Arriola of AB, GS delivers lecture to PTV-4, PCOO staff


UST Graduate School and Faculty of Arts and Letters Professor Joyce Arriola, Ph.D., who teaches communication and literature, delivered a lecture titled “Writing for Government Television” for some 120 media personnel of People’s Television 4 (PTV-4) and other personnel of the Presidential Communications Office (PCOO). The lecture was held on March 13, 2021 at the ASEAN Theater of the Philippine Information Agency, in Quezon City.


The lecture was the inaugural session on what has been envisioned to be a series of writing workshops for the People’s Television Network, Inc. (PTNI). Spearheaded by Usec. Raquel R. (“Rocky Ignacio”) Tobias, PCOO Undersecretary for Broadcasting and Mass Media, the workshop series has the general aim of re-vitalizing the writing skills of media personnel who are serving in the government broadcast media.


Among the specific objectives of the workshop are the following: 1) To re-understand government information and communication; 2) To strategize government information as an expression of the institution’s vision and agenda; 3) To be re-oriented in the basics of newswriting and its potential for development and formation of public opinion; 4) To identify specific strategies helpful to increased viewership of PTV-4 News through an entertaining and engaging style that will be in harmony with the informative and educational mandate of the network; and, 5) To identify the various genres and sub-genres of government television writing and their impact on a more dynamic, creative and transformational career in news production and related fields.


Being a former government communicator herself, Arriola provided specific examples in her lecture, and also elicited from communication theory and research literatures for foundational concepts and historical precedents.
During the lecture, which was graced by the presence of PTNI Network General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Ms. Katherine Chloe S. De Castro, Arriola discussed the nature of media in general and television in particular, and how an understanding of both may help craft policies for government information management.
Arriola also discussed the different press models, the functions of media as these are applied to government information, the importance of communication and media policy and planning in designing the agenda of and crafting the program content of a government television network.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic protocol for social distancing and public safety, only 30 participants were allowed to be physically present at the lecture hall on March 13, 2021. The remaining 80 participants watched and participated through the Zoom virtual videoconferencing portal.
Arriola’s inaugural lecture will have a series of follow-through writing workshops that will tackle a number of topics such as re-appreciating the roots of TV news, news policy, news agenda, news genre, the education and qualifications of the news personnel, international news, and news sources.


This workshop series is in keeping with the PCOO leadership’s mission to continually institutionalize training programs that will help enhance the writing proficiencies of Philippine government television personnel and other members of the government media institutions and to remind them as well of the value of pursuing continuing professional education as part and parcel of their solemn duty as government communicators.

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