During my first year as a journalism student, I could not confidently answer people whenever they asked me about my college program. I had this fear others might invalidate my response because for them, “Journalism is merely about writing.” Everyone can be a journalist, they said, even without taking up a media-related degree.
But the 2024 Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship exposed me to a series of realizations about the path that I chose to navigate, foremost among them: Journalism is much more than what people think.
Being a journalist goes beyond sitting in front of a laptop. Sometimes, it’s also about sinking your feet in mud just to get a first-hand account of a person’s unique story. It sometimes requires mental gymnastics to figure out ethical considerations in deciding whether or not to write about an issue. It’s about having the courage to talk to people despite being introverted, and being brave enough to expose the truth despite being scared.
My fellowship journey was never easy. The first weekly story that I submitted was never published. When I wrote that piece, my mind was crawling in cluelessness, trying to figure out what’s needed to make the story more interesting. I gathered necessary information by interviewing key persons online, believing that it would suffice. But I was surprised to know that I still had to interview other subjects, including officials, to make the story more substantial.
In the earlier days of the fellowship, I was deeply overwhelmed. I have been a news writer throughout my nine-year campus journalism journey. For me, covering time-sensitive stories meant submitting an article within the day based on tidbits of information I had gathered. And because I’m impatient waiting for responses of my interviewees, I always preferred to interview them in person or through virtual meetings.
I used to finish writing quickly, so when I noticed that it was already taking me almost a week for a single piece to get published under the fellowship, I couldn’t help but worry. Journalism is the only thing I’m good at, and seeing myself struggling to even start a simple English sentence made me doubt my capabilities.
Despite these setbacks, I am grateful to the other Aries Rufo fellows in my batch and to my mentor, Rappler’s Gemma Mendoza, for helping me shut out these negative thoughts.
When we had an on-site consultation, my mentor said that it is not enough for a writer to just be good at writing. Journalists need to get up on their feet, see events with their own eyes, and exhaust all ethical options in gathering data. I was reminded that the quality of a story depends on the quality of information that a writer gets.
From then on, I realized that investing more time in the pre-writing and actual writing phases won’t make me a bad writer — and that’s what I did for the rest of the fellowship.
Throughout the journey, I was able to write eight community stories — particularly about the Peñafrancia Festival vendors, the farmers in Pacol Flower Farm, and the devastation caused by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine in Naga City.
These stories tested my ability to interview ordinary people and government officials, both online and offline, despite my being anxious about socializing with strangers. What I learned about this experience was that people are innately oversharers. Ask them one question and they won’t hesitate to tell you more about their story.
Aside from community articles, I also wrote four fact check stories that served as the foundation of my two-part long form story about the digitized mudslinging in Camarines Sur. Almost P1 million has been spent on advertisements that have been attacking the Villafuerte rivals in 2024 alone. The advertisers of the attacks, as shown by their Page Transparency, have been commenting positively on posts of the Villafuerte family. This long form has sparked conversations among the residents of Camarines Sur, both on social media and radio.
But more than the awareness and public discussion that this in-depth story triggered, I am most proud of the research that went into it.
Many believe that journalists merely present and organize facts that are openly and easily available. What they don’t fully grasp and appreciate is the amount of patience that a journalist needs to seek the truth behind these facts. The numerous back-and-forth verification and triangulation to ensure the accuracy of data, the bittersweet acceptance that not all interview requests will be answered or granted, and the constant battle against time whenever a deadline approaches are just some of the challenges that journalists face.
My view of, and respect for, journalists have grown even more after this experience. Until now, I still can’t confidently say that I am a journalism student. It’s not because of how other people view my college degree, but because I feel that journalism is too prestigious and that I don’t yet deserve to be called a journalist. I still have a lot to prove to be called one. – Rappler.com
Angelee Kaye Abelinde, a campus journalist from Naga City, is a second-year Journalism student of Bicol University and the current copy editor of The Bicol Universitarian. She was an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow for 2024.