Four of the University of Hawaiʻi’s brightest journalism students and two adjunct professors are headed to the highly respected East-West Center (EWC) International Media Conference (IMC) in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
Students Emma Caires, Lili Hurd, Alyssa Salcedo and Summer Steinsrud will share breaking news from the conference exclusively in the Mānoa Mirror, live and as it happens, all under the guidance of UH professors and veteran journalists, Annalisa Burgos and David Usborne, as well as dispatches from all that is happening right now in Filipino culture.
The IMC, held in different cities across the Pacific region every two years, is an esteemed networking opportunity for hundreds of journalists from across the US, Asia and the Pacific to come together and discuss key issues, challenges and trends in media. Under the microscope in Manila: Artificial Intelligence and fake news and the threat to democracies around the globe, as well as climate change and the media’s role as stewards of science and truth.
This is the first time the East-West Center and the School of Communication & Information have come together to give journalism majors at the UH the opportunity to attend this prestigious gathering and report live from its proceedings. It runs from June 23 to June 26 and opens with a gala reception at the Natural Museum of Natural History.
“We expect close to 400 media professionals from upwards of 30 countries to attend this year’s conference on ‘The Future of Facts’—an incredibly important and timely topic with today’s explosion of AI technology, making it exponentially easier to manipulate people’s perceptions of truth,” said Derek Ferrar, Sr. Communications Specialist, EWC.
“We are so excited to be holding these discussions in the Philippines, which not only has one of the highest rates of social media use in the world—with a huge impact on the country’s political landscape—but also stands on the front lines of both geostrategic maneuvering by China and worsening climate change impacts in the region,” Ferrar added.
Keynote speakers and panel discussions are on the conference agenda in addition to some valuable media training workshops and networking events. Top-line speakers include Philippines Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo, who is expected to outline the government’s newly assertive policy towards China, and legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle.
Prof. Usborne has also been selected to represent UH as mediator for the “Effective Fact Checking and Verification” panel. Among experts joining him to discuss the threat posed by A.I.-manipulate content, including election deepfakes, will be Art Min, Head of Partnership at TrueMedia.Org.
