The University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) unveiled BANTALA: The UPV Media Excellence Awards (UPVMEA), March 25, 2021 at the UPV Little Theater in Iloilo City campus.

The UPVMEA, organized by the Office of the Chancellor, aims to strengthen democracy by way of recognizing stellar journalism among media practitioners, bloggers, writers, and various content creators in the Western Visayas region.

The awards title selected the popular Hiligaynon term ‘bantala’ for it encapsulates the communications practice by media practitioners which is to announce, to notify, to advise, to inform, to broadcast, or to publish news.

“The precise delivery of information is a form of democracy,” broadcasted Dr. Zoilo Andrada, Jr. from the podium during the presentation program and he emphasized that journalists, as the front liners in combatting disinformation, have a lot of stories to tell. Stories that sometimes put their lives at stake.”

“Despite the risks, stories get across to the readers and listeners, because the best story-tellers are the journalists,” announced Dr. Andrada, Jr., who is the assistant for Project Development for Mass Media and Communications under the Office of the Chancellor.

The UPVMEA highlights “stellar journalism” as the foundation of BANTALA to motivate media practitioners to exercise excellence in reporting as exemplified by the brilliant practice set by West Visayan journalists like Don Rosendo Mejica, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Russel Tordesillas, Flavio Zaragoza Cano, and Conrado Norada.

BANTALA aspires to promote genuine democracy

The BANTALA is another ground-breaking initiative of the University of the Philippines Visayas under the leadership of Dr. Clement C. Camposano, who assumed as the 11th Chancellor of UP Visayas in November 1, 2020.

The awards program is outlined under the 5-point agenda of Dr. Camposano and its concept was developed by the Office of the Chancellor, Project Development for Mass Media and Communications.

The awards program hopes to professionalize the media practitioners in Western Visayas as it aspires to contribute in strengthening democracy. It recognizes the prevailing weaponization of the internet and social media resulting in intensified misinformation and disinformation, which includes efforts to discredit journalists and other forms of attacks against media practitioners in the age of social media.

“Our society is now flooded with user-generated content,” advised Dr. Camposano, and the media now faced the challenges like the spread of misinformation and disinformation; hence, we can no longer determine what is factual from what is not.

Today, the media landscape has become “more complex” and media practitioners have a more crucial role to play, shared Dr. Camposano, and he underscored his observation that the watchdog function of the media has become “more salient.”

The times are changing and with these challenges in mind, the holding of the media awards program would bring together both the university and the media to tackle and engage with each other on these complex issues,” declared Dr. Camposano.

“The UPVMEA is only a starting point of a more intensive university program that plans to help professionalize Western Visayas media practitioners, conveyed Dr. Andrada, Jr.

The BANTALA:UPVMEA is a community engagement designed to serve as a stage to evaluate and to recognize the covering, writing, reporting, and publishing of news stories and events on different media platforms. “It is an outreach program by the university which this time focuses on regional media,” notified by the Chancellor during the Q&A with a small group of media practitioners and bloggers in compliance to health protocols.

In attendance were bloggers and Iloilo and Boracay-based journalists from online, radio, and print media.

UPVMEA’s focuses on 4 thematic challenges

BANTALA: UPVMEA has adopted the theme, “Medya: Kaupod sang Rehiyon sa Pagtib-ong sang Tunay nga Demokrasya” or Media: A Regional Partner in Promoting Genuine Democracy.

“It will be an all-inclusive awards process,” said Dr. Camposano, as such; it will welcome entries from different platforms, including radio block timers and content creators of the new generation.

The organizing committee of UPVMEA is still developing mechanics and other components required for the awarding. It will be released as they come available. One thing is certain, however, the awards will be open to materials produced in English, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, and Aklanon language.

The BANTALA: UPVMEA presented some technical considerations like categories of the participants and thematic topics. It will be open to two categories. Category A will comprise entries from newspapers and radio, while Category B will cover blogs, social media campaigns and advocacy, and news portals.

The awards program will encourage entries that focus on the following themes:

  • Deepening participatory democracy
  • Protecting human rights and fighting corruption
  • Fighting disinformation
  • Addressing various forms of marginalization

The entries will be judged according to how the material produced measured up to the thematic topics.

The search period will start from April 2021 and it will run until January 2022. The deadline for the submission of entries will be on January 31, 2022, and the final awarding will be in February 2022. For additional information, visit the website of UP Visayas at https://www.upv.edu.ph/ or its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/U.P.Visayas.Official