Thirteen students and two faculty members, Asst. Prof. Gwenetha Pusta, PhD, and Asst. Prof. Faye Abugan from the Department of Communication and Media Studies of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, joined the 2017 d’Catch (decentralized Asian Transnational Challenges) Video Exchange Program held at Universitas Pembanga Nasional (UPN) “Veteran” Yogyakarta, Indonesia from February 4 to 13, 2017.
They were part of the 98 delegates from five Asian countries namely, the Philippines, Japan, China, Indonesia, and Thailand, who were welcomed by the Department of Communication Science of UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta Head Dr. Subhan Afifi.
Started in 2004, d’CATCH has been a “workshop style activity mainly for Asian university students to encourage their media literacies and cross cultural understanding.” In the opening ceremony of the 2017 d’Catch, Prof. Dr. IR Sari Bahagiarti, Rector of UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta delivered the opening remarks and acknowledged the importance of d’CATCH as an “event to discuss the truth and beauty, diversity, technology and education, while celebrating the global friendships.” It has been a practice to hold the video exchange program in three phases: Making (local videos), Workshop (showing and reconfigure), and Screening/Symposium.
This year’s “workshop” was held in the second campus of UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta. Each country had five groups that produced their videos in their respective countries based on the theme ‘NOW’ which describes the spirit, energy of the new generation in an Asian country. The delegates watched a total of five videos each day produced by the participating country. A discussion followed to clarify the issues presented in the videos. This was the first step in multi-cultural understanding. The culminating activity for all participants was a video production which was shot in Yogyakarta landmarks allowing them to interact with the locals and experience the culture of Java, Indonesia.
UST has been consistently involved in d’CATCH since 2004. Through UST, the Philippines has been yearly represented in this video exchange program.
