Once a Reporter, Always a Reporter.

     I interviewed one of the reporters in Radyo Inquirer, the site where I am currently having my on the job training. She is Mrs. Donabelle Dominguez Cargullo. She is known for her screen name Dona Dominguez. Mrs. Dominguez is now a Desk Supervisor in Radyo Inquirer. She was once a field reporter before she was promoted to being a Desk Supervisor. She started to work in the media industry way back in the year 2003. When I had the chance to interview her, it’s like we are just having a friendly conversation. I tried to ask her about the source-reporter relationship but she doesn’t have idea about it. All she knows is that it is about the relationship of the reporter and the source of the news that he/she had gathered and how a reporter treats his/her source.

     To make our conversation a little longer, I added some follow up questions. Since she is the Desk Supervisor, she is the one in charge in doing the newsbreak. I asked her some questions like, “how do you choose the news that you are going to broadcast in the news break”. She had so many answers and some of those are these; news gathered by their reporters, information/reported news in an interview whether phone patch or recorded and most especially reports on dot net, the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newspaper which is their official newspaper, that they haven’t reported yet.

     I also asked her experiences of being a field reporter before. She told me that she was once assigned in the police beat. In that beat, you will experience covering news that involves massacre, murder and any crime that has something to do with killing a person. She also told me that it was her first time to see a bloody dead victim when she was on the beat. She also covered fire reports and was also experience reporting live in front of a burning house. In police beat, all that you don’t want to see, you will get the chance to see it whether you like it or not. After telling me her experiences being assigned in the police beat, she also told me her experiences in the major beats. In this kind of beat, you will have the chance to interview different government officials especially senators. She told me that she had already experienced having a conversatAnother question that I asked Mrs. Domiguez is the responsibility of a reporter. She said that you should be sure of the facts and details that you will report. You should be aware that no matter what you say, the public will believe and rely on what have you said. Get the right news first before you open your mouth and tell the public about it. Your news should be credible enough. If you happen to report a wrong detail, you can correct it in your second report but most of the time, there would be problem their because what if your listener is already not listening in your second report anymore, how can she know that you have corrected it. So, being a reporter is totally a big responsibility because people will depend on what your mouth will say.ion with the former president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

     Another question that I asked is what are the common problems of reporter are. Her answer in this question is limited. She just said that the most common problem that a reporter could face is how to gather reports. Sometimes, not all news has source. Sometimes, people who are involved in the news won’t provide other information. If that would be the case, reporters will find it hard to know what is really behind the story.

     I learned a lot on my interview with Mrs. Dona. Being a reporter is a serious job. You should be aware of all the happenings around you for you to produce a story that you will report because those news won’t come to you, you are the one responsible to look for it and get it first.