Treasures in Disguise

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.