Experience @ The Bulletin

Last Friday was another awe-inspiring moment for us, senior journalism students of Letran.  We had this out-of –classroom activity, particularly an exposure visit at the Manila Bulletin.

 Together with my journ buddies, John and Jonathan, we went to the Manila Bulletin to meet the early comers and our mentor and Bulletin’s Technews Editor, Sir Art Samaniego.

There we witnessed how stressful it was working in either tabloid or broadsheet.  In order to function well, people inside the newsroom must work in a system.

And when we entered the doors of the newsroom, we saw how that system worked.

Obviously, the field reporters were nowhere to be found because most of them are assigned in their respective beats.  

The layout artists, who I considered the shock absorbers of the editors, play a vital role in the system because they are tasked to do the layout stuff and editing. Therefore, a layout artist possesses significance and has a great responsibility on his shoulders. 

  

Also, the editors, who are in charge of revising and editing articles sent by the reporters, were among the busiest – and most quiet people in the office.   They were also the most accomplished   (in terms of age and working experience) inside the newsroom.

And of course, there was Ma’am Fil Sionil, the managing editor of the Manila Bulletin. Stunned by her presence, we were left speechless.  But unlike those typical editors who had this intimidating presence, Ma’am Fil was a lot different. She was very soft-spoken and seemed to be approachable. She even advised us to double our efforts in reading and writing to improve our craft, which would be helpful in our chosen profession.

After all, it was another great learning yet humbling experience for me.

Great because I was able to travel around the Bulletin and more importantly, it provided me a forecast of what to expect in the future. Humbling because I admit I still have a lot of things to work on before pursuing a career in the print industry.

This exposure visit was exactly an experience that I wanted to have in my collegiate years. It was a lecture that will never be learned inside a classroom. I just hope there will be more of this to come.