Tuesday, October 30, 2007

i bleed news

It was another holiday yesterday and I still have work (take note: no salary increase whatsoever). I have already experienced a lot of holidays in the past 2 months wherein I am at work. In short, with my job i really don't have any holidays at all. Whether or not Pres. Arroyo declared one hundred holidays in a year, it will not affect me. In fact, we do have work even on Christmas. I guess I just need to get used to it.

I came to realized after almost 2 months at work, what my job really is. Delivering news or being part of a news organization is not really work in a sense. I mean, it is first and foremost a service or a vocation. We serve the public by giving them accurate information that is also relevant to them. We try to cater to their needs and wants by giving them the thing they must know. We deliver national issues, political news, economic stories, and everything under the sun and the moon. Well, I don't exactly feel it that way as of now. But seeing the veterans in the industry, I could see the passion these people put into their work. I mean, they would really try to make sure we broadcast it first and of course more importantly, we broadcast it right.

It also dawned on me that working for news is like working for a hospital. We are like doctors and nurses. First, as mentioned, we do not have holidays! Second, our holidays are in fact the busiest of all days. Example on New Year, we work, doctors work too. Even if there is a Signal # 4 typhoon, we still have work and I am assuming doctors also work harder that day because of possible accidents that may be brought by the storm. So you see, we are like doctors, working almost 24 hours a day, doesn't have holidays at all and works harder during time sof calamities and disasters. Did I also mention that we are ON CALL 24/7. If a breaking news arises and we are already sleeping at home, our bosses can still contact us and ask us to be at the office asap.

On the same manner, we are also like the police, army, lawyers and to some extent like priests and nuns. All of these profession are in a sense a vocation, a calling. And ON CALL all the time.I mean, if you are a journalist, you must bleed news. It is not just a job, but must be a vocation. It is a 24/7 job and not just an 8-hour job. When you get home, you are still a journalist and is on call always. It is a life.

As of now, I'm happy where I am. But I am sad thinking that I will never have a holiday in my life. I am not yet that passionate for the job. I stil have many rants. I still do not have the thing that drives the veterans to succeed and exceed their potentials. I hope I can be. But that we can't tell for now.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

news man

Today was quite a busy day at work (or should I say yesterday). It was the first time I experience a "breaking news". And it was the first time I actually felt I was working for a news organization.

When news broke out of the bombing in Makati, I was eating lunch at the ELJ Building in ABS-CBN. When I arrived at the Newsroom, people were moving everywhere. All of the producers, news anchors, writers were all drawn to their cellphones, computer and the TV screens surrounding the Newsroom. Everyone was focused on the explosion that rocked Glorietta 2. I was assigned to transcribe some of the phone interviews, including an interview with a victim. I actually felt sad based on the victim's story. From 4 dead in the first hour, it reach 8 when I left the office. Honestly, it was quite estatic to feel the pulse of news, but I do hope things like this don't happen.

It was a different feeling to be part of a news team. It also saddens me that I might get used to this and thus, I might feel manhid when disasters occur in the future. But I guess that is just part of a news person's life.

I hope the death toll just stays at 8.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

promoted!

Barely a month at ANC, I was just promoted!!!!

No, it was not promotion as in promoted to a higher position or promotion as in doubling my salary. It was a promotion of work responsibility. Meaning, I was given the important task already. And I'm so happy.

For the past weeks, I was just doing simple things, but now my boss felt that I am ready for the "real" job. I am still a PA. I will still do PA stuff. But now I have an added description to my very flexibe job.

Ms.Francis, my superior, invited me and Betina, a co-new hire, to a short meeting with other executive producers. Then she said to the producers that Jekki and Bettina are with the company for a month now and that she has been checking our work and saw that we were improving. Then she said that she is recommending us to actually WRITE NEWS for one program in ANC. The producers all agreed. I was so surprised and happy.

Ever since I worked at ANC, i said to myself that I wanted to try writing news. And when Ms.Francis said that I will, I was excited. But at the same time, it is also a huge responsibiity and it gives me more pressure. It feels good to know that my superiors trust me for allowing me to actually write the news. It is very humbling, but also is a big challenge. Cause now I will be writing not for a teacher or for myself, but writing for a big audience, and specifically for the target audience of ANC (which are businessmen and politicians). Also, it's hard, because there are no room for mistakes! I must be very OC. No wrong grammar and spelling and no no wrong content. Imagine I can be sued for libel already!!! hehe

Anyway, I will be writing for Prime News (the TV Patrol version of ANC). Every writer is assigned a particular section. There are writers for national news, weather, foreign news, business, features... and guess what was assigned to me!! I was assigned the sports news!!! haha, I don't know anything about it, but I will take it as a challenge and I will study it. So, I choose my own sports news- whether it be about UAAP or NCAA or NBA or Olympics- ako na bahala, with the approval of the sports editor of course.

I will officially start writing tom. Although I did write kanina. I wrote about Kobe Bryant!.. hehe.. well, now I could say that I am a sports writer...

hehe, how ironic!