Cagayan de Oro City - Xavier University, through the Development Communication Department, hosted a two-day event as part of the research collaboration with Asia-Pacific universities: Macquarie University (Australia), UNTAG Surabaya (Indonesia), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (Malaysia), Walailak University (Thailand), and Xavier University (Philippines) on 8-9 July 2024.
On the first day, the department spearheaded the international conference on the use of AI in journalism at the American Corner, XU Library. Titled, “AI Newsroom: Innovating Journalism for the Digital Age,” the conference kicked off with welcome remarks from Dr Heide R Rabanes, Dean for Research, followed by opening remarks from Dr Shiella C Balbutin, OICN Director and Project Lead in the Philippines.
The keynote speech was delivered by Dr Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos from Macquarie University, Australia. Dr Mathias is the principal investigator of the research. His keynote speech focused on “AI to Empower Media and Democracy in the Global South”.
Research presentations explored AI trends in journalism across Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia: Dr Attanan Tachopisalwong (AI trends for Journalism in Thailand), Prof Chan Eang Teng (AI in the News industry), and Prof Amalia Nurul Muthmainnah (AI: Friend, Foe, or Journalist’s Sidekick?).
Discussants included Gian Libot (Internews), Gemma Mendoza (Rappler), and JB Deveza (local journalist).
The afternoon session consisted of a lively roundtable discussion, with dynamic exchanges on AI's impact on journalism, with inputs from the international project partners and the discussants; as well as the youthful impressions of Development Communication students on the impact of AI on their student life.
A hybrid project meeting at the DevCom multimedia lab was the highlight on the second day where Dr Mathias, Dr Attanan, and the XU team (Dr Shiella Balbutin and Ms Rechelle Ann Barraquias) were present, while project partners from Indonesia and Malaysia joined online. Talks on sustainable partnership and ways moving forward for the project were discussed during this day.
The 2-day event underscored XU Development Communication’s commitment to advancing research and innovation in journalism, thanks to the participation and contributions of all attendees. This research project is funded by the Kinaadman University Research Office (KURO) through the Miguel Bernad Humanities Research Grant.
