Since 1997, PDI newsroom worth the trip for Silliman students

HOUR OF (NEWS) JUDGMENT One of the 3 p.m. story conferences in April had some special guests from Dumaguete City who got to “eavesdrop” into the making of the next day’s front page and other general news sections. Some of the editors joined the meeting online.

DUMAGUETE CITY, NEGROS ORIENTAL, Philippines — The Inquirer has been inspiring student journalists from the Silliman University College of Mass Communication since 1997.

Junior mass communication students would visit the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) headquarters as part of their annual tradition to drop by 10 media-related offices in the capital.

The Inquirer visit allows the students to interact with the paper’s editors or publisher and talk about the realities of journalism.

READ: Journalism that matters

Maya Angelique Jajalla, who joined Silliman MassCom’s annual exposure trip to media-related outfits like PDI in 2014, recalls she had always aspired to write for the Inquirer.

She decided to write as a correspondent for the Visayas Bureau after earning her degree. “[I was thinking that time,] if I wanted to become a journalist, I wanted to be one who writes ‘balanced news and fearless views.’”

‘Highly recommended’

The annual exposure trip has been classified as “not required but is highly recommended.”

With the consent of their parents, the students and their adviser search for cheap red-eye flights, and negotiate for promo group bookings in hostels in Makati, where most of the host companies are located.

For the next four days, they brave heavy traffic to get from one company to the next on vans or buses.

For not a few of these students, most of whom come from Visayas and Mindanao, it’s their first plane ride ever, or their first trip to Manila.

For this visit, the Inquirer editors and top executives, while having daily deadlines for the broadsheet, make time to meet with the students who fly all the way from Dumaguete.

“I appreciated the fact that the publisher Juliet Javellana, executive editor Volt Contreras, and managing editor Robert Jaworski Abaño were very patient with us, and made sure to answer our questions. I felt that they genuinely wanted us to learn, and have a good grasp of what it is to work in the front lines,” said senior student Timothy Libres, who visited PDI in April this year.

Long sessions

The tradition started in 1997 when students were welcomed by then editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, who ensured that the editors/managers were at their desks to answer the students’ questions as they toured around the newsroom, and the printing press at the back of the main building.

The tradition of the PDI exposure trip also extended through the leadership of publisher Isagani Yambot, whom the Silliman students last met in early February 2012. That time, Yambot told the group he was longing to “slow down” and asked if he could teach journalism at Silliman. The students squealed with delight, but thought he was joking.

A few weeks later, the students mourned the passing of Yambot. Magsanoc died in 2015.

From 2013 to 2014, the students were also fortunate to experience long sessions with law professor and succeeding Inquirer publisher Raul Pangalangan even during PDI’s usual crunch time, until Pangalangan moved on to join the International Criminal Court as judge in 2015.

Jajalla, now a practicing lawyer in Manila, recalls asking Pangalangan how the reality of advertisers affected PDI’s mission to deliver “balanced news, fearless views.” She asked if the adage “Do not bite the hand that feeds you” applied to the Inquirer.

“Dean Pangalangan generously shared his insights, and while I no longer remember his exact words, I remember that years later, even now, that conversation [during our field trip] shaped my belief: If you remain steadfast in your vision, live by it, and make it known through your words and actions, it is highly unlikely for any external factor to stop you from fulfilling your purpose.”

On another visit, editors Nilo Paurom, a Silliman alumnus, and John Nery hosted the students at the PDI newsroom and shared their extensive experience in the field.

“Our visit to PDI showed me the care and effort it takes to put out a single issue. Seeing how PDI does their story conference, I saw how each decision and element was carefully deliberated on, and made with passion,” says Natania Shay Du, who was editor in chief of the Weekly Sillimanian that time.

“I think only a few newsrooms allow students in on such a crucial process with the top brass, but PDI did not shy away from showing us the realities, something that further inspired me to pursue journalism,” she adds.

Student Angelique Kara Sorbito echoes that sentiment, noting how the stories the public finally reads the next day were meticulously researched and written, then diligently reviewed by a team of editors during the story conference.

‘Higher appreciation’

For senior mass communication student Alysson Palencia, technology has helped the clockwork process of producing a newspaper at the same time each day, recalling the Zoom meeting among the work-from-home editors that the students were allowed to witness as they discussed finalizing the “lista” or lineup of stories coming out the next day.

After watching one such story conference where editors and reporters discussed the pros and cons of each story, one student said he now had a “higher appreciation for people in the newsroom” and the work process they go through to be the best at their profession.

“PDI clearly values the perspectives of the reporters in the field,” concludes another student, Franz Jullian Sevilla.

Irma Faith Pal has been an Inquirer correspondent since 2001. She earned her communications degree from UP Diliman, and an MA in environmental studies from Brown University. She has been teaching at Silliman University since 1994, and is also the current managing editor of a weekly community paper, Dumaguete MetroPost.