I am used to subscribe the Philippine Star every Friday and for a very
long time of my perusal to the paper, all I seek for are the juices of the
article, the message been delivered by the reporter, and the way the penman
bloom florals out of his unlimited vocabulary. All I want are the substantial
jewels and diamonds, I sloppily disregarded those petty pearls aside.
But with the introduction of Mr. Felix Cabahug on the concept of visual
journalism, my interest on kilometric paragraphs and amazing syntaxes were
suddenly diverted to various visual aesthetics applied on the paper by a new
breed of journalist inoculated to my consciousness concerning the profession.
The training I have as a multimedia journalism student in PUP was
elaborately diversified from being a simple news writer, feature writer, news
reporter, and editor to a more complex form of the business, visual journalism.
Before making a research about the stuff, all I perceive is that it is a
combination of the journalism principles of data gathering, writing, and
reporting fused with creative and elaborate art to make it more palatable to
the consumers. I presumed that any sort of artistic touch that is utilized to
present journalistic facts is therefore a form of visual journalism.
In an activity we’ve made, we are tasked to scramble for published
matter over the pile of inked papers that fits best for the definition of
visual journalism. Yes, the petty pearls I supposed before was being made as
the center of our discussion.
For this time, I set aside my hunger for information and go with the
flow as we hunt for the disregarded treasures of my yesterdays.
From that activity akin to a treasure hunt, I discover how bright these visual arts stood out from the rest of the monotony. I discover then that those pearls I supposed as mere fancy is perhaps equally valuable and priceless as the other gems.
From the catchy masthead, bold headlines, and unique typographies to wonderful shots, black and white photographs, and sketches, entertaining photo essays, creative listicles and colorful infographics, I will regret if I will never confess on how I’m blinded for a very long time to the value of this visual aids and furthermore, for separating them kilometers apart from intensive articles.
Now I’m facing my consequences for neglecting them before. For a whole
semester, I need to study them and pass a course about it. But I don’t actually
consider it as a burden; in fact, I’m inspired to do such stuffs because I will
have the opportunity to unleash my artistic side in reserve of my reportorial
skills.
I’m excited to learn more about the art of journalism through visual
aesthetics, to make graphics out of raw data and to produce work of arts as
precious as pearls. I could have underrated before visuals as simple ornaments
on various media platforms, for thinking that they don’t value for readers, and
that they are just pure crap out of the treasure box.
I am indeed wrong and in one semester, I just pray that it would not
oppress me just to pay their price for underestimating these treasures in
disguise.
