From Both Sides Now

From Both Sides Now
A journalist compares working abroad with working at home
By Patty Adversario

HAD just come back from living and working abroad for almost eight years and was working one night at the newsdesk in one of the local dailies.
Suddenly, the lights went out and colleagues used the break either to smoke or to eat.
A co-worker later offered ice cream in the dark. What was that for, I asked. Oh, nothing. It’s just to celebrate the blackout, he said.
That incident set off the reminder that I was really back in Manila, a far cry from the foreign newsrooms where I had worked for previously and where the environment was such that going for a full-hour dinner break—even if it was well within my rights—made me feel guilty.
It wasn’t as much as the workload—my Chinese col-leagues worked 12 hours, usually—as the intense work ethics. I had always thought we could learn a few lessons from their diligence while we, in turn, could give them a few pointers on how to take life’s surprises in stride.
Looking back at my life as a journalist working abroad, a few memories stand out.

Whites rule
I worked for English newspapers while I was in Hong Kong, first as a reporter and much later, as a sub-editor. English papers employ a number of white people or what they call “native English speakers.”
The whites, who usually come from the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, usually hold the senior positions in the newsroom.  A handful of Asians like myself hold mid-level positions. The non-Chinese Asian editors usually come from Asian countries where English is widely spoken. Apart from the Philippines, these include India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore.
In general, gweilos (meaning “foreign devils” in Chinese, referring to white foreigners) like to talk loud and sound important to create an impression. They can easily do that in Hong Kong where most local Chinese don’t have the facility for the language.  Hong Kong people, even the educated ones, have a strong colonial mentality.
Whites are superior in Hong Kong (and in the newsroom) even if a white person’s qualifications to cover and handle Asian news may be in doubt. Why do I say this? Any cocky white person who walks into the newsroom looking for a job after months of playing tourist all over Asia can easily get one.
Why, for instance, should a European whose knowledge of China doesn’t go beyond cheap shopping in Shenzhen be made to handle China news? Simple. He’s white and so is the guy who hired him.

Singapore’s way
Singaporean newsrooms, however, tend to be more discerning. Singaporeans have a better command of the English language than the Chinese and have a stronger sense of national pride.
I was with The Straits Times for three years as a senior reporter for the business desk. It was—and is—an unwritten policy of the paper not to have foreign journalists cover sensitive beats such as politics, defense, and foreign news. Those beats are strictly for local journalists.
Of course, it was also common knowledge during my stint there that some of the top editors in the paper were former senior officials in government, including the Internal Security Department. Singaporeans passionately believe that nobody but Singaporeans themselves know what’s best for them, and no foreigner can tell them what to write and how to write it.
During my stint with The Straits Times, I had an Australian colleague who certainly had newsroom experience but wasn’t able to fit into the Singaporean culture. He found it difficult to get information and found the working environment too stifling. He kept swearing each time he couldn’t find any news source to speak with, and that happened almost every day.
He couldn’t make sense of Singaporean English, forget-ting that the locals found it equally difficult to understand his Australian twang. In less than six months, he was gone. My Singaporean colleagues couldn’t care less.

Keeping tabs
A journalist’s paycheck is better in newspapers outside the Philippines but you have to earn every cent of it. Like any other business, newspapers abroad harp on productivity.
At the Hong Kong newspaper where I worked as copy editor, senior editors kept tabs on the total number of stories and lead stories I edited every night.
At The Straits Times in Singapore where I worked as a reporter, my computer terminal kept track of how long it took me to write a story as well as how many stories I wrote each day.
Everyone goes through a productivity assessment period every year and during such times, my editor would show me detailed printouts of the work that I did in the past six months. It was unnerving to know that one was always being watched.
The upside here is there are objective standards for assessing your work. You are not assessed based on who you know in the newsroom or on whether you pander to the senior editors’ egos.
The downside is that the ratings system does not take into account other factors, such as the length of the copy or the effort and time needed to edit a bad one.

Old, reliable hardware
Resourcefulness and a probing, inquisitive, and aggressive approach to gathering news seem to be rare traits among journalists in Hong Kong. My students at the University of the Philippines where I used to teach journalism would do better in the profession than most Hong Kong local journalists.
A reporter was once asked why his story was too short. He replied, “It’s because the press release is short.”
Reporters too often did not know how to ask follow-up questions. What was frustrating was they didn’t know how to ask even the most obvious questions!
For instance, a reporter wrote in her story that an emission-free carbon-fired power plant would soon begin operating. Nowhere in the story did she say where the plant was located. Asked where, she mumbled that the PR didn’t say! So we had to blame the PR then.
Beneath the veneer of advanced technology in the newsroom, I’d say that what still counts is the good old-fashioned hardware—an inquiring mind, a healthy curiosity, and a nose for news. Too often, these are left out in the preoccupation with slick software.
The newsroom where I worked had just replaced a whole batch of still perfectly functioning computer moni-tors with the latest ones that had flat panels. But did these improve the sense of urgency in meeting deadlines? Or the quality of the stories? Or even the quality of English in the copies? Nope.
Most nights, we’d still get a copy that said, “Hong Kong shares surged slightly.”

After working for various newspapers in Singapore and Hong Kong, Patty Adversario is back in the Philippines. She is now with the Cebu Daily News.

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