Let’s Get Something Clear: Campus Journalists are Real Journalists, Too

Around November of the previous year, two of our staff underwent a one-month Campus Journalism training with up-and-coming young campus journalists in the country. The medium was done online and face-to-face. The subject matter navigated through the concept of campus journalism and transforming the subscribed notion of campus journalists as merely a team of documentation committees to a team of actual and dedicated journalists serving their immediate community.

The two staff who joined the training explained to the Editorial Board the essence of their participation in the College Publication. The Senior participant explained that “dili ni basta basta atong gi sudlan, kay we are not only supposed to make the good stuff show, also the other stuff the public needs to hear” [we are not here just for the sake of it, because we are not only presenting the positive narrative, the other aspects too that the public need to know].

A few weeks ago, a CASSayuran photojournalist was covering an international conference. She worked hard to take the best shots angling, selecting the best aperture and photo exposure for each camera click to produce the best image. She is always working hard as a photojournalist as the Head of the Department for Photojournalism in the Publication.

She explained to her writing correspondent partner then that she would pick out the best ten to 20 photos from the 200 photos captured just for the day. The Head’s selected photos will then be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief for approval before submitting to the layout artist for final corrections and watermarking and to the Social Media Manager for posting. The Photojournalist Head then explained that we must select the best images to be submitted and posted because we are not a documentation committee.

Whether as a writer or a photojournalist, Campus Journalists, colloquially referred to as the Campus Press, are painted as individuals who are responsible for uploading images from school gatherings or events on their Facebook or Instagram pages to increase the positive image of the student body or the School, or a particular administrator. As far as the Publication is concerned, that is the role of the members of the Documentation Committee. If a critical event is unfolding, Publication members will scatter to gather information, photographs, and testimonies and subsequently release Editorials, News Reports/Flashes, and all other exposures.

The training of a Campus Journalist is different. They are permanently wired to be curious and ready to go to the field and report to the public; because Campus Journalism is real journalism! These young journalists assemble discourses through the sentences they start and end or with every image they take. They are not only there to serve as documenters or public relations representatives or merely take on the title of Editors; instead, they serve as an independent voice with a critical role in shaping public discourse.

The former paragraph may latently elevate the status of Campus Journalists from individuals who consider photography their hobby. However, that is missing the point; there is nothing wrong with such a hobby. Albeit, the dichotomisation is helpful as it helps establish the role the Campus Journalists play in promoting democracy and the free exchange of ideas.

A beneficial point to start this idea of being real journalists, for example, is when the University of the Philippines - Los Baños' The Perspective published an article vis-a-vis thousands of individuals flocking to their campus because they have heard of receiving cash gifts from the Marcoses’. Another example is when CASSayuran would push out News Updates on typhoons/ turbulent weather-affected areas in Mindanao this year and the previous year. There are so many areas that Student-run Publications can enter that mainstream media would refuse to provide coverage because it does not generate substantial profit margins.

Meanwhile, steering close to Manila-centric Student-run publications, The Guidon of Ateneo De Manila University (then called Pandayan) suffered significant budget cuts when it took a political tone in its materials. Albeit, together with other Publications, which included the University of the Philippines’ Philippine Collegian, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila’s Hasik, the Mapua Institute of Technology’s Balawais and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ Ang Pahayagang Malaya fought to resist such suppression by going underground. All of this underground movement was during the peak of the Marcos dictatorial regime.

Albeit, subsequent to the dark years of Martial law, Campus Journalism took a drastic turn and is now being celebrated, in its legal sense, of course. Back on July 05, 1991, the Philippine Congress passed the Republic Act 7079 or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991, which virtually compels the “State to uphold and protect the freedom of the press even at the campus level and to promote the development and growth of campus journalism as a means of strengthening ethical values, encouraging critical and creative thinking, and developing moral character and personal discipline of the Filipino youth.”

Here we chose to phrase it as celebrated in the legal sense because, as far as Campus Journalists can determine, autonomy is more of a mystery. A 2021 Philippine Collegian news report underscored how the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) urged the Commission on Higher Education to Probe attacks on Campus Press. In their petition to the Commission, the guild cited violations of harassment, withholding of funds, libel cases against writers, administrative intervention and hundreds of other violations since 2010, all of which contradict the RA 7079 provisions.

Not too far from home, even in our Dakilang Pamantasan, when Campus Journalists try to publish controversial materials, they would earn the ire of the public. Silahis and CASSayuran are witnesses to public ire when they have previously released heated material angled towards the dark Marcos rule and dictatorship of the past. Conversely, in other Colleges, some members of the Publication are being filtered out and serve as mere aesthetics to their College, and of course, to satisfy the government requirement of having an active Student-run Publication.

As Campus Journalists, the beauty of our work is that we are not tied to any major corporation, nor do we have the need to fund our work since we are being paid by the students, or to some extent, the government, to publish works. We are not bound to have advertisements; all we ever do is investigate, write, and publish. Consequently, our job as Campus Journalists, especially now, is to be the harbingers of truth and help dismantle the powers of disinformation actors.

To that end, how are Student-run Publications ever genuine Student-run Publications when they are being filtered by the administration that is merely there for technical support? How are they genuine Student-run Publications when they merely serve as the Documentation Committee for the School or an entity?

Nonetheless, on this World Press Freedom Day in 2023, let us remember our Campus Journalist friends, who are real journalists, too.

About the Author

Reggy Bartido

Reggy H. Bartido is a Senior BA (Sociology) undergraduate student at the Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). Currently, Mr. Bartido is the Editor-in-Chief of CASSayuran - the Official Student Publication of the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) of MSU-IIT. Mr. Bartido's undergraduate thesis centres around Environmental Sociology studies and Sustainable Development. Additionally, he is keenly interested in Youth Studies and Political Sociology, where he continues exploring new insights and perspectives. Likewise, Mr. Bartido was a participant of the Ateneo School of Government and participate PH sponsored training on Campus Media: Media Ethics and Democracy in Action held at Ateneo De Manila University, last November 2022. The training was attended by 30 campus journalists over the country. Mr. Bartido was also given a participant status at the SAPA Mindanao Workshop for Journalism last February 2023 during the FEMSUSCO Meet.