PALO, Leyte — In Eastern Visayas, campus journalists will be trained to do more than compete. Ahead of the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) 2026, the Department of Education has partnered with independent media outfit to bring them closer to the newsroom, and to the communities they report on.
The collaboration builds on six years of CampJourn, Fyt’s program that has tracked the NSPC across host regions. It began alongside the NSPC in Tuguegarao, continued through online editions during the pandemic, and later moved with the annual gathering to cities like Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, and Vigan.
Each iteration carried the same premise: that journalism is best learned through real-world reporting, grounded storytelling, and community reporting.
This year, through CampJourn 6.0, students from Eastern Visayas will take on real-time coverage from April 13 to 17, producing stories, documenting events, and publishing online stories as the country’s top campus journalists gather in Ormoc City.
For decades, the NSPC has been regarded as the pinnacle of campus journalism in the Philippines — a competition of skill and speed. But this partnership signals a broader ambition: to move students beyond structured contests and into field coverage, where deadlines are real and audiences immediate.
On April 16, Fyt Media will also lead a concurrent session on Mobile Journalism, or MoJo, a format that reflects how news is increasingly produced and consumed.
Once introduced by DepEd and Fyt as an exhibition category in earlier editions of the conference, MoJo remains in exhibition this year, but educators and practitioners see it as a likely candidate for full integration into future competitions.
Both the training and concurrent session will be mounted in coordination with regional advisers, including Don Bernard Gapasin, secretary of the Eastern Visayas Association of School Paper Advisers (EVASPA) and focal person for Mobile Journalism; Raymund Remandaban, the group’s president; and Dean M. Endriano, the region’s journalism coordinator.
Endriano underscored the value of the partnership in strengthening emerging skills among student journalists.
“We welcome this collaboration with Fyt, which will strengthen the mobile and community reporting skills of some of the region’s best campus journalists,” he said.
Voltaire Tupaz, co-founder and executive director of Fyt, said the initiative bridges a long-standing gap between training and practice.
This gives student journalists a chance to work in real settings. It moves learning beyond the classroom and closer to how journalism works today
The message is one that will be echoed on a larger stage. Atom Araullo, a co-founder and President of Fyt Media and this year’s NSPC keynote speaker, emphasized that the strength of journalism begins closest to home.
“Bakit mahalaga ang campus at community journalism?” the multi-awarded broadcast journalist said in a recent message.
Kayo ang pinakamalapit sa katotohanan. Dito nagsisimula ang kwento ng lupa, ng tubig, ng gubat, ng eleksyon, ng abuso. At kapag naikuwento ninyo nang maayos, pwedeng magsimula ang pagbabago
In Eastern Visayas, where stories of disaster, resilience, and governance often unfold with urgency, the idea lands with particular weight: that the next generation of journalists must be ready not only to report the news, but to meet it where it begins. — fyt.ph
