Innovation - why it is pioneering: There is no existing nonprofit media group in any part of the world whose PRIMARY reason for existence is in-depth reportage about the international migration phenomenon of a certain country. The approach also helps put into the public realm the issues facing overseas Filipinos through people-centered reportage. The Consortium has also covered all the various aspects of international migration
Strategy - how it achieves impact: Monthly, members of the OFW Journalism Consortium (both coming from the media and from nonprofit organizations catering to overseas Filipinos) meet up to discuss stories and produce four stories monthly into what is called newspackets. The Consortium then packages it into a newspacket which is handed out for free to Filipinos abroad, former overseas Filipinos, and to the mainstream print, broadcast and online media based in the Philippines and abroad. Stories of the Consortium are free, and anybody can pass these around and copy and paste it. The stories are also posted in a website. The other innovation is the use of in-depth, explanatory reporting to further unearth the issues and context of the country's international migration phenomenon vis-a-vis the Philippines' socio-economic development. But the most important aspect of the Consortium's work is doing people- centered reportage backed up by news and feature writing with some flair and flavor for the faraway Filipino.
Strategy - growth plans: The growth plan of the OFW Journalism Consortium is to hopefully scale up editorial and circulation operations so that more target audiences will be able to use our stories (e.g. considering to become a business entity with a socially-oriented editorial purpose). In addition, part of the growth plan is to encourage the mainstream Filipino media both in the homeland and in host countries to consider in-depth reportage when reporting about Filipinos abroad. The Consortium will also build on young journalists, some of whom are children of overseas Filipinos, in order to become the next skilled migration journalists of the country.
Impact to date: Our stories have reached small and big media outfits in the Philippines, and also Filipino-run media outfits based in the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Australia and media outfits with multiple-country circulations. Filipinos abroad in their egroups, as well as those based in the Philippines' rural areas, have also received our stories. The focusing of the reportage on OFWs has propelled for-profit media organizations to create publications for overseas Filipinos, as well as sections for Filipinos abroad, from 2003 onwards. Even Filipinos abroad (e.g. Spain, Israel, Japan) are setting up their own newspapers and are looking for meaningful content about Filipinos abroad. The Consortium has also been chosen as the first fellow of a Yuchengco media fellowship at the University of San Francisco-Center for the Pacific Rim (about writing for the Filipino diaspora, something OFWJC has done already).
Future impact: The OFW Journalism Consortium's model would haveinfluenced Filipino journalists worldwide to practice good reporting and savvy journalistic writing about the Filipino overseas migration phenomenon. Given also our model of mainstreaming migration issues, the model of the OFW Journalism Consortium can also influence overseas Filipinos themselves to pursue disseminating views about their lives and issues to a more global audience instead of just within a host country.
Sustainability - resource base: The OFW Journalism Consortium has 15 members -all volunteers, and receiving a modest sum for every story written in a monthly newspacket. It is being supported by the German political foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (and also previously by Oxfam NOVIB in the Netherlands). The Consortium also provides special editorial services through producing special newspackets covering themes such as financial literacy for overseas Filipinos and their families (done for the group Economic Policy Reform and Advocacy, www.epra.org.ph). It also calls all its Philippine- and foreign-country-based users of OFWJC stories as editorial partners (as of today: 97 media partners).
Major challenge for the field: The challenges include: a) how the Filipino mainstream media, majority of whom are under the influence of media commercialism, will accommodate issues-centered journalism for the Global Filipino; b) how overseas Filipinos will see the value of reading quality journalism about their lives as migrants in their daily toil, and seeking their support without looking at migrants primarily as money.
Contact Information:
Name: Mr. Jeremaiah Opiniano - President
Mailing address: Unit 602 Kassel Condominium, 2625 Taft Avenue, Manila 1004, PHILIPPINES
Country: Philippines
Email: ofwjc@lycos.com
Tel: 011-63-02-5517861 (telefax)
Fax: 011-63-02-5517861 (telefax)
Website: www.ofwjournalism.net
Bio: The Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) Journalism Consortium is a four-year- old media nonprofit service that does free in-depth news reporting about overseas Filipinos and intenational migration issues in the Philippines. We provide free newspackets monthly to Filipinos abroad and to the mainstream media based both in the Philippines and in overseas countries.
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