I thank the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) not once but twice this week, coincidentally the same number of book launches I am scheduled to attend and the power outages we experienced last Tuesday (June 26).
Last Sunday (June 24), there was an article at the bottom of page A9 titled “Media men take to the airwaves.” Yes, it’s all about our radio program Usapang Media on DWAD which started airing last Monday (June 25). Incidentally, I am scheduled to do board work this Monday (July 2) and I will discuss media and the elections.
Three days after (June 27), PDI had an article on page A13 titled “`Double blind’ review journal launched.” The article announced the launch of the Philippine Journalism Review (PJR) today (June 28). PJR, which used to be a magazine, is the only refereed journal on journalism in Southeast Asia. Aside from being its managing editor, I also wrote the commentary for PJR‘s first issue as a refereed journal titled “Teaching Online Journalism,” pp. 123-130. It is an expanded version of a paper I presented at the First National Conference of Journalism Educators in December 2006 which I helped organize.
It is unfortunate that there was not much media coverage on the forum and launch of the book Mula Tore Patungong Palengke: Neoliberal Education in the Philippines last Tuesday (June 26), 1 p.m. where I was among those who presented the salient points of the chapter I wrote.
The almost one-hour brownout prevented us from starting the forum on time. At around 1:30 p.m., the organizers decided to start with the launching of the book (originally the second part of the program) even if there were no microphones and we only had two emergency lights.
When power was restored at around 2 p.m., we immediately started the forum. We give credit to most of the students, faculty members and other visitors who did not leave the venue despite the long brownout. While I was in the middle of my presentation, however, there was another power failure which lasted only about two minutes.
In any case, I hope that you would take time to read the review of Prof. Roland Simbulan which we will include in this issue of Bulatlat Online Magazine. Kabataan Party’s Raymond Palatino also presented a short review of the book which you can retrieve from his blog.
The second book launch I will attend this week happens tomorrow (June 29), 4 p.m. at the Gawad Andres Bonifacio 308, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines (UP) Manila. This is actually a re-launching of the book Oligarchic Politics: Elections and the Party-List System in the Philippines where I wrote a chapter titled “Elections, Personality Politics and the Mass Media.”
It may be a very, very busy week for me, but somehow I still managed to squeeze in ample time for practice driving. What’s this all about? Visit my blog in the next few days. Thanks for reading!