Big Bad Mass Communications Graduates-They are starting early?

Dear insansapinas,
I am not a bit surprised when a son of Christopher de Leon and Sandy Andolong decided to join showbiz. He is graduating from College of St. Benilde with a degree in Photography. These days, you do not have to be good in photography to get the business that will tide you over for the whole year--being able to win in the bid for the yearbook.


A blogger who enrolled himself in special classes to learn Photography and earn a sideline complained the same issue with regards the yearbook contract of schools. He won in photography contests.

 But when he offered his services to one private school, ang suhulan daw ay kotse at maraming perks.Anong laban mo doon kung nagsisimula ka pa lang.


Then I read this: 
According to Jojo Robles: 

Some students belonging to this year’s graduating class of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communications have hit upon a novel idea to make some money, get free stuff and subsidize their numerous parties. The students in charge of the yearbook (which will be paid for by the college’s graduating class) discovered that some photography and printing suppliers will do almost anything to get their business—and that’s where their entrepreneurial instincts kicked in.

The students in charge of the yearbook decided to “bid out” the production and printing deal to potential suppliers. But it’s only a bidding in the rigged sense of that word, because the students weren’t really looking for the lowest and best bid, as people who bid out contracts are supposed to do.

These MassComm students were more interested in awarding the deal to the supplier who could promise them the best “under the table” deals, who would wine them and dine them and who would take all the “test shots” of their faces that they wanted. In the end, one losing bidder told us, they ended up awarding the contract to someone who reportedly promised them a car, apart from what all the other bidders gave them—free booze, food and endless studio pictures of themselves in various poses.

Traditionally, the yearbooks put out by the various UP colleges are purely student productions that do not involve the university’s faculty or administrators. The students who get involved in such projects are basically left to their own devices, in the belief that they are old enough and principled enough to do what is right for themselves, by themselves.

Had some of their elders been around to supervise these MassComm students, they would have probably been advised that what they did was certainly not how proper biddings are conducted. In the real world, bidders are evaluated solely on the merits of their proposals and any contact between the people deciding who gets a contract and the people who want it awarded to them is strictly prohibited.

The irony of this farce of a bidding lies not only in the fact that it was pulled off by supposedly idealistic young people who haven’t even left school yet. When you consider that these students will soon become print and broadcast journalists, you have to wonder what else they learned in school apart from soliciting favors from bidders.

Kung ito ay totoo, magiging big bad media journalists sila.

 Nasaan ba yong aking magic wand?

Pinaysaamerika