| When: | Thursday, October 1st, 2026 |
| Time: | 4:00 pm — 6:00 pm |
| Location: | Richcraft Hall, 4400, SJC Resource Centre |
| Audience: | Alumni, Carleton Community, Current Students, Staff and Faculty |
| Cost: | Free |
The School of Journalism and Communication presents
Navigating geopolitics and global threats: Journalism’s evolving role in preserving democracy
with
Carmela Fonbuena
2026 Marshall McLuhan Fellow – Philippines
The presentation will discuss the critical role of journalism amid great power competition, focusing on its function to protect the integrity of information as publics are increasingly targeted by disinformation and influence operations to distort public opinion in favor of authoritarian interests. In the Philippines, journalists continue to explore effective strategies to engage increasingly disengaged audiences, including meaningful collaborations with pro-democracy groups to combat these threats.
About Carmela Fonbuena
The incumbent Marshall McLuhan Fellow is Carmela Fonbuena, currently a freelance journalist and former Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
The Embassy of Canada in the Philippines awarded her the Marshall McLuhan Fellowship this year for demonstrating “an unwavering commitment to public-interest journalism, accountability reporting, and the defense of press freedom in the Philippines. Through her investigative work and editorial leadership, she has consistently produced rigorous, impactful journalism that has helped readers better understand issues of governance, corruption, human rights, and democratic accountability in the course of her career now spanning more than twenty years.”
Aside from being a journalist, Carmela has also co-written four books on Philippine elections and government contracting. Her latest book “Marawi Siege: Stories from the Front Lines,” draws on her immersive experience covering war and conflict in the southern Philippines. Carmela was a senior reporter for Rappler (the online news organization co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa) and then head researcher for GMA Network’s public affairs programs. Prior, she worked as a researcher for the investigative news magazine, Newsbreak. Recently, she has been contributing in-depth pieces for the British news website, The Guardian.
She earned an MA in political communication at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom as a Chevening scholar and is a graduate of journalism from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
For her talks across Canada, she has chosen to discuss: “Navigating geopolitics and global threats: Journalism’s evolving role in preserving democracy.” The presentation will discuss the critical role of journalism amid great power competition, focusing on its function to protect the integrity of information as publics are increasingly targeted by disinformation and influence operations to distort public opinion in favor of authoritarian interests. In the Philippines, journalists continue to explore effective strategies to engage increasingly disengaged audiences, including meaningful collaborations with pro-democracy groups to combat these threats.
About the Marshall McLuhan Fellowship
The Marshall McLuhan Fellowship is the Embassy of Canada’s flagship public diplomacy initiative in the Philippines. Launched in 1997, it is part of our advocacy to encourage responsible journalism in the Philippines with the belief that a strong media is essential to a strong democratic society.
Every year, the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) assists the Embassy in choosing a Filipino journalist whose work has contributed to positive changes in the social arena or at least has raised the level of public discourse in a relevant issue usually concerning governance and human rights.
The program provides the winner with a two-week speaking and familiarization tour of Canada. This will be an opportunity for the Fellow to interact with media counterparts, and to discuss significant current issues on governance with Canadian government officials, academic interlocutors and members of civil society. The Fellow will also have the chance to speak at the McLuhan Salons in the University of Toronto. Upon returning to the Philippines, a series of forums is organized by the Embassy to be held in five key cities around the country to enable the journalist to share experiences in Canada with students of communication and members of the local and community media.
Aside from contributing to good governance by raising transparency in the public arena, the McLuhan Fellowship also aims to create in the long-term a critical group of influential media personalities with good knowledge and interest in Canadian issues or at least the values Canada stands for: democracy, good governance, and human rights.