Take it from the experts: unveiling the art of journalism

         Take it from the experts: unveiling the art of journalism

It took me three years of fortitude, devotion, persistence and yearning to go to school and do my best to learn and grasp the stories behind and unveil the secrets to be learned and understand about the art of journalism. In the four corners of the classroom, we were taught and were tasked to study and understand the history, facts, rules, theories and laws behind the craft of writing the news. We were also trained on how to package news articles to make it as an effective and efficient medium to inform the public well about events  happening in the locality, and also on the national scope and even internationally. As a student, classroom learning means a lot to me because it is basically my stepping stone to move on and learn more about journalism. 

As I am doing my on the job training on writing news worthy stories of the day to day events in the locality, most of the time, I think there's always something that is lacking in my stories, and i think the problems lies on the way i presented and stated the facts of the story.

And as I sit and listen to the lectures from the journalism experts of the Phil. Press Institute seminar yesterday, i realized that all the information that my mentors were not able to impart to me, is all here in this event.

In this seminar, I did learn from Ma’am Nene Bundoc-Ocampo that local and national papers nowadays still follow the basic elements of writing news stories, yet, when it comes to presentation, local and national papers vary. National papers don’t really create an in-depth discussion of local events, while local papers on the other hand, writes the news beyond the printed words. Local papers basically tend to delve deeper beyond the superficial facts gathered from the usual sources and expand the news into a variety of horizons.

“Are writers born or made?”Was the question that was asked by Ms. Leia Fidelis Castro in her opening statement yesterday. And after that, she gave us an encouraging answer, saying that “they have to be born before they are made.” This answer means a lot to aspiring young journalists out there and also to me. For me, this answer means that young journalists can be experts of the art of journalism someday if only they would work hard, learn from the experts and most of all, if they would learn on how to think and venture outside the box of journalistic traditions that may hinder their growth as young and well-trained breed of journalists.

Other things that Ms. Castro discussed were the five rules when writing the news story. First rule is to know your audience or to whom you are writing for. Second rule is to think before you write the story while the third rule is to be conversational by using active sentences and simple words on the story you’re writing. Fourth rule in writing the news is either kiss or be kissable; kiss meaning keep it (news) short and simple or keep it sure and short and kissable meaning keep information stimulating, satisfying, accurate, believable, likable and enlightening. The last rule is to edit! Edit! Edit! In which Ms. Castro suggested that after writing the news, let someone read and comment about how you’ve written it. Another suggestion is that for writers to write optimistic stories out of negative ones.

Another interesting fact that I learned was presented by Mr. Dino Balabo of Mabuhay, saying that the inverted pyramid actually originated from war-time journalism where in, field journalists reporting to their respective stations must state in the first paragraph the main details of their stories so that if the communication will be cut off any second, at least their editors still have the important information of their stories.

Mr. Balabo also shared his knowledge to us about civic journalism. As I remembered and the way I understood it on the discussion, civic journalism deals with local issues like no other types of journalism thereby reinventing journalism itself. In addition, civic journalism is not about creating conflicts but instead, it tries to convey knowledge, not just news and development. It examines where the community players agree on as where they conflict. In a simpler context, civic journalism expounds the interviews to ordinary citizens, making them as participants and not as mere spectators. One very important thing I learned from Sir Balabo is that credibility is the currency in journalism.

On social media as a journalism tool, Mr. Ely Valendez really did a great job explaining to us some of the technical things involved in conveying and disseminating information by using various social networking sites. He also gave us tips on how to search the internet by showing us a video on how google search works. The fact is that social media like blogging, gives freedom and power to everyone to express their views and opinions and even share facts about events in their own way without any sanction from a regulating body.

Going to the Ethics lecture, Mr. Amiable Ariel Sebellino also did a great job in enlightening us about what is ethics, ethical standards and what is the code of ethics of journalists all about.

Based on what I understood from Sir Amiable Areil’s lecture, the 11 paragraphs or sections of the code of ethics can be sum up to 11 words. To start with, paragraph 1 is all about accuracy in reporting, paragraph 2 is confidentiality of information gathered; paragraph 3 is fairness in obtaining news and information from sources, paragraph 4 is respecting the privacy of sources, paragraph 5 is being morally honest in doing your journalistic work, paragraph 6 is intellectual honesty or no to plagiarism, paragraph 7 is tolerance to sources, paragraph 8 is being just (justice) by presumption of innocence to suspects when reporting and being careful not to implicate further, minors and women that are involved in an act of violence or crimes. To continue, paragraph 9: being courteous or not taking unfair advantage to a fellow journalist, paragraph 10: dignity or using the “conscience clause” when duties imposed conflicts with the voice in your conscience. And lastly, paragraph 11: being decent or maintaining your decency while exercising your duty as a journalist.

Overall, the first day of the seminar made a remarkable effect on me. I learned a lot of things, thanks to all our mentors that day. This seminar is such a great help to us aspiring journalists, for by learning from the experts in the field of journalism, we learned ideas and good things from them. With all their wisdom and knowledge that they’ve impart on us that day, we will be able to think outside the box from the traditional things we’ve learned in school. We may be able to try our wings on higher grounds (after this training) by letting the standards, code of ethics and exemplary examples of this experts serve as the wind beneath our wings that will blow us to the right direction where we can continue every journalists’ mission which is, to serve the people in this nation by listening to their opinions and queries and to be a catalyst for change through mass dissemination of accurate, balance and reliable news and information.

Thanks to all PPI members and thanks special thanks to Sir Wally Panganiban.. =)