Making Money Out of Nothing At All (Or maybe there is something, really …)

What would journalists do in order to earn money?

First and foremost, they will fulfil their job with utmost sincerity. They will exercise their profession according to what they have studied in their four years in college. They will gather facts from all sources available, may it be from the authorities or from the common people. They will cover events, may it be a prestigious or an outrageous one. They will write news and feature stories according to the facts that they have gathered. Lastly, they will pronounce their loyalty to the profession that they have chosen to live with.

But those ‘sacrifices’ are paid in slim but not sexy nor beautiful figures.

The amount of money that a journalist receives on one payday is not really sufficient, honestly speaking. To those who are already in the field, journalists or media practitioners enclose themselves inside the payslips that would not probably buy them a new Black Berry mobile phone at once. This is the reality, and it is one of the reasons why only few people prefer to be a journalist.

This reality, however, becomes the center of attention of the people who are in power and position, the politicians. Since journalists are experiencing such financial problems, according to the article Pens for Hire by Yvonne T. Chua, some or maybe most politicians hire journalists so that the latter can be part of the politicians’ so –called press release teams. Journalists are of course getting offers from politicians to accept PR jobs in exchange of large sum of money, goods like cars, gadgets, or maybe even travel abroad tickets. These kinds of bribes are really mouth –watering, and tempting on the part of someone who is earning money enough to support only his daily meals. But to think about it, the Code of Ethics of the Journalist in the Philippines does not allow journalists to take jobs that would cause conflict of interest upon the job and also upon his profession as a journalist. Therefore, once a journalist decided to take a PR job from a politician, then his or her credibility as a journalist is already tainted while he or she is trying to purify the image and credibility of his new boss, the politician.

Another thing that would enable a journalist to have a better lifestyle than he has as a common journalist is to accept endorsement projects for medicines, personal care kit, energy drinks, and even alcoholic drinks. Today, on our current media, we have a lot of journalists or media practitioners who are already flaunting their faces on TV not as reporters of news but as product endorsers. Look at Mel Tiangco, she is the current news anchor for the daily six p.m. news 24 Oras. But aside from being a light giver to the public, she is also an endorser for a certain medicine and also for laundry soap. In the article And Now, A word from our newscasters …, list of media practitioners who have found their spots from the world of endorsements. They would say that there’s nothing wrong about their intention to serve as an endorser for a certain product, but the issue here is that, again, it is a conflict of interest. They would endorse products and then their news is already affected, especially the way they would deliver the news to the public. They would have biases, and it will be inevitable on the part of the media men turned endorsers.

Lastly, in order to earn more money, journalists would write news that would certainly sell regardless its’ quality. In short, journalists would likely let the real news suffer and be deteriorated. Sensationalism becomes the issue here. Sensationalized news sells, right? Just like the Flor Contemplacion issue. According to the article Furor over Flor by Danilova Molintas, “politicians, rebels, filmmakers, and reporters” feasted upon the said tragedy. Especially the journalists or the reporters, they were so much obsessed with the issue that even the news which were not verified (by the authority) became the juiciest meat in the daily meal of news of the Filipino audiences.
There is nothing wrong about dreaming to have more than what you are having now, but to attempt to have more than what you have now signals greed, which is one of the deadliest sins of man. Journalists might dream for a better life than what he is having now, but it doesn’t mean that he should already resort into doing things that would just interfere with the profession that he has sworn loyalty with. But I would just like to give a piece of advice for the publishers and producers.

“If you have the heart for this profession, and you want to maintain the credibility of your pool of writers/ reporters, why don’t you resort into a plan of salary increase? Well, a salary increase might hurt your pockets lesser than what a newspaper’s loss of readership can do, right?”

References:
Chua, Yvonne T. (April –June 1997). Pens for Hire. i Magazine.
Molintas, Danilova (April –June 1995). Furor over Flor. i Magazine.
(April –June 1997). And now, A Word from our Newscasters. i Magazine.