EXPERIENCE as they say is the best teacher, and in my four years here in the University, I have proven that premise right.
Degrees offered here may be diverse but they share a common ground. More than the lectures and exams, it is on the spot training that holds more foundation for us students.
Majority of the courses require a laboratory subject, where they apply all the principles they have learned during the lectures they previously had. Apart from these burdensome yet educational subjects, some still have what many identify as internship, where they get a slap of the kind of world they would they will soon be facing outside the four corners of the University.
But it is quite sad to note that this is not the intensive kind of curriculum that every Thomasian receives. What about those who solely have lecture subjects in their list?
My communication theory professor told us way back first year that though we don’t really have a lab subject, we should consider the world as our one big playground. She also told us that we are studying about abstract and dynamic things which should be understood in the light of identifying with events, people’s attitudes and behaviors, and making sense of them.
If this is the case, then it is quite important for a journalism student to be a campus journalist because true to what many people say, it is in a publication where you may get a glimpse of a media man’s real world. Being a campus journalist myself, I could attest that there are many things in class that are better understood when you finally step out of the room and see things for yourself.
Although here in the University the campus press is projected to be lively, looking closely, it seems to be the other way around. It seems to be trapped in the medieval ages. Some school administrators and students alike were found to be ignorant of the Campus Journalism Act (CJA) of 1991 that a handful of administrators insist on meddling in the publications’ affairs and getting a seat during the final editing.
This hinders every publication’s and campus journalist’s growth as well, opening their eyes to an environment that is controlled and where free speech is curtailed.
Writing, more than a career, is an art. It can be expressed not only by journalists in every distressing or blissful moment. As what they say anyone can write, and it is quite apprehensive if in the very educational institution where we should be molded and trained, we are denied of our rights and our avenues for self-expression are blocked.
