Written By Albert Matayom

Last May 26, hundreds of communication students and practitioners attended the 2021 OrComference hosted by the morning class of SPEECH 137. Entitled DAPÒ: Changing Landscapes of Communication amidst the Pandemic, the conference focuses on the ‘butterfly effect’ of communication—where simple interventions can bring positive changes to different disciples.

The event started with the opening message from the Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines. Hon. Leni Robredo gave a warm welcome to all OrCom majors and the rest of the social butterflies in attendance. Her introductory message stressed the importance of the communication profession because of its ability to unify people to craft and realize a shared vision for the future.

After VP Leni’s talk, the conference proper proceeded, which was divided into three sessions focusing on relevant national issues: Health Communication amidst the pandemic, Citizen Journalism amidst the pandemic, and Advocacy Communication amidst the pandemic.

The first speaker for the afternoon was Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho, the director of the Health Promotion Bureau of the Department of Health. She emphasized in her talk that health communication is about building trust with the public and cooperating with partners such as local government units and journalists to convey proper science-based information about health.

Furthermore, Dr. Ho also emphasized that we are in a time of an “infodemic” where there are plenty of information available, but they are still not enough to answer all the questions. She explains that this scenario highlights the importance of health communication to the agenda for public health and consequently develop solutions that will cater to the long term goals of the health agency, such as increased vaccine acceptance.

She was followed by Rappler community and civic specialist Ms. Samantha Bagayas who provided a brief overview of citizen journalism amidst the pandemic. She stressed that journalism does not just simply tell what is happening, but it also gives the public an idea of how a single event can affect them.

Moreover, her talk also focused on how citizen journalism provides support to mainstream media. She encouraged citizens to participate in current events and uphold the truth, especially now during the time of the pandemic where the movement of journalists is greatly limited due to strict health protocols.

Ms. Bagayas also stated that citizen journalism helps amplify and reach out information to the public, just like how Move PH, a group of citizen journalists, helped amplify information during disasters like typhoons and raise awareness relief operations post-crisis responses.

For the final session of the event, Miss Trans Global 2020 and LGBTQ+ advocate Mela Habijan gave a inspiring talk on advocacy communication amid the pandemic. Pondering on the effects of social media, she emphasized that the internet is slowly becoming a necessity instead of a luxury, and because of that, almost everybody is capable of being an influencer/opinion leader on social media. However, Miss Mela also stressed that influencers must have a purpose as a public figure.

In her talk, Miss Mela shared the experiences she had before and during the pandemic and how it helped fuel her passion for being a voice for love and inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community. Her talk furthered highlighted that advocacy is not about the clout or the number of followers you have on social media but giving the spotlight on communities and grassroots causes.

“In the digital age, there are now more opportunities to involve citizen in amplifying issues in communities,” Habijan says. She ended her talk emphasizing that advocacy communication is about knowing yourself, getting your message across, and understanding the meaning behind that message to fill in what is lacking in society.

The event formally concluded with the closing remarks given by the conference director, Ms. Kate Garcia, who thanked all the organizers, speakers, and social butterflies for making the event possible. She ended her short message by encouraging everyone to continue deepening the discourse to make wise and informed decisions and draw inspiration from everything that they have learned in the event.

DAPÒ OrComference is hosted by the MHC section under SPEECH 137. The course focuses on group communication, conflict management, and effective group leadership to prepare students in managing organizational functions. Watch the full conference here: