Jaemark Tordecilla

Jaemark Tordecilla has worked for nine years as the head of digital media at GMA News in the Philippines, where he oversaw all online publishing and audience development activities and founded the network’s Digital Video Lab. Under his leadership, GMA News Online has been honoured for its longform features, journalism innovation, audience engagement, and digital documentary storytelling by the World Association of News Publishers, the Society of Publishers in Asia and the New York Festivals, among other organisations. In 2021, Tordecilla won a TOYM Award, one of the Philippines’ top honours for young civic leaders, for his work in digital journalism.

He began his journalism career at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism where he was part of the team that won Agence France-Presse’s Kate Webb Prize for coverage of the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre in which dozens of journalists were murdered. He also helped train journalists from Myanmar living in exile in Thailand.

In May 2023 he was selected as a Nieman Fellow for the 2023-24 academic year. Coming from an ecosystem where journalists are regularly targeted for critical reporting and digital platforms are rife with misinformation, he planned to focus on studying audience trust in media organisations and what newsrooms can do to win and strengthen trust and build engagement with their audiences.