum.

V/e are beginning to realize that four years for a journalism edu

cation is not enough. Five years should be the minimum. The world is

getting more complex and the journalist's job of interpreting events

around him becomes more difficult. Knowledge is exploding, there is

much more information to digest. The journalism student needs more

time to do this.

There is another argument for extending the journalism curriculum

in the Philippines from four to five years. Here in the Philippines,

most of our journalism is conducted in English. Our journalism educa

tion, therefore, like our college education in genera]/for that matter,

is conducted in English. Since the medium of instruction is English

and since the language of the journalism they will practice later is

mainly in English, we expect our journalism students to master the

English language, even more than the average college student.

We need more time, therefore, to expose the students not only to

the broadening social science and humanities courses, but to English

writing and journalism courses.

The proportion of journalism to non-journalism courses could

remain the same, although we should require more units of both.


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All these problems lead to my final point, which at present is >

still a problem: the lack of organization among Philippine communica

tion and journalism educators.

We need to discuss these problems and their possible solutions.

We need to cooperate and share our limited manpower and technical

resources to tackle the unlimited challenges before us. But first we

must get together and organize ourselves. #


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