Diary: On my first speaking engagement and reflections on development journalism
20 November 2023: I was at my dorm room when my friend, Richer, messaged me about an opportunity that he thought I would not want to miss. Knowing that I was on the field of development communication, where we venture to reportage, he thought that I'd be the perfect fit for a creative writing seminar for Arellano University. At first, I was hesitant--after all, I was not a creative writer in all sense of the word, and especially in its narrow definition: mainly having expertise on prose or poetry. But as decided by their project head and a new opportunity is presented, perhaps it is time to expose young writers to a kind of writing usually only discussed in a Devcom classroom.
And so, last December 1, I delivered my sharing-lecture about community storytelling, a component that is part of the practice of participatory development journalism (PDJ) on Arellano University - Supreme Student Government's Inking The Quill; Empowering Bright Minds Through Creative Writing Workshop.
What I operationally dubbed as community storytelling carried components of participatory video/documentary, highlighting the importance of surfacing community stories and perspectives that are usually overlooked by the mainstream media: stories that not even the mainstream media integrating audience engagement may opt to surface.
The main challenge that I left to my audience is to write with intent, and it has two streams of definition: explicitly, the challenge is to look beyond what is, essentially, the talk of the town: the dominant perspectives and frames of social issues, especially local and hyperlocal ones--to see beyond the superficial, and surface the perspective of the public, regardless if it stands in direct contrast to what the hegemonic powers say.
Implicitly, the call to write with intent is to write with a community in mind. I believe that to popularize the practice of PDJ, we must plant the seed of passion to write with a community in mind early, as that passion should stand as a strong foundation for PDJ practitioners of tomorrow.
IN PHOTO: Introductory slide about the speaker. 📸: Arellano University SSG/The Arellano Standard Manila. Tiles blurred to protect privacy.
IN PHOTO: Discussion about the concept of voice, an important ethical consideration both in the practice of community storytelling and PDJ. 📸: Arellano University SSG/The Arellano Standard Manila. Tiles blurred to protect privacy.
NOTE: The line "echo voices, not 'give' voices" has been corrected. A personal reflection is that to "echo" voices is problematic in a semantic sense, as it still depicts a hierarchy of power which jeopardizes the point of empowering the people. What I have discussed is that as storytellers, we are to retell what the community says based on their operational lens and perspectives.
After the talk, I was able to entertain questions that went to the direction of participant interest toward PDJ, and especially, the importance of looking at the community. Reflecting on their line of questioning, particularly toward the importance of focusing on a community and sharing their stories, perhaps a "third" space for PDJ can exist outside the traditional media space and the academe/organizations: while not full PDJ projects, short stories on the perspectives of people can be written by creative nonfiction writers.
Artistically, creative stories may embody perspectives that are usually ignored or suppressed within a community or expose social dynamics that may be detrimental to the function of a community. These stories may already exist today in artistic fiction, but perhaps, a step in popularizing PDJ is by going through the creative route. Provided, it should still adhere to the core of PDJ: it must not be extractive and not bring harm to the community.
Allowing these creative voices to be part of a proto-PDJ initiative may be likened to how creative writers are channelled as a platform for the community to tell their stories, just like how CGNet Swara used technology to provide people a platform to tell their story--creative voices may stand in lieu of technology to tell the stories of the people and bring it in artistic spaces.
Perhaps, if the community wants to expand their reach on telling their story, bringing their story in an artistic space may help them tap an audience that the current PDJ practice usually do not appeal to: the general public. Perhaps in an interest to grow the audience of the community, the PDJ practice may turn to artistic writing to carry their message across. It may or may not be feasible, but it can be a direction where PDJ can grow in the future.
Most certainly, creative writers are not used to hear about community storytelling, as communities usually stand to be references or inspirations to their characters, but with this talk, I was presented with a unique opportunity: to give writing for entertainment an additional purpose--to be a platform for community perspectives.
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