PORT
MORESBY/KUMGI: 5 October 2013
-- Media
Week, organised in two Salesian centres in PNG (Kumgi,
Central
Highlands, and Port Moresby the Capital) was a very special
event, a
first, really, of such magnitude, and by all accounts, a
very
successful one. Here are two reports, one based on
Kumgi 23-24
Sept, then Port Moresby 26-27 Sept.
KUMGI
130 participants attended the two day Media Education Seminar
held at
Don Bosco Tech Institute, Kumgi on the 23rd and 24th
September,
2013. The participants – a mix of students, teachers and
students
from a few other schools were delighted to be part of the
two-day
programme.
Highlighting the World Communications Day message: ‘Social
Networks,
portals of truth and faith, new spaces for evangelization’,
Fr. Ambrose
Pereira sdb invited the participants to understand the media
and use it
to empower and enhance life as they spread positive messages
through
the different media.
The animators, specialized in their fields, were from a
variety of
backgrounds. Fiji Media Watch Director, Agatha Ferei
dealt with
critical analysis of media content; Information Technology
expert,
Hayden Powick opened the students to the possibilities of
Social Media
while Mario Braganza instructed the students on the need to
write
creatively and photograph pleasing images.
The participants were immersed in every activity – right from
the
well-animated Eucharistic celebration in the morning to the
insightful
film at the end of the day. The enthusiasm of the
animators
rubbed off on to the participants as they sang, staged little
dramas,
painted banners and participated at the different sessions.
“Papua New Guinea is in a unique situation, in that most of
the
students know that Social Networking exists, but haven’t had
easy
access to it yet. This allowed the topic to be disseminated
and
negative issues to be discussed, before the students had a
chance to
make a mistake. It is my hope that the students are both
excited and
mindful of the effects of Social Networking in our world
today.” –
(Hayden Powick).
“The seminar has brought about a hope for the future as they
participants realize that they need to address a variety of
issues
fight from Women’s liberation to AIDS” (Mario Braganza).
“Their challenges included vandalism, rape and violence, heavy
demands
of their community on bride price, unstable families, a clash
between
the traditional culture and Christianity, substance abuse and
loitering
of the young” (Agatha Ferei).
Principal Sr. Leena John was pleased with the very positive
approach,
cheerfulness and catholic values highlighted by the
animators.
“You have created awareness, showed the good and bad side of
the
media. It is now up to the students to be responsible
users of
the media”, she said.
PORT MORESBY
Social Media has enveloped the world with a revolution of
ideas,
perspectives and an instant rush of information. This media
revolution
has definitely not excluded the hot city of Port Moresby,
Papua New
Guinea in particular the students at Don Bosco Technical
Institute,
Boroko.
The two day Media Seminar held on 26th and 27th September,
orchestrated
by Fr Ambrose Pereira sdb covered many of the issues regarding
the
paradigm shift that has been occurring in the media worldwide.
These
included Media Ethics, Digital Identity, Digital Behaviour,
Article
Writing, Image Composition and Media Awareness.
Day One
Mario Braganza, a volunteer from India, discussed the fine
points of
creating an article which would stand out from the thousands
of
articles online. This was with a small selected group of
staff
and students from Boroko and Araimiri, who would attend the
seminar for
the entire two days.
In the late morning a talk was held for a large number of
students,
estimated to be around 250. The speakers left the students in
awe of
these ‘New Technologies’ that are useful for ‘Social
Networking”.
With the potential for both terror and evangelisation, and
because
social media is a massive part of our world, the students
learnt to
appreciate the huge impact it will have on how young people
think.
In the afternoon Agatha Ferei, Director of Fiji Media Watch
ran a
workshop on advertising the un-advertisable. The
students were
both insightful and enthusiastic, developing creative
solutions to
marketing problems. A rewarding first day, with the
participants
reeling from the impact of the seminar, hungering for more.
Day Two
On the second day the group 30 of students began exploring
techniques
for effective image composition, namely the 2/3 rule. The
students
absorbed this information with ardour, quickly applying it to
a number
of practical Exercises.
Earlier, the participants were guided into making a Media
Awareness
Action Plan. The students, now empowered with this
information,
constructed a number targeted events to make their fellow
students
aware of issues that are currently permeating Papua New
Guinea’s Media.
The final session had a technological twist as Hayden Powick,
New
Zealand IT specialist led them to log on to a blog website.
They then
proceeded to create their own post with content relevant to
themselves. Social Media is inherently two-way
communication, and
so the students then proceeded to comment on each other’s
posts.
Everyone enjoyed this exposure to modern communication, which
brought
the seminars theory to life.
“I found the students here in PNG both intelligent and
animated to
learn about Social Media. Students from my country take Social
Media
for granted, and subsequently a lot of issues are arising
because of
their complacency. PNG is right of the brink of this
revolution,
and so it was
