I’ve been inspired. I feel like I am free now. I feel like I am significant and necessary. I feel like I have been given a new lease on life, hope and passion. In short: I feel excited.
For some time I had given up hope and declared damnation to the field of journalism and/or the mass media. I thought, “No one cares about anything significant, so why bother trying to teach them?” I felt defeated.
Journalism, to me, is the art-yes, art-of reporting the truth about the woes and yays of the world. Significant issues being brought into the light to spark thought, discussion and heaven forbid — controversy.
So, for the longest time I tried my hardest to bring about issues that all people should be concerned about-or at least know two things about – but that has never been terribly successful.
And every time I flip on the television I am shelled with more news about entertainment and sports, oh yeah and the ever-exciting car chases. Sure the news reports on worldwide issues-for about a minute-but the reports are often slanted and incomplete.
So there comes a point where admitting defeat seems like the only option.
Then it happened. I took a trip. And I have yet to return!
I spent five days with 59 other journalists who held the same views and standards to our type of “art.”
They called it the Environmental Journalism Academy. We were given staffs, cameras, topics and interviews. The objective: report on the given environmental issues and create a publication. It was long. It was intense. But we got through it and were extremely proud. The most beautiful thing about it was that we were journalists. Not advocates or activists, but journalists. Our philosophy: let the truth speak for itself, let the reader decide.
But it was at the culmination of our intense voyage that we got our greatest inspiration of all.
Amy Goodman, radio broadcast journalist for Pacifica Radio, gave a speech that has forever moved me.
As a broadcast journalist, Goodman – who hosts “Democracy Now!” – has done extensive reporting all over the world, from Africa to Asia, to right here in the U.S. She was a key journalist covering the Indonesian occupation in East Timor where 200,000 Timorese people were killed by the Indonesian military-which received military assistance from the U.S. She was even caught in the middle of a large massacre in East Timor where she was almost killed. This woman was persistent, she knew what needed to be exposed and heard. She got the real story.
After hearing all of her stories, I thought “Wow, what a brave and strong woman.” I had to talk to her.
The one thing that I needed to hear from her was how she found the strength not to give up. She said to me, “Your work is significant, with your camera – you can capture so much. Images stay with people, so make them important. With your words, you have the power to impact. Don’t give up. No matter how frustrated you get, you will see your significance eventually.”
I have not been able to get off the cloud she put me on. The future holds so much if only I feel this way forever. I no longer feel defeated and I see, once again, all the beauty and virtue in journalism. I will be an awesome journalist — a true journalist — even if it kills me. I feel inspired and I only hope that I can serve you justly and that I never come down. Peace out.
Jennifer Contreras, a senior photojournalism major, is photography editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at kinipela_peace@yahoo.com.
