Remembering 9-11 bombing...

World Trade Centre before September 11 attack in 2001.




















September 11, 2001 bombing in New York City.















Aerial view of the twin tower after the bombing.
















Mourning candles for the victims of the 9-11 bombing attack.











Candles and flowers offered to the victims.









Bush mourns in remembering the 9-11 bombing attack.








photos courtesy of http://images.search.yahoo/com
www.images.google.com
http://news.monstercritics.com

Blogging: A Sign Of Death of Newspapers?

It cannot be denied that newspapers are now declining in the circulation. Less people are now reading newspapers since the world of internet existed. Internet gives a lot of services to the users and it fits to the attitude of the youth, who is the most numbered users of internet. Internet do not bore the youth while newspapers do. One of the services that internet offers is the capability of the users to publish what they want to say or what they want to inform. This service is called "blogging".

Blogging is the way to express opinions, inform, and educate people. Through blogging, there are lots of news stories posted by bloggers, and not only by journalists. According to Rolando Fernandez, professor of College of Arts and Communication in University of the Philippines Baguio and the Editor-in-Chief of Inquirer Northern Luzon, journalists get some tips of news stories from many different bloggers. Most often, bloggers posted news articles faster than the journalists. In some ways, bloggers are also performing the work of real journalists.

Professor Fernandez said that many practitioners have their own blogs because of the advantages they can get from it. He said that through blogs, journalists can write the whole story of their news reports even if it has been prohibited from publishing in newspapers. He added that practitioners can also elaborate and write behind the scenes of Malacañang through blogging because of less restrictions in using the internet

Blogging brings many changes to the world of journalism. Because of blogging, different information are more accessible and updated than in newspapers. Blogging also lessen the works of journalists. According to Professor Fernandez, a reporter can be a writer, an editor and a publisher at the same time. He also said that because of blogging, an office can be somewhere else even only in the room. With that, less work is done by the practitioners.

Even if blogging is more advantaged than newspaper in disseminating information, Professor Fernandez said that blogging is more of help to journalism and it should not be seen as a threat to the profession. He cleared that newspapers will survive for still a long time despite of its crisis situation right now, which is the declination of its subscriptions.

It Was Not Easy...

It's not easy to be an environmental journalist. That was I found out. Two weeks ago, I had to surf in the internet to research on the environmental issues circling in Baguio City. It was a class requirement to come up with an environmental news article. That wasn't the first time. The first time I did was about the landslide incident occured along Magsaysay Road. Our teacher criticized our works and he really did it well. The problem in my news article was the organization of the facts I gathered. The transitions of my story was muddled. Although I interviewed my sources personally, I had the problem of using what I got since I did not know where to start. The single sentence in each paragraph in my story was also criticized. I realized that it was not the journalistic style of writing.
The second time was about tree-cutting in Baguio City to prevent further pests infestations that caused the death of many trees in the city. There were previous stories about it, which I utilized as background of my news story. I also did interview my sources and I got many information from them. The problem was my syntax and the flow of the story. I also thought that my story had a weak slant. The lead was also frail.
With these experiences, I realized that it is so hard to deal with the environment.It is not really easy to find a good environmental issue that would catch the attention of the readers. In addition, it is so tough to write the story after data gthering. The thought solution for this is practice, practice, practice..?..Although it is so difficult to deal with accuracy, I'll leave myself with no choice. Journalism is dealing with accuracy, and so I will.

It Was Not That Easy...

It's not easy to be an environmental journalist. That was I found out. Two weeks ago, I had to surf in the internet to research on the environmental issues circling in Baguio City. It was a class requirement to come up with an environmental news article. That wasn't the first time. The first time I did was about the landslide incident occured along Magsaysay Road. Our teacher criticized our works and he really did it well. The problem in my news article was the organization of the facts I gathered. The transitions of my story was muddled. Although I interviewed my sources personally, I had the problem of using what I got since I did not know where to start. The single sentence in each paragraph in my story was also criticized. I realized that it was not the journalistic style of writing.
The second time was about tree-cutting in Baguio City to prevent further pests infestations that caused the death of many trees in the city. There were previous stories about it, which I utilized as background of my news story. I also did interview my sources and I got many information from them. The problem was my syntax and the flow of the story. I also thought that my story had a weak slant. The lead was also frail.
With these experiences, I realized that it is so hard to deal with the environment.It is not really easy to find a good environmental issue that would catch the attention of the readers. In addition, it is so tough to write the story after data gthering. The thought solution for this is practice, practice, practice..?..Although it is so difficult to deal with accuracy, I'll leave myself with no choice. Journalism is dealing with accuracy, and so I will.

State Of Her Own Praise!!!

It is ironic that a State of Nation Address (SONA) of a president became a limelight event for her and not for the people. On July 24, the SONA made by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo turned into her most promising day where she was the superheroine. The content of her SONA was her ever new empty promises and self-appraisal to all she had done in the country. It was obvious that she lifted her own chair in her SONA in telling the people her accomplishments during her administration. As a president, it was just natural to rule the country in progress in all aspects of the state. Personally, there's no need to give so much emphasis on the good works,if there's any real good works done needed most by the people. Let good deeds talk for themselves. Arroyo should gave more focus on her deficiencies from the start of her presidency up to the present instead of proclaiming out loud her administration. She should elaborate her unfulfilled promises and better explain why they became such.

Arroyo was exaggerating things when her SONA security almost like a security of a "goddess". What was that for? Of course maybe to ensure the safety of her threatened life. That meant many of her people do not like her or even worse.Why? She did not even mentioned her relationship with her own people in her SONA. She was very confident to say to all her rivals that she was game with a fight. She was very certain to say that because she could control her troops and some people behind supporting her. What a PRESIDENT!!!

I do not know what really came into Gloria's mind to uplift her own chair, but do not have the courage to admit her lackings on the other hand. Gloria should know how to face her people without shields. She should learn to admit her mistakes and her failures. And most important she should learn to fulfill her promises. If she really can't, better lock her mouth.

My First Ever Frustration As An Intern...

Last week, I accidentally attended the pressconference of Baguio City Mayor Braulio Yaranon. I was supposed to interview the Mayor regarding the landslide issues, but his secretary asked me to just join the pressconference that day. I went outside the office were there many people waiting for the Mayor. Ever since, I did not have the interest to attend pressconferences, but that day when I realized that those people outside came from different media agencies, I became interested to it. When the Mayor arrived, all of us hurriedly followed him inside the City Hall. It was my first time to attend a presscon!Since I brought my recorder, I started to record all the mayor had said. The presscon was about his clarification regarding the suspension issue in the Mayor's office. In that issue, Baguio City Vice-Mayor Reinaldo Bautista was also involved because according to the Mayor, V-Mayor Bautista was already implementing the decision of the president even if he had no authority. After I recorded the important things that the Mayor said, I hurriedly went to the Vice-Mayor's office to get his side of tthat issue. Unfortunately, he wasn't ther. I went to the DILG's office to verify if they really did not issue an implementation order of the suspension of the Mayor. I only interviewd DILG City Director Jose Rapanut through telephone.
I still couldn't finish the story because I still did not have the side of the Vice-Mayor. After my class, I returned to the V-Mayor's office. His secretary said the V-Mayor had a presscon regarding that issue. I realized the presscon was when I had my class already. I still tried to finish my story, but as I went on, I realized that there were many questions arising. There were also information I gathered, which I did not have the time to verify. I had doubts to give the story to my editor in Philippine Daily Inquirer and I already did not meet the deadline so I decided to just keep the story in my bag.
On my way home, I thought of the whole day without having my breakfast and lunch for nothing. I just regret my time spent in trying to complete that story. I ended up with nothing.
Somehow, it was a lesson to me. I should know how to race with the deadline and with other reporters in making news.

Just comments...

It's not for me to criticize the evening news show of channel 2 ( ABS-CBN),which is Bandila, since I did not have the chances to watch it for several times. Baguio City was hit by strong typhoon last week so I did not able to go to my neighbor to watch Bandila. Unfortunately, we do not have television in our boarding house.
Before the typhoon came, I happened to watch Bandila once. It was about news. Bandila was hosted by anchors Korina Sanchez, Ces Drilon and Henry Omaga Dias. The anchors presented the news accurately and effectively. Their credibilities as news anchors added to the credibility of their program. They gave comments in-between news reports. Their program became news/commentary program.
For me their in-between comments made their show boring because as a televiewer, I am not interested on their comments. I also do not care about their sides. All I am after is the whole story of the news so I have no interests on what they say on the issues. Another thing,I was expecting late news in the program, but I was disappointed. Most news were already aired in the earlier news programs of the channel.
I also expecting some exciting and extraordinary news to be featured in that program so it might get my attention and to waken me up in some way, that's why it is late night news program. Personally I found Bandila as a boring late news program. it would suit during earlier schedule because of its content and style. It is not exciting and worthy to watch during sleepy hours. Besides it seems like the program is very much scripted in some ways like the comments made by the anchors in-between the news story. It felt like they just reading from a sript all what they say. Another thing is that during those hours which all people are sleeping and hurrying to got to bed, as a televiewer I want more straight news program where I could feel the rush delivery yet accurate news reports rather than news/commentary program.
For me, Bandila is not that interseting and worthy to watch compared to other late night programs like Imbestigador or Reporter's Notebook or the likes. Bandila delivers news accurately, but not fresh. It is not suitable to be aired fduring late hours because it may bore the televiewers.

The Return of Superman!

I sometimes get tired of journalism. I sometimes get weary of following some politicians, feeling-like-celebrity people and other important figures for an interview valuable to my stories I make. How I imagine how complicated to run after some busy people just ton clarify different issues for the people to know what is really the story. I sometimes experienced to interview bigheaded and short-tempered interviewees. In these kind of situations when things are becoming more complicated, I just have to extend the limit of my patience to make our conversation smooth and professional. The waste of time waiting for someone no matter what the weather is is a burden I just have to survive just to get the fruit of my story. My spirit as an aspiring journalist fades little by little.
When I happened to watch the movie “Superman Returns” last week, it brought change in me. The leading lady in the movie is a Pulitzer awardee journalist. She has all the personalities that a journalist should have; aggressive, strong and powerful. Her eagerness to know behind the “black-out issue” in the story inspires me again to finish what I have started in the world of journalism. Despite of the contradictions she received from her editor in covering that black-out issue, she did not stop to dig information and data about it. The inspiration I got in the film is that even the best journalist still experienced hard time in gathering news and difficult time in dealing with other people. The film somehow uplifts my spirit as an aspiring journalist because of the conflicts I saw in the film. I realized that I have still more to experience in this world where everybody is persevere, patient and has enough courage to accept his/her fate as a journalist. After all, superman is SUPER to me.