Editorial: Be curious
WE WERE covering the east coast of Davao Oriental for two days. The long stretch of the highway and the winding roads to the various destinations brought us to several dead spots where there were no cellphone signals or signals were intermittent.
But as we drive past another poblacion, there will again be at least 3G much faster than the LTE in Davao City and we’d be updated on… the Miss Universe 2015.
We have just had breakfast in Baganga from a sunrise shoot in Pusan Point in Caraga when Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach entered the Top 10. As we were on our way to Cateel, Pia was already in the Top 5. Signal may have been intermittent, but by lunch in Cateel we already know that Pia won and that the host made the mistake of announcing Miss Colombia as the winner. We even viewed a video of how the announcement and the walk happened, before the crown was transferred to Pia.
Tuesday afternoon, back in the office, three second year Mass Communication students were spending the last hours of their two-day exposure with Sun.Star Davao. During the exchange, one student asked, “Ma’am, bakit hindi headline story ang Miss Universe?”
The reply is because, everyone knows by now who won and what happened, there is even a raging discussion and sharing of memes on social network. In a reality like this, journalism is really about making sense of all the noise and focusing on what truly matters, while keeping tabs and getting the pulse of the people. It can be a challenging job, with the internet making it faster and easier to spread gossip that deliver the verified and confirmed news, but that is how journalism is shaping up to be.
Thus the most appropriate advice that can be given to the young ones these days who aspire to explore the world of mass communication is: Be curious.
The information technology is changing so fast, we can never tell how it would look like a decade from now. The only way anyone can ever keep up is to remain curious and able to check out and understand whatever is looming on the horizon.