By Sheryll Extra-Isoaimo and Anastasia Wiau Hasola

Port Moresby, PNG, 4 March 2017 -- The monthly Media Education Seminar officially kicked off on Saturday, the 4th March, 2017 at the Don Bosco Technical School at Gabutu, in the nation’s capital, Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

The program was deemed a success by everyone in attendance. It is coordinated by Fr Ambrose Pereira, sdb and facilitated by Sheryll Extra-Isoaimo, a teacher from Jubilee and Don Bosco teachers Ian Juf Zusula and Cecilia Amala. Supervising staff and students from Catholic schools participated, namely Don Bosco Technical School, Jubilee Catholic Secondary, Marianville Secondary, De La Salle Secondary, St. Joseph’s International College, Sacred Heart Teachers’ College and Don Bosco Technological Institute.

The 60 students and teachers present for the program were taught skills in fields related to the topic of “IMAGE”. Beginning at eight in the morning, students learned the basics of posters, logos and photography. The ideas and concepts presented were designed to help the students understand how they could creatively and intelligently introduce their views and values to the world.

Students were reminded that in order for the photographs to have an effect of the viewer’s lives, emotions need to be involved so the viewers ‘feel’ and connect to the story portrayed.

Attendees designed posters and logos and also took photographs depicting the themes hope and trust. The Pope’s message about the World Communication Day 2017, to be celebrated on 28th May, dwells on communicating messages of hope and trust. It was amazing to see how the different schools worked together, came up with their own logos and how they portrayed their themes, in a very limited time frame.

Many agreed that it was an interesting look into the use and influence of media. The four-hour session ended on positive note encouraging students to be an inspiration to others by sharing their ‘Good News’ stories. The participants will form the nucleus of a media-club at their respective school and help raise the profile of their school in mainstream media.

“The seminar was informative, entertaining, educational and above all very inspirational. It was amazing to see how young students can be very creative and focused when given a direction”, said Marianville teacher Anastasia Wiau Hasola.

The seminar will be held every first Saturday of the month until August. It will focus on the different types of media and offer opportunities for media productions. The next session will dwell on the Print Media and have a session on the 5Ws + 1H. It will give the participants a format of how to cover events at their institution and send them on to mainstream media. A Film Seminar on Youth issues being planned for the month of August.

The program has been put together by the Catholic Bishops Conference and the Salesians of Don Bosco Social Communications departments, to empower students and youth, use the media positively.

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