Yesterday, 25 September 2020, ANN of BusinessMirror joyfully reported, “BM’s Bumper Harvest At 2019 ‘Binhi’ Awards[1]” (Author Not Named, BusinessMirror.com.ph):
(Mirroring the past), the BusinessMirror dominated… the 2019 Philippine (Binhi Awards) by winning seven awards, including top prizes in two major categories.
The paper’s Agriculture reporter Jasper Emmanuel Y Arcalas was hailed the country’s Best Agricultural Journalist of the Year for the third consecutive year.
The BusinessMirror’s Agri-Commodities page, edited by Associate Editor Jennifer A Ng, won the Best Agriculture Page Of A Newspaperback-to-back.
The BusinessMirror Broader Look Team bagged the SL Agritech Best In Rice Reporting award for its investigative piece titled “Pre- And Post-Rice Trade Liberalization Law, Big Traders Gaming Farmer Groups.”
Easily, one can see those are matters of Significance.
Now, we look for Relevance to PH agriculture.
That is to say, they are all important and necessary in the matter of journalism for aggiedevelopment but, actually, what is the relevance of each piece of journalism to national development?
Comes in Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, whose management thoughts are contained in The New Thinking For Agriculture he came up with even before he was appointed to such position by Du30. If you ask me:
Agriculture contributing its 100% share
to national development is what Mr Dar’s
New Thinking For Agriculture is all about.
The vision of the new PH Agriculture is clear: a food-secure country and income-secure farmers and fishers.
If your journalism does not reflect that you are coming from there or going to there, your journalism may be award-winning but irrelevant!
To be relevant, your journalism must touch any combination of the 8 paradigms for the New Thinking For Agriculture as enumerated by Mr Dar:
(1) Modernization
(2) Industrialization
(3) Promotion of exports
(4) Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5) Infrastructure development
(6) Higher budget & investment
(7) Legislative support
(8) Roadmap development.
Each paradigm is a necessary area for growth contributing to a common goal: national agricultural development. You can emphasize one paradigm but not leave out the other paradigms.
Each aggie journalist must do one’s research for one’s own understanding of the news one is pursuing in relation to any of the paradigms.
There is no need for any paradigm to be mentioned specifically anytime, but the readers must be able to discern which paradigm.
Ultimately, the journalism must be for food security; above all, it must be for inclusive prosperity – no farmer left out!
Journalists must understand the New Thinking For Agriculture. Otherwise, their journalism will only be good for Binhi (seeds for planting) and notguarantee Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita (Bountiful Harvests & Bounteous Income).
And why hand out the 2019 awards towards the end of 2020? (image of “2019[2]” from TrophyKits.com). I think I know – the many contesting manuscripts needed to be printed out, for the reading pleasure/pressure of the judges who were mostly, if not all, not digital-fingered.
PH aggie journalism has months to catch up with the times!@517
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