(Names and places have been changed to protect the privacy of people.) As a college professor in a prestigious university for rich girls, I was assigned to teach Journalism 101, an introductory course that covered Radio, TV, and Print, or Tri-Media. Preparing the syllabus for the course, I realized that I was, in all honesty, not qualified to teach because I was no longer a practitioner. I had been teaching for 7 years now, and was no longer a practicing journalists. I had no idea about the rapid changes in the media. I needed to learn as much as my students.
eastwind journals
March 19, 2025, Archives tr615
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com / www.eastwindjournals.com
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I could pretend to be an ‘armchair professor’, teaching based on a theoretical syllabus extracted from old obsolete American books which had nothing to do with Philippine media and journalism. I could embellish it with my platform skills. In truth, it would be hypocrisy and unfair to students, to whip up obsolete lessons from the air. I could not go through that.
So, I got this fantastic idea. Instead of me lecturing on obsolete theories, I decided to send my students to the frontlines to find out for themselves the world of newsrooms, television studios and radio stations first hand.
This had several advantages – 1) I would not be lecturing pretentiously on obsolete lessons, having more free time, 2) the students would be educating me, not the other way around, since they would be immersed in the real world of Tri-Media.
I divided the classes into teams of four to five, with a team leader in charge. Instead of lecturing absurd lesson, I let the teams meet and plan their strategies. I assigned teams to Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, ABS-CBN, GMA7, DZRH, DZMB, etc. I arranged appointments through my contacts or through managing editors, radio station managers, and studio directors.
They interviewed everyone, both managers, reporters, and coordinators to get a ‘feel’ of the frontlines. They were immersed on how the news desk worked, how writers submitted under deadline pressure, how editors had to quickly clean their articles of wrong grammar and inconsistent logic flow. They observed studios broadcasting interviews live, radio station booths on the air. They were so excited learning and absorbing broadcast journalism in action.
The teams presented their findings to the whole class. Everyone was learning from everyone. Students would do the lecturing, sharing their experiences to the whole class. One team member specialized in interviews of managers, another on observing news staff working together. Another team member operated the computer for large-screen displays of visuals. They even included photos of famous editors and journalists. In fact, I learned from them new changes in the journalism world. I did not realize the idea would work like magic.
Here are some of their findings – 1) there were snake pits as much as there were cooperative teams, 2) beginners with on-the-job training without pay, just allowance; salaries one fifth to one tenth of those in Japan or Italy (understandably perhaps since labor standards were different among rich and poor countries).
One team discovered that Liwayway, the famous vernacular magazine, remained in the Middle Ages, completely analog, no computers, as dictated by their senior-citizen writers and artists, who preferred old typewriters and paint brushes and canvas, allergic to the monitor and the mouse. In spite of their archaic ways, they maintained their creative outputs, beautiful comic book art work done completely by hand, colors mixed the old way. These old folks deserved an award in journalism. I don’t know if the magazine is still alive today, or if they have finally moved on to the digital world.
A team which went to the Manila Hotel news conferences reported that congressmen were asking for their cellphones and trying to pick them up. That is when I obliged them to wear school uniforms to avoid trouble.
Immersion worked like magic, replacing classroom lectures, experiential wisdom versus theoretical wisdom in action.
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Author’s Credentials. Blogger – ex-Columnist (Inquirer) – Healing Ministry – ex-Professor (Ateneo University) – Documentary Producer-Director (freelance, ex-ABS-CBN, ex-TVS Tokyo) – ex-Broadcaster (Radio Veritas) – Facebook “Bernie V. Lopez Eastwind” / Pages “Eastwind Journeys and Journals” and “Mary Queen of Peace”.
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