From On Air - Fall 2003

Media Leaders Around the World (Batch 2003)

For the fifth consecutive year, PCI joined with partners to sponsor an international group of accomplished media professionals for studies in the United States in cinema and television, population issues, and PCI’s entertainment-education methodology.

Each year, PCI’s Media Leadership Program (MLP) hosts between five and eight international media professionals. This year, five fellows were selected from China, India, Kenya, Peru, and the Philippines. These final candidates were chosen based upon their role as communication/health professionals in their home country, and for their desire to learn how to incorporate important social messages into radio and television drama.
The goal of the program is to burnish their professional skills and to teach the PCI methodology of how to incorporate social and health messages into serial dramas.

PCI’s 2003 media participants were: Ms. Celia Cristina Aldana Duran from Peru, Mr. Romeo Cruz Dongeto from the Philippines, Mr. Faming Gu from China, Ms. Lydia Wakanyi Kahindi from Kenya and Ms. Neelam Vachani from India. This group of five professionals will return to their work with polished skills and visionary ideas. They will also return with practical, hands-on training in production and program management.

The 16 unit, 12 week course began May 21st and concluded August 14th in Los Angeles at the USC Annenberg School of Communications. During the twelve-week summer session, the Fellows attended four classes at the Annenberg School for Communications: Social Roles of Communication Media; International Communication: National Development; Communication Values, Attitudes & Behavior; and Entertainment Education: Social Uses of the Media.

To supplement the classroom courses, they attended seminars designed to explore aspects of social content entertainment. Lectures covered topics such as Social Learning Theory, the Importance of Evaluation in Entertainment-Eduction, Leadership, and Social Issues in American Soaps. In addition, an expert from the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) was on hand to conduct seminars on communications and the representation of women. Excursions to CBS Television City and Warner Brothers Studios enhanced their academic experience.

The USC portion of the Media Leadership Program began mid-May and ended the second week of August. Following an evaluation and debriefing, the Fellows traveled to the CEDPA office in Washington D.C. for a week-long stay during which they presented their experiences and training. CEDPA has assisted more than 5,000 women and men from more than 140 countries in developing their potential as leaders, managers and advocates, with an emphasis on gender equality.

PCI follows up with each Media Leadership participant, provides them with post-evaluations, and encourages them to apply PCI’s methodology in their careers. We also encourage them to connect with past Fellows, and have even established an Internet forum for them to communicate direct-ly with one other.

The goal of the program is to burnish their professional skills and to teach the PCI methodology of how to incorporate social and health messages into serial dramas.

This year’s MLP candidates were ex-ceptionally talented. Ms. Duran has al-ready published a book on women’s leadership and has designed several pro-jects on health and communications, gender, local development, and democracy. “One of the key issues in this field is the one of evaluation,” Celia says, “I’m interested in discussing the means of evaluation and — even more important — the kind of objectives that can be proposed and their indicators.”

Mr. Dongeto, another MLP participant, currently works at the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, Inc. He provides leadership in the management, administration, and implementation of the key functions of the information and communication division.

As we approach the end of the year, PCI looks forward to hosting an even more impressive group of media professionals from around the world during the 2004 competition. Our thanks to Dean Geoffrey Cowan of the Annenberg School, to CEDPA and to the Kenneth Malcolm Jones Trust for their support of this important project.

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