COMMUNITY MEDIA

General Trias City is a first-class city in the coastal province of Cavite, Philippines. It was located in the Northern part of Cavite and Southwest of Metro Manila. The city has a land area of 5.17% of Cavite’s total area. The city of General Trias has a total of 33 barangays according to the official website of General Trias (generaltrias.gov.ph). According to the 2015 census, General Trias has a population of 314,300 people, approximately 29.53% of the city’s population are ages 14 and below. Aged 15 up to 64 are about 67.24% of the total population and 3.23% to those aged 65 and above. It means that there are 44 youths to every 100 people of General Trias Cavite according to Age Dependency Ratio. General Trias is known and popular as a tourist destination, some of these famous spots are the St. Francis of Assisi Church; the first Catholic parish church of General Trias, also the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Church. Another one is the GBR Museum that contains more than 3,000 vintage photographs as well as hundreds of airplane models.

My Barangay: Buenavista 3 is just one out of 33 barangays here in General Trias, Cavite. Buenavista 3 is just a small community and as far as I know, our barangay doesn’t have any community newsletter or news source and because of this, I came up with an idea that this barangay needs more attention in terms of having a reliable source of news and information. Based on my observation, most of the time news sources in this barangay were in the way of interpersonal communication between neighbors and I cannot assure that all of it is based on facts; sometimes it’s from the megaphones of the barangay hall of Buenavista 3 however this kind of tool cannot reach all of us. Our house is located far from the barangay hall that’s why when there’s an announcement from them, we can’t hear and understand it clearly. Because of these problems, I think the suitable community media for my barangay is having a Social Media Page. I chose social media as a community news source because I saw that most of the households here in Buenavista 3 have an internet connection. Our neighbors decided to have an internet connection when it was announced that the education of the students will be in a way of online classes. Having this kind of situation that people here are more engaged in the internet and social media that they can easily access right now, can be an opportunity to serve them reliable community news. People here are always holding and using their phones whenever they have free time or leisure time, therefore this will be an effective way compared to the other community media. In addition, based on the statistics above, youths and teenagers have the highest percentage in the population of General Trias City and it is the same to Buenavista 3 and we all know that teens nowadays are more engaged to social media rather than listening to the radio and reading newspapers. I have Facebook friends that are living in Buenavista 3, I always saw them on my newsfeed sharing news that came from Go Cavite, an official news media of Cavite. It made me realize that what if Buenavista 3 should have liked Go Cavite social media page? A social media page that belongs to Buenavista 3, they can message the page about the community’s problems, inquiries, and announcements. In this way, the news about the community can be delivered faster to the people compared to what they are using right now (megaphones). The social media page can also promote the community such as our own made products, community projects, and activities that lead to the development of our barangay. Another one is it can be a help center for the people, rather than going to the barangay hall for their concerns and problems they can just message the social media page about it (hassle-free) and post it to the page, more people can see it not just the people here in our barangay as well as the other communities. These community problems that are posted on the page can attract the attention of the higher officials of the municipality and they can immediately take an action about it just like one of the major functions of community media; “to transform a member’s experiences or problems into a community’s common experiences or problems”. For this plan of having a Community news media through social media page, Sangguniang Kabataan is the one I think that can help to establish this project. Just like what I’ve said, youths or teenagers have the highest rate of the population here in our barangay that’s why I chose a council that is meant to represent the youth. Mainly the officials of our Sangguniang Kabataan are also youths that’s why it’s easy for them to know what Buenavista 3 community needs to read and see on the social media page, they have an idea in; what is trending today, how to attract the attention of the community, what’s interest them, how to increase the engagement of the community, etc. As a student journalist, I will be truly grateful to be part of this project, having the support of the local officials is much easier to establish the community news media. Community Journalism can be the stepping stone for the development of the community and our complaints, problems, issues to be heard by numerous people especially the highest officials to resolve it immediately.