In 1947, the Hamada siblings and their associates thought it essential for the orderly development of the Cordillera highlands, then known as the Mountain sub-provinces, to provide the man effective and credible voice.
Through it they could dream and plan together, as they had been doing before. Or argue their differences in a rational manner, as they ought to.
Foremost in the minds of the founders of the Midland Courier was the fact that the Cordillera mountains are a wonderland, and it is the paper’s bounden task to make this fact known far and wide. And taken advantage of.
There are many themes for conversation in order to achieve all potentials for regional development. There is gold and other minerals in those hills, agriculture produce in the valleys and hillsides. Power and energy flow in those rivers and waterfalls, and other wealth in the mountaintops and forests.
There is a unique cultural identity in those gongs and gangsas, those dances and rituals, those handwoven fabrics. The schools are effective avenues for new and old ideas, for dissent and compromise. With freedom of expression the Midland Courier was setting up for regionwide dialog and debate. And the people responded well. The initial underlying theme was that the Midland Courier was going to be the Exponent of the Wonderland of the Cordilleras.
Originally that was the idea of the indigenous tribes, who for centuries resisted the intrusions of the Spanish colonizers. Less unwelcome were neighbors of the same racial and cultural background. Over time the region had been turning a bit less indigenous and more and more cosmopolitan.
In time also the Midland Courier would expand its theme to include the “Riches of Ilocandia”. The nation too noticed the importance of the Cordillera, which along with Muslim Mindanao earned a constitutional mandate as an autonomous region. This new theme is yet to materialize. It needs s platform for discussion.
Along the way the Midland Courier has earned plaudits from national media organizations, and with pardonable pride, Midland Courier has included them in its editorial masthead. Given another 77 years the Midland Courier would be of greater service to the Cordillera, the nation and to print media.
Time has changed everything, inside-out and upside down. Especially in print media. Thick Sunday papers, glossy magazines, award winning time honored publications are giving way to digital online counterparts that make the readers part of the conversation as vloggers.
Publisher Gloria Antoinette M. Hamada, explains that the shift from print media was started by scientists from Silicon Valley who brought on the digital information age. The devices and systems they created are much faster and more versatile.
Print media has come to the crossroads.
Can it go on and survive the onslaught of YouTube, Facebook, TikTok etc.? Fortunately for the younger professionals, they have managed to be online savvy.
Well for Editor Harley F. Palangchao and his staff. Young people nowadays are computer literate and digital savvy.
The Midland Courier management is thinking hard and long about what the future holds.
Abangan.
May 17, 2024
