It's a given that most people of today still read the news no matter the platform. However, only a select few choose news sources that are verified and fact-checked. And where can they read factual news? Nothing else but from credible sources, like Sunstar Davao.
But even then, only a number of people knew that getting news straight from the sources is sometimes a daunting task. Let's get to know the people behind your daily dose of news from Sunstar Davao.
Krizzy Joyce Daugdaug
Reporter
A graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication at the Holy Cross of Davao College and currently taking up her Masters degree in Development Community at University of the Philippine-Open University, Krizzy finds it hard to gather news from sources because she is still building connections as she is new in Sunstar Davao.
“It takes a lot of effort to make them (news sources) talk with you,” Krizzy learned her lesson the hard way realising that news gathering alone is already a tough task thinking that with her “thick-skinned” persona will help doing the task so easily.
“Pero pag-abot sa actual nawani man noon akong confidence kay mahadlok ko mangutana na noon kay basin maka-offend ko or basin mali akong pangutana (But when the actual news gathering came, my confidence vanished because I was afraid that I might offend my source through my questions or my questions were wrong), Krizzy said.
She said as a reporter, it is her duty to think to ask the right questions and gather facts to avoid becoming a fake news peddler.
Iona Finlay C. Mendoza
Reporter
Iona graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a bachelor's degree in Journalism last 2018.
She narrated that immediately after graduation, she applied at Sunstar Davao as a reporter but her parents urged her to get a job at a government office. So she worked at a government office and as a communication staff. She also had experience working at a corporate company. But time and again, she always wondered what would have happened if she pushed through with her application for SunStar as it was always at the back of her mind to pursue journalism-related work.
So she pursued her dream of being a Sunstar Davao reporter.
"My day (as a reporter) usually starts by reading SunStar Davao news, particularly the ones we filed the day before, before heading to any scheduled press conference or event for the day. If I'm lucky, there's free food and coffee at the event but if not, I love to stop by a cafe to order my favourite iced coffee before heading to the office to write news,” she narrated.
For her, the most challenging part of being a reporter is the core of the job - which is news gathering.
“I admit there are a lot of current affairs happening around Davao but reporters have to choose the stories with the most relevance and impact to the audience and readers, all of these while verifying the details and chasing resource persons that are sometimes hard to reach,” she said.
However, according to her the challenges she encounters at work makes it more enjoyable and fulfilling for her even though it has been less than a year that she is with SunStar Davao.
Ralph Llawrence Llemit
Multimedia reporter
Ralph is also a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication at the Holy Cross of Davao College but he never dreamt of becoming a newspaper reporter. He frankly said that his poor ability in English writing makes it traumatizing for him to become a reporter of a daily newspaper.
“First job nako was a content creator for a marketing firm for nearly three years. I got my first job in the creative and marketing side. Never in my wildest dreams to become a print reporter,” he narrated.
For him, aside from writing in English, one of the most challenging tasks of being a reporter is news gathering.
“Siguro covering two major events in a day is something nga challenging. Not to mention, being a pandemic reporter. Dili lalim nga mag news gathering nga naa lang sa balay,” Ralph said.
He added that being a reporter, one should always be updated on the things happening around through social media and on the field. Thus, staying online, despite it’s your day off, is always a habit a reporter should learn for him or her to be on top of the game.
John Roger "Darlah" Orquiza
Social media content provider
Darlah was still studying at the Holy Cross of Davao College taking up Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication when he was hired at Sunstar Davao.
Although he has experienced many challenges in doing his job, it is censoring or blurring of photos of brutal crimes and accidents that he finds the most challenging.
“Even blurring out videos of an accident where I can witness raw video of how people died, watching those in raw video is somehow traumatizing and seems like haunting me but I kinda somehow used to it,” he said.
He also said that as a social media content provider part of his job is to produce contents for advertisement from different advertisers. These contents demand a lot of revisions before these will be published.
“Yet this job is very fulfilling because I get to explore different strategies to make our advertisers happy,” he said. CEA