“Do you become wealthy when you are a journalist?” asked the Grade 7 student from a private school who visited the newsroom along with 30 other campus journalists on a Friday afternoon.
“It depends on how you define wealth,” I responded with a conscious attempt to sound witty and interesting.
“You become wealthy in experience,” I quipped.
“What?” was the boy’s response clearly confused about that melodramatic answer I made up for him.
“When you’re a journalist, you will experience adventures that other people won’t. You will learn the secrets of some people. You will find out the truth but you cannot always share them to all people,” I further responded.
I was quite sure that I gave a satisfactory answer that will send the child back to his classmate to talk about secrets and truths.
But the child was persistent.
“Yeah. I kinda know that. But how much wealth do you really get when you work as a journalist? Like…how much is your monthly salary,” came the straightforward question.
I was taken aback by the child’s confidence in asking the question.
My answer was swift: “It’s not a lot but it’s enough.”
There was a disappointment in the eyes of the boy. He expected to hear a number. But I was not about to reveal my salary to a boy who was interested to become photojournalist. I did not want my profession to be defined by my salary.
Over the last 16 years of my career as a journalist, I have been repeatedly asked about how much I make.
The question has been rephrased and reworded several times that I have developed a tolerance for it. Hence, the generic answer: “It’s not a lot but it’s enough” was born.
I was wrapped in the ideals of honesty, fairness, objectivity, passion and courage when I started out as a journalist. I still am. I was taught that accepting money is a big NO. Return the envelope with the money to the person who handed it it you. In cases where you can’t return the money, make sure that you turn it over to an editor or the publisher. The money is donated to a charity organization. Make sure you get a receipt of donation with the name of the person or the entity that gave you the money.
Study your coverage. Do not even assume that you know everything because the moment that you do, you’re doomed to fail.
A former mentor once told me to live within my means so I resist the temptation to be corrupt that is so common in journalism. I took this seriously and decided to live a lifestyle below what I can afford. This has allowed me to save money so that I can afford to travel, take out a loan for a house and lot, and sign my first insurance policy.
I write this on the day we start the celebration of Cebu Press Freedom Week, an annual celebration that media workers in Cebu look forward to every year. It’s the lone week in the entire year that we set aside competition and celebrate unity and solidarity.
The Cebu Press Freedom Week, now on its 27th year, falls every third week of September to coincide with the anniversary of the declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972.
This is a milestone year because we will go out there bearing the banner “CDN Digital” for the first time in the history of Cebu Press Freedom Week. With Sun.Star as the lead convenor for this year’s celebration, we adopted the theme “Journalism Transformations.”
For CDN, it has truly been a year of transformations as we learned and continue to learn more about this digital platform. There’s a long list of activities this week but I’d like to highlight the forum/learning session that CDN Digital is organizing in partnership with Globe, University of San Carlos (USC), and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP).
On September 20, Friday, we will have “Digital Transformation: Challenges and Chances” that will be filled with talks on CDN’s move from print to online, how to do paradigm shift right, broadcasting in the digital age, social impact, and sustainability initiatives of Globe in this online era.
The forum will be held at the Dingman Hall of the USC’s Downtown Campus with 100 invited guests.
There is a mountain of challenges that journalists face these days. Random conversations with editors and reporters reveal that we are losing our journalists to public information offices and government agencies as we face threats of rising costs in paper, stressful working conditions, and low pay.
I would be lying if I say that this is not the truth.
I wish to paint a rosy picture of the wealth that journalists gain when they are in this profession.
For sure, it’s not money unless you open yourself to corruption and envelopmental journalism.
The wealth that journalists gain from this profession is experience and the gift of each other. We can never survive this treacherous and often challenging profession without each other’s support and love.
Tomorrow, Sunday, September 15, as the entire CDN Digital team goes out there to face the crowd for the first time as a fully digital platform, it is the gift of each other that we hold dear.
It is with this thought that we will continue to live our mission of journalism that builds communities.