College of Development Communication (CDC) students and academic staff attended the Social Good Summit 2023 (#SGS2023) organized by Rappler at the Samsung Hall, SM Aura Premier in Taguig City on Sept. 16.

With the theme #TurningTechForGood: From problem to solution, the daylong event served as a venue to inspire solutions-based conversations on the power and peril of tech use in the current data-driven media landscape. Central to this was the role that communities and other sectors could play in creating a culture that would enable reform and regulation of tech to mitigate its ill effects on society.

Department of Development Journalism (DDJ) lecturers Ralf Rivas and Bonz Magsambol, who are multimedia reporters at Rappler and UPLB alums, facilitated CDC’s participation in the event. They teach courses on the fundamentals of development journalism, data journalism for development, and communication and society.

CDC academic staff members Miguel Victor T. Durian and Guien Garma attended the event with the students.

Through DDJ’s Los Baños Times, CDC has also worked with Rappler’s civic engagement arm, Move.PH during the 2022 Philippine election campaigns in localizing their media and information literacy and fact-checking initiatives to the Los Baños community.

#SGS2023 featured a lineup of local and foreign experts and thought leaders who delivered plenary speeches and participated in panel discussions with the audience on various subject matters, such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), data privacy, mis/disinformation, fact-checking, and surveillance capitalism. 

These speakers included Maria Ressa, Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Hillary Clinton, 67th U.S Secretary of State; Frances Haugen, Facebook whistleblower; and other notable figures. 
The SGS is a gathering of citizens, innovators and thought leaders working together to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. With this, #SGS2023 marked its return on stage in the Philippines since the pandemic started. (Jan Carlo Basilio; Photo credits: Dan Alexander Abas)