Journalism in today’s work environment
By Jose B. Perez
Editor
The following are highlights of the speech delivered by the author
during the 6th Youth Leadership Conference sponsored by The
Francis Padua Papica Foundation, Inc. held last Feb. 4, 2006 at
the Provincial Convention Center, Capitol Complex, Pili, Camarines
Sur.
Let me extend my appreciation to Atty. Francis P. Papica.
As I congratulate Atty. Francis Padua Papica for this highly
successful Youth Leadership Conference, allow me to quote John
Densmore, a member of “Doors”, which in my time was one of the
popular bands whose music articulated both the realism and ideals
of the 70s who said, thus:
“Money is like fertilizer – if you hoard it, it stinks. If you
spread it, stuff grows.”
Not everybody can be as gifted and as generous as Francis Papica.
His tribe will increase because he spreads his blessings to his
countrymen. He nurtures the hearts and minds of our young men and
women who shall one day be our leaders and lift this nation from
the quagmire that we are all stuck in.
(Photo
Caption) BEFORE YOUNG LEADERS. The author speaks about the
upside and downside of journalism as a noble profession before a
large audience of students at the CSur provincial convention
center during the 6th youth leadership convention sponsored by the
Francis Padua Papica Foundation.
AS A LOCAL JOURNALIST, I am glad to be part of this fruitful
endeavor, especially at this time that good news are becoming as
rare as the fireflies (aninipot) that used to amaze us in our
childhood before going to bed.
Before I go further, let me caution you my dear students with this
bad news: Journalism is a low-paying risky job. According to TIME
Magazine, the Philippines is only second to war-torn Iraq in the
number of journalists killed in 2005 alone. A total of 63
journalists were killed during that year, including 24 in Iraq and
7 in the Philippines, the highest death toll since 1995. The
numbers do not include those who were harassed or sent to prison
for a variety of charges, including libel, and in my case,
contempt of court.
(Photo
Caption) OBJECTIVITY. While journalism is writing to live,
one’s principles and ideals should not be compromised by observing
fair play, accuracy and objectivity in reporting news, the author
tells his audience.
In fairness, our people in the city and province are naturally
friendly or sober about dealing with newsmen. We are fortunate
that at least during the last decade, none of these violent
incidents have befallen our local mediamen, legitimate or
otherwise. That is why our brothers in the profession, like
Station Manager Al Ubaña here, are enjoying our jobs without fear
or favor.
To be frank, Journalism, like any other profession, is writing to
live, rather than living to write, unlike poets or novelists who
write purely from their imagination. While many writers like to
think of themselves as artists, the branch of writing known as
journalism is more like a craft or trade than an art that deals
with facts and the daily grind, pleasant or unpleasant.
Journalism or the press is also called the fourth branch of
government, or the Fourth Estate, which serves as the eyes and
ears of the people as it checks the excesses and promotes the good
deeds of those in power.
True journalist
Can anyone be a journalist?
The notion that journalists are born, not made, is nonsense. They
make themselves. The ability to gather and write news is not
something you inherit, like brown eyes or dark hair. It’s
something you learn to do, like biking or swimming. All you need
is average intelligence, energy, study, practice and – to advance
– experience.
‘Curiosity’ is a basic trait for a journalist. If you’re the sort
of person who always asks “Why?” when presented with a piece of
information, you’ve got the makings of a reporter. You must love
to read. In fact, being a print junkie is a necessary vice. If you
want the job, you have to train for it, work for it, and stick
until you succeed. But first, you have to finish your education.
Some of you may have shown early signs of writing better than
others. One even goes directly to working in a newspaper even when
he has not finished his studies. He progresses through experience
but somehow a few difficult assignments usually reveal his flaws.
Sooner or later he stumbles and stops moving forward. Something is
missing. That something is education.
Journalism is an extension of history, something not taught in
newspaper offices or coffee shops. It is a compound of history and
sociology plus government, economics and the law which are best
taught in schools.
“Journalism is an extension of history, something not taught in
newspaper offices or coffee shops. It is a compound of history and
sociology plus government, economics and the law which are best
taught in schools.”
The local scene
In the local scene, I regret to tell you that only a few of our
practicing journalists, both in print and broadcast media are
college graduates. Ang iba, pinabakal lang suka, may press card na
o nagko-komentarista na sa radio, may kurahaw pa. That is why we
have lots of tsismis, intriga, lies, and concocted news reports,
if those are news reports at all.
And what do we have in our local weeklies? Same stuff: unconfirmed
reports, propa-ganda or biased press releases, or so-called
columns whose mediocrity and grammatical errors insult one’s
intelligence quotient.
Why do we have mediocre pressmen or reporters? Because local media
do not pay well. Why? Because we do not have serious readers, nor
advertisers. Why? Because we only have a few, maybe only one,
serious newspaper. Why? Because we have mediocre writers. Why?
Because local media do not pay well. The vicious cycle goes.
Actually, it’s a chicken-and-egg riddle all over again.
Education should not end with a diploma. A good reporter keeps up
with the times. His curiosity about the past, the present and the
future never wanes, but renews itself as the years go by. He
listens to radio and watches television news programs. He reads
incessantly – books, magazines, and, above all, newspapers.
True, there is no substitute for practical day-to-day experience.
But the young man who has decided to become a journalist should
start thinking about it even before he finishes his education –
the earlier the better.
Two kinds of practice opportunities are open to you as journalism
undergraduate. Both will extend your receptivity for instruction
in the classroom and laboratory.
First, join your campus newspaper as I have done. There you are
better than students of, say engineering or law, for colleges
don’t run industrial plants and courtrooms as they do campus
publications. Start writing. Every item, even if it goes to the
wastebasket, counts up on the ledger of experience.
Second, try to get a part-time newspaper job as I did while going
to college. Send stories to your local weekly. Go to a nearby
newspaper office and offer to work – at almost anything if it
opens the door to reporting. Learn and earn, if you can, at the
same time.
Working with the local weeklies, I realized early on that the pay
was not enough to raise a family. A local weekly, you see, is
never a full-time endeavor, even for the publisher who must have
other profitable interests. Thus, I have to find a decent job that
can feed my family and use my skill in a workplace where the job
description approximates that of a journalist or writer.
That may not be ideal for a true journalist. But when reality sets
in, you have to eke for a living without compromising, however,
your principles and the journalist’s code of ethics that you vowed
to uphold.
Keeping a stable job makes you more independent-minded, which is
one virtue of a true journalist. With blood money in your own
pocket, you don’t need somebody else to pay for your cup of
coffee, or a transport fare to get into the scene of the story.
The trade-off, however, of having a second job is that you will
have another boss that you can’t afford to antagonize in your
paper, especially if your office happens to be a local government
unit or a private company whose interests are sensitive to public
opinion.
Anyhow, how your boss treats you depends on you as a person, on
your deportment and on your principles. My experience is if your
boss respects you, he won’t demand from you which he thinks will
compromise your character, your integrity and your ideals as a
person.
Every office or workplace has its share of corruption,
malfeasance, and omissions. It’s up to you if you would bury your
head in the sand, or throw out of the window all the lessons that
you learned in school. But if you think you can’t stand the heat,
then quit. After all, there are other jobs that a good journalist
can handle. You can venture on writing books, do ghostwriting, or
public relations. As they say, no one can put a good man down.
Otherwise, journalism is not your cup of tea.
Heroes
We would not have a nation of free Filipinos were it not for the
lives and courage of our foremost journalists, who were members of
the Propaganda Movement led by Dr. Jose Rizal, Juan Luna, Lopez-Jaena,
and our very own Jose Maria Panganiban, among others.
Without the underground and so-called “mosquito” press during the
Martial Law era, dictator Marcos would not have been driven out of
Malacañang.
As today’s journalists, our tasks become even more difficult, yet
more challenging because we are in a tight fix where only the
principled and the brave dare to distinguish white from black.
There are compromises and there are gray areas, which every
journalist must expose like worms before the sunlight.
We must carry on because our reason for being must be to uphold
what is true and what is righteous – to keep our country going.
We must not stop from exposing official wrongdoing; taking up the
cause of the exploited, and putting the spotlight on problems like
environmental destruction, poor health and education, crime, and
corruption. But then, we must also have to exercise greater
responsibility by observing the tenets of our profession:
accuracy, objectivity and fairness in news reporting.
Always, the truth must be our weapon, for it is the truth that
sets us free.
Dios Mabalos!
