IN 2005, Mae Catherine S. Melchor was a 19-year-old who dreamed of joining the World Youth Day (WYD) to be celebrated in Germany that year.
Meeting other WYD hopefuls, she got to hear about several controversies involving Filipinos participating in this international gathering of youths initiated by John Paul II in 1984 and held in different places around the world.
The first issue was stirred up by tales of WYD Filipino delegates illegally staying behind in the host country.
Suspicions that some local organizers were exploiting the WYD were exacerbated by the high fees extracted from many youths and their families by local organizations promising to facilitate their WYD participation.
Heart of the matter
The insinuations did more than bother Mae. The Mass Communication senior at the University of the Philippines Cebu College decided to probe the WYD issues for a specialized journalism class at UP. She later e-mailed a query, proposing this topic, to Sun.Star Cebu editors.
Though she got the green light, it took several months of mentoring by newsroom editors to steep Mae in the discipline of digging for facts, triangulating assertions and pursuing sources, including those who were antagonistic to or greatly reluctant to answer her line of questioning.
On Feb. 11, 2005, Sun.Star Cebu published Mae’s special report, “World Youth Day 2005: Shaking the Faith.” With a full spread of photos and infographics, the special report was run without ads.
Although Mae was unable to attend the gathering in Germany, she felt vindicated when, months after her special report, a TV news network exposed similar scams victimizing WYD aspirants in Luzon.
The shift of the community press from being dispassionate recorder to stakeholder and catalyst for action was underscored during the Philippine Press Institute’s (PPI) 12th National Press Forum held in Manila last May 27-30.
Bannering the theme of “Building better communities through civic journalism,” the PPI held a Civic Journalism Fellowship to get selected editors share their best practices in not just “covering the communities they serve, but also serving the communities they cover,” to borrow the classic mission statement of Sun.Star Cebu editor-in-chief Pachico A. Seares.
Finding ways and means
Awarded a special citation for their six-year track records in civic journalism, Sun.Star Cebu, Sun.Star Davao and Mabuhay were among the regional papers sharing their experiences and processes in probing community problems and raising possible solutions.
Sun.Star Cebu’s Cherry Ann T. Lim, managing editor for special pages and features, discussed the paper’s journalistic advocacy of fielding special report teams that did not only count reporters and editors but also campus journalists. This partnership with local journalism schools was also carried out by Sun.Star Davao and Mindanao Gold Star Daily.
While many community papers are financially constrained from following Sun.Star Cebu’s practice of shouldering the considerable costs of special reports, newsroom-academe networking is a doable strategy even for a paper with a limited weekly circulation.
Most importantly, the benefits of such a partnership reinforce the campus journalists, the working press and the community.
Students and faculty can immerse themselves in the actual practice of journalism. They can elevate issues affecting the youth, education, environment and other priorities for public discussion.
By mentoring campus journalists, news veterans can guide potential practitioners in the discipline of accurate, balanced and responsible journalism. This fusion of passion and experience, idealism and field-tested wisdom can only result in good for the community.
After Mae’s classmate in UP Cebu Mass Com, Jane Catherine C. Rojo, e-mailed her first draft on the coal-fired power plant that was dividing the town of Naga, Sun.Star Cebu editors returned back the copy, with the advice to balance the story by getting also the side of those favoring the plant’s operation.
Though a green activist, Jane went back to the field, incurred an incomplete grade in her journalism subject but was later able to submit a story that met her editors’ standards. On Aug. 15, 2005, Sun.Star Cebu ran the two-page “Waiting to exhale,” which, in 2007, was nominated for an award in the special report category of the Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Awards.
Passion and experience. Idealism and wisdom. In the practice of good journalism, the community always wins.
