ACTIVITY 2 Wilmarie Hope Aliling 12-STEM 2

Topic 1: Citizen Journalism

Read the article “On the rise of citizen journalism: Power to The People?”

Source: Pinlac, M. (2007, July 6). Power to The People? Retrieved http://cmfr-phil.org/media-
ethicsresponsibility/ethics/power-to-the-people/

Answer the following guide questions and discuss your answers:

• What is Citizen Journalism? What are the advantages of Citizen Journalism? Cite some examples.

According to Mark Glaser, an editor of MediaShift, Citizen Journalism are composed of people who
have no professional training in journalism yet creates, augment, or fact-check media with oneself or
partnership with others using the tools that are found on the modern technology and internet. With Citizen
Journalism, ordinary citizens would have the chance to become reporters; media companies who lack regular
reporters would have reporters outside covered areas; can be used in short messaging and multimedia
messaging systems; can monitor officials of the government, and be held accountable and lastly, it gives
people power to boost press freedom. Some example of Citizen Journalism are and GMANews.TV’s
“YouScoop” and ABS-CBN’s “Boto mo, i-Patrol Mo”. Wherein, “YouScoop” lets citizens freely upload photos
and videos online if they find it worthy to be published as a way of letting them incorporate in online
journalism. While, “Boto mo, i-Patrol Mo” provides ordinary citizens to report suspicious acts in their
community and allows them to watch over officials of their performance.

• How does the Internet change the way news is reported? Do media companies limit their stories to their
journalists only? Why/why not?

Through the Internet, news can be easily disseminated to public. Ordinary citizens began to involve
themselves in the journalism or political field and thus made news easily be shared across the globe. Even
without proper skills in writing an article or reporting, through the freedom that Internet gives, people are
empowered to post what they find newsworthy. And the increasing number of these people opened the
doors of what they called as “mainstream media”. Media companies started to not only let their own
journalists report stories but they have extended it through what we call “citizen journalist” and this is their
way to engage them to become political person.

• What are the issues of Citizen Journalism? What mechanisms do they have to prove the accuracy of their
stories?

Citizen Journalism has lots of advantages but it still faces issues regarding inaccuracy and unverified
news reports. With which, could affect poorly to this new platform. To avoid such issues again to occur, Sun.
Star’s “Citizen Watcher” requests these journalists to follow CyberJournalist.net’s Bloggers’ Code of Ethics, a
modified form of the US Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. Wherein it states, “Bloggers
should be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information and under it are what Bloggers
should do in order to prove the accuracy of their reports: “Never plagiarize; Identify and link to sources
whenever feasible; The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability; Make
certain that Weblog entries, quotations, headlines, photos and all other content do not misrepresent; They
should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context; Never distort the content of photos without
disclosing what has been changed; Image enhancement is only acceptable for for technical clarity; Label
 montages and photo illustrations; Never publish information they know is inaccurate — and if publishing
questionable information, make it clear it’s in doubt; Distinguish between advocacy, commentary and factual
information. Even advocacy writing and commentary should not misrepresent fact or context; Distinguish
factual information and commentary from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two”.

• Do you think making ordinary citizens news reporters on TV or online develops more awareness on news
content and mass media literacy?

It would not develop more awareness on news content and mass media literacy just by turning
ordinary citizens to news reporters it may be on TV or online. As cited by Vergel Santos, chair of Business
World’s editorial board, “”Journalism calls, not only for the understanding of certain skills, but the acquisition
of certain skills at certain levels. So, being able to build a site and disseminate whatever information you wish
to disseminate to audiences does not constitute journalism,” it is gaining the skills needed, enabling them to
disseminate information. Also, mass media literacy encompasses the practices allowing people to access,
critically evaluate, and create or evaluate media, with which the italicized words could be find on some
ordinary citizens with having only a little background of reporting news and manipulating media that would
greatly create misinformation or totally leaving audience uninformed. Therefore, it is needed that these
ordinary citizens should have the proper and right knowledge about disseminating news.

Topic 2: Topic: The Use of the Internet as Tourism Support

Read the following articles: “Tourism in Southern Cebu gets digital boost from Talk ‘N Text, Internet.org”

Source: MyCebuPartners (2015, August 12). Tourism in Southern Cebu gets digital boost from Talk ‘N Text,
Internet.org. Retrieved http://mycebu.ph/article/southern-cebu-tourism-digital-boost/Pinlac, M. (2007, July
6). Power to The People?

Answer the following guide questions and discuss your answers:

• How did the Internet help in promoting tourism in Aloguinsan, Cebu?

With the help of the Internet, Aloguinsan, Cebu’s eco-tourism experience is getting better by going
digital. Since the place is somehow little known to people, through internet, the eco-tourism about this place
would be disseminated-making it known across the globe. With such benefits, the four different eco-tourism
activities in Aloguinsan: Baetas or Bojo Aloguinsan Ecotourism Association (Bojo River cruise), Kea or
Kantabogon Ecotourism Association (The Hermit’s Cove), Chat or Cultural Heritage for Aloguinsan Tourism
(organic farm and culinary), and Arra or Aloguinsan Reef Rangers Association (snorkeling and dolphin-
watching) would be promoted easily and quickly since they were able to learn about travel trends, branding
and packaging, blogging, photography, videography, social media marketing and analytics, online and digital
marketing tools, and responsible use of the Internet.

• How did it improve the lives of the local community?

The local people in the community improved in terms of using modern technology to disseminate
further their eco-tourism by making a website for it; more people would recognize the beauty of the locality
through the promotion done on the made website; they learned how to maximize the use of internet to
generate tourists and income and lastly, they were able to have fast and easy communication with tourists
that would boost the local community’s income.

• If you could apply the Aloguinsan digital experience to your community, what local tourist spots, culture,
or practices would you promote? Why?

If I could apply Aloguinsan digital experience to our community, I would likely promote the practice of
making bayi-bayi, which is an original delicacy of Pavia. I chose this since I wanted other people to know how
this delicacy means to be discovered out there. Through promoting this making-of-bayi-bayi online, our
community’s delicacy would be able to reach places, and that would truly mean for me that if someone makes
bayi-bayi out there, they are taking a portion of our culture and embark this on their minds that would make
Pavia be remembered in making such piece of art.

Topic 3: Topic: Phishing

Read the article “Inside job? Senior citizen loses P159,000 via unauthorized online transfer”.

Source: Inside job? Senior citizen loses P159,000 via unauthorized online transfer Dizon, D. (2015, September
19). Inside job? Senior citizen loses P159,000 via unauthorized online transfer. Retrieved http://www.abs-
cbnnews.com/business/09/18/15/inside-job-senior-citizen-loses-p159000unauthorized-online-transfer on 20
September 2015.

Answer the following guide questions and discuss your answers:

• How can you tell if someone is phishing on your account?

If after a day you have withdrawn money from the bank and as you checked your balance, only small
bills were unexpectedly left from your balance. And that, it has been transferred to and withdrawn from
certain accounts via online transfer.

• How did Mr. Malibiran lose his money in the bank? Narrate the incident.

Mr. Malibiran lose his money in the bank through an unauthorized money transfer via online, losing a
total of P159, 000. Mr. Mabiliran, withdrew his money only over the counter and use only the online system of
the bank to check the balance. But during the second quarter of 2014, the Union Bank refused to accept his
PIN which is given by the bank to use in checking his balance. He was denied of access and was asked
information by the so called branch manager of the bank, Christian Dumlao, for more security measures. But
that very day was the start where he lose constant amount of money which accumulated to P159,000, starting
from the month of July to October 2014. Wherein, the withdrawals were done on the same day the
consultancy fees were deposited.

• Do you think online banking is still safe? How can you avoid becoming a victim of phishing?

For me, I think online banking is not safe since it is prone to hacking and phishers. As the technology
evolves, the skills of people go along with its standards and some use their ability for the bad deeds and not
for the good ones- like phishing and hacking people’s accounts. But there are ways to avoid becoming a victim
to phishing. According to phishing.org, there are 10 guidelines to keep you safe and avoid from becoming a
victim of phishing. One, be updated of the latest phishing techniques, second, always think before you click,
third, you must install an Anti-Phishing toolbar, fourth, verify if the website is secured, fifth, check daily your
online accounts, sixth, keep your bowser updated, seventh, employ firewall, eighth, be cautious of Pop-ups,
ninth, never give details about yourself, and lastly, utilize antivirus software. With these, those who have bank
accounts online would be able to keep themselves safe and away from phishing.

Topic 4: Topic: Human Trafficking

Read the article about human trafficking

Source: Cook, A. & Heinl, C. (2014, May 3). Human trafficking in Asia going online. Retrieved http://
www.eastasiaforum.org/2014/05/03/human-trafficking-in-asia-going-online/ on 15 September 2015. Answer
the following guide questions and discuss your answers:

• Was there progress in the fight to stop human trafficking after ASEAN signed the Declaration Against
Trafficking in Persons, Particularly Women and Children?

No progress was found after ASEAN signed the Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons, Particularly
Women and Children in fighting to stop human trafficking for the reason of having East Asian countries a
major source for long-distance, transregional trafficking.

• What is the percentage of child victims of human trafficking in the ASEAN Region?

According to the most recent UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, there are nearly 40
percent of detected child victims in East Asia and the Pacific. Likewise, victims from this region are the most
geographically dispersed — found in more than 60 countries.

• How does the Internet contribute to the increased number of human trafficking cases? Do you think that
the Internet can be used as a tool to victimize people? Explain your answer.

Through internet human traffickers were able to seek children for illegal adoption, commercial sexual
exploitation, drug trafficking and child labour. Usually, children below 18 who uses social media platforms are
mostly the victim of traffickers. In the first case, a child or young person accepts a friend request from a
stanger on Facebook and with it there are increase in exchange messages, and they agree to meet and after
continued social media interaction they meet again. An thus, the child consequently gets trafficked and this is
how an estimated one quarter of children reported missing in Indonesia are thought to have met their captors
on social media platforms like Facebook.

• Suggest at least 3 ways to help stop human trafficking.

To help stop human trafficking, one must be aware of what is human trafficking all about, know
through reports and incidents about it. Look for the possible factors why these cases occur and gain more
knowledge about it and you can incorporate certain ideas to stop this issue. Second, prevent human trafficking
by spreading awareness of about it. Help the government in some little ways like disseminating important
information about human trafficking online using social media like Facebook, Tweeter, and other more. The
third one would be, having symposium in your community about it, this way the people in your locality would
be aware of such issue.