The MA in Journalism program made a bountiful harvest at Asian and Philippine journalistic contests this 2022.
These victories in Asian (one) and Philippine (five) journalistic competitions were courtesy of MA in Journalism students and a newly hired Graduate School academic staff.
The Philippine Star Reporter and MA in Journalism Candidate Neil Jayson Servallos won an honorable mention for Excellence in Human Rights Reporting (regional news outlets) in the 2022 Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards.
The Awards, handed out in Hong Kong last June, accorded Servallos the citation for his investigative stories on online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) in the Philippines. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred OSEC activities and has made the Philippines the “OSEC capital of the world” given an over-200 percent rise in cases.
Servallos’ stories for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) form part of the series Digital Sex Crimes in Asia. But the articles were originally submission to Servallos’ class Data Journalism, handled by MA in Journalism Lecturer Karol Ann Ilagan (also with the PCIJ).
SOPA is considered the Asian counterpart of the Pulitzer Prize, said to be journalism’s most prestigious award. The said series also won for Servallos the LaSallian Scholarum Award for Outstanding Feature on Youth and Education last March (handed out by De La Salle University).
For his part, MA in Journalism student Tyrone Jasper Piad towed BusinessMirror to victories in the 2021 Economic Journalism Association of the Philippines (EJAP)-Ayala Business Journalism Awards last November.
Piad is reporter of the year for the trade and industry beat. Meanwhile, Piad won a second EJAP award, the Best in Business Feature, for his story Village people’s zest won’t let Covid stop the music of business.
The said BusinessMirror feature (on its Broader Look section) was Piad’s requirement for his 2021 class on Storytelling and Advanced Reporting Techniques with MA in Journalism Program Lead Jeremaiah Opiniano.
Piad’s two victories plus two others for BusinessMirror helped the broadsheet capture its fifth straight Business Source of the Year Award.
Since the start of 2022, Piad has been a business reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Newly-hired MA in Journalism program Lecturer Marie Carisa Ordinario also towed BusinessMirror receiving awards in statistics reporting and in agricultural journalism.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) made Ms. Ordinario winner in the Best Statistical Reporting in Print Media category during the 11th National Statistics Month (NSM) Media Awards held last October.
A month earlier, Ordinario, Piad and fellow MA in Journalism student Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas copped the Agricultural Story of the Year during the 15th Bright Leaf Agricultural Journalism Awards (organized by Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation, Inc.).
Ordinario, Piad and Arcalas (already a hall of famer in the Bright Leaf awards) won for their two-part series titled Global shipment woes: Additional shocks to Philippines’ food supply chain and Supply stiffness to stay as shipment issues seen spilling past Yule season.
Ordinario is also a lecturer in the BA in Journalism program of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
The MA in Journalism program began during the second term of Academic Year 2015-2016 to further train journalism and communication practitioners and make them future newsroom managers that help produce quality journalism.
