MMSU, 3 foreign universities hold int’l virtual short course on new media

Signifying active partnership, three foreign universities and Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) are currently holding a five-day international virtual short course on communication for faculty and students. 

 

Titled “New Media and Digital Culture in Southeast Asia,” the short course is running from April 18-22. It is collectively implemented by MMSU, Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka (UHAMKA) and Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo in Indonesia, and Khon Kaen University in Thailand. UHAMKA serves as the lead university. 

 

The international course aims to broaden the knowledge of participants from various universities in the country and SEA about the dynamics of new media and digital culture in strengthening Southeast Asia as it faces the new era. 

 

Nineteen distinguished communication and digital media experts from the said tertiary schools and media industries were tapped as lecturers in the five-day virtual course. Of this number, four come from the MMSU College of Arts and Sciences - Department of Languages and Literature (CAS-DLL): Prof. Luvee Hazel C. Aquino, Prof. John Vincent B. Toribio, Prof. Myra Eugenia S. Castillo, and Prof. Bryan R. Realgo. 

 

Castillo, CAS-DLL’s BA Communication program coordinator, said the course includes topics on the future of press in the digital era, new media and information democratization, the use of digital media and marketing; new media and intercultural communication; and opportunities and challenges on the internet and new media. 

 

Mr. Nestor A. Corrales, an MMSU communication alumnus who is now a Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter, served as one of the keynote speakers during the opening program. Together with him were Mr. Usman Kamsong, director general of Information and Public Communication at Ministry of Communication and Informatics in Indonesia; and, Mr. Bambang Harymurti, senior journalist and former chief executive office of Tempo Media in Indonesia. 

 

UHAMKA Rector Gunawan Suryoputro expressed gratitude to the partner universities for the collective effort, saying that international collaboration is one significant factor in raising the bar of excellence in education. 

 

MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis commended the universities’ synergy in coming up with a relevant short course. “It is a good strategy to gather our faculty and students in a nurturing global and intercultural exchange,” she remarked. 

 

MMSU’s collaboration with foreign universities in offering short course is a significant part in forwarding internationalization, linkages and partnerships – one of its 7-point agenda to ACHIEVE. (HLY/JVBT/DPTJ, StratCom)
 

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