CLSU Collegian's 2nd session of SUHAY: Journalism Training talks about Editorial Writing and Editorial Cartooning

John Paul Vidal & Kiersten Dane Olivas

SUNDAY, January 16, 2022 - The second day of “SUHAY: Sumulong at Sumulat,” brought by the CLSU Collegian, has commenced tackling facts about Editorial Writing and Editorial Cartooning. The webinar was broken into two sessions: AM (8 AM to 12 NN) and PM (1 PM to 5 PM.), all of which were held through Zoom Conference and Facebook Livestream.

To finally kick off the AM Session, the emcees enthusiastically welcomed Mr. Ben Domingo Jr., the Chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education Technical Committee for Journalism and Special Professorial Lecturer in Journalism at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, for the topic on Editorial Writing.

Mr. Ben started the discussion with a reflective question, “What do you think opinion writing is?”, which presented a lot of various topics with regards Editorial Writing and its influence on the different sectors of news writing in the Philippines. He also mentioned the processes of gathering news and information to be used and organized in order to create a proper editorial article. “I may not agree with what you have said or written but I respect and will even defend your right to say and write it,” remarked Mr. Ben, as he raised awareness for the different editorial journalists being silenced by a variety of organizations for their articles and works.

Continuing to the discourse, Mr. Ben stated the importance of proper information use and taking down and calling out fallacies and misinformation. He also acknowledged the importance of taking research to different fact-check information that may prove to be false. “Verify and validate information before using it; single-source information is the product of a lazy journalist,” he stated. With that, he ended his informative presentation as the hosts opened the floor for the Q&A portion, concluding the AM Session on Editorial Writing.

Moving on with the second half of SUHAY for the PM Session, Mr. Ron Alcon, the publication’s current Head Cartoonist delivered his opening remarks. They then introduced the former Head Cartoonist and Editor-in-Chief of CLSU Collegian and the current Project Technical Assistant I at CLSU, Mr. John Harold Dela Rosa, for Editorial Cartooning.

Mr. John opened his discussion with a presentation titled, “Appreciating the Artform of Editorial Cartooning”, where he defined the fundamentals and technicalities of an editorial/political cartoon. “It is a marriage of form and substance. The substance being the message na gusto mong iparating and form as the illustrations the artist uses to represent their message,” he commented.

Furthermore, Mr. John mentioned that an editorial cartoon could be a satire, a parody, propaganda, and a lampoon. An editorial cartoon can provoke, inspire, wake someone up, offend, and can kill people.

He also talked about the usage of symbolisms, naming a few examples. “Ang pinakamahalaga, dapat magseserve ‘yung cartoon natin as a vehicle sa gusto natin iparating, sa message na gusto nating ibigay. Laging isipan natin yung end users, yung ating readers for cartooning,” emphasized Mr. John.

Mr. John then mentioned other techniques that editorial cartoonists are using namely: Caricatures, Size, Expression, Lines, Shadow, and Style. Mr. John also came across and used Adobe Photoshop to demonstrate these techniques — highlighting each strokes’ importance in conveying an artist’s overall message.

Moreover, he discussed ‘Je Suis Charlie’, a slogan made to pay tribute to the 17 people, including 11 journalists and security personnel at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo. Their lives were claimed by a terrorist attack. Charlie Hebdo is a satiric magazine that lampoons religious sects. “Cartoonists can be harsh sa mga issues to the point na it can cause a movement. Charlie Hebdo shooting is like a cautionary tale na kailangan maging aware din tayo na may mga consequences yung mga pinag-ddrawing natin, pero at the same time we should always be brave.” he concluded.

Following that, the masters of the ceremony entertained some questions from the audience for Mr. John to answer, and then the awarding of the Certificate of Appreciation for the speakers.

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