Friday, February 26, 2010

USeP Joins ABS-CBN News Casting Competition




In line with the celebration of its 21st anniversary in devoting public service, the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation Regional Network Group- Davao marked another historical year as it initiated the first Interschool News Casting Competition in the region which commenced officially late last year. The said competition was participated in by ten (10) tertiary schools in Davao region, each with three (3) representatives after a school level elimination was conducted in the respective institutions slated on separate days. Only twelve (12) contenders out of more or less 400 college students who joined the school auditions competed during the grand finals held at SM Activity Center last February 20, 2010.

USeP’s bet Janine Lou de Guzman, a fourth year Bachelor of Arts in English student, was among the twelve (12) chosen student newscasters who made it to the final match. Each of the finalists was given the opportunity to experience field reporting as well as TV news anchoring together with the anchors of the late afternoon’s local news program TV Patrol Southern Mindanao. All of them also underwent some workshops on news gathering and served as invitees in the network’s various radio broadcasts.

On the final round, the contenders were split up into three groups where De Guzman who belonged to the second group vied with others in delivering the news items in three languages namely: English, Filipino, and Visayan. They were judged according to the following criteria: Delivery – 35%; Pronunciation and Diction – 30%; Voice Quality – 15%; Appearance on Cam – 15%’ and Overall Impact – 5%. Students from Ateneo de Davao University, University of Mindanao, and Holy Cross of Davao Colleges emerged as first, second, and third placers, respectively. Only the champion will have a news casting stint with the network.

Prior to the grand finals, a semi-final playoff was held last January 21 and 22 at the same locale where the twelve favored finalists were chosen out of the thirty (30) contenders who were classified into brackets A and B. De Guzman who belonged to bracket B came out astonished as she was the last to be called to qualify for the final round. Prof. Rowena C. Nuera from the Language Department served as her coach.