By FRANCISCO DURAN ROSILLO/ GOOGLE BLOGGER
My life was dedicated to Mass Media. Since I was 13 years old, I wrote in the local newspaper, and I broadcast international news for five minutes on a local radio station that belonged to my uncle. That sparked my decision to study Mass Media.
When I moved to Monterrey, Mexico, in summer of 1982, I attended a Spanish Grammar class in as my first college class. The teacher was surprised with my essay on the first class day. At the end of the class, he invited me to drink a cup of coffee, It turned out that, he was the editor of the largest local newspaper and he needed somebody to writes stories about murders in a Truman Capote style.
I did not hesitate, that same afternoon I was in the newsroom meeting the rest of the reporters and editors. It was an exciting experience.
Some of them made fun of me because before I left to cover a story, I needed to check a map on the wall and carry a small one in my pocket to be at the right place. Monterrey is the third largest city in Mexico, and I came from a very small town. So when the other reporters made fun of me because I was not able to locate the scene o of the story right away, they laughed.
Their jokes motivated me to do my job better than anyone. A few months later, Ramon Alberto Garza, the editor of the newspaper told me: “Frank, look for a small used car. We’ll look at the possibility of help you to pay for it.” I replied, “Thank you but I do not need a car to write good stories, Please pay my college tuition and I’m sure I will write better every day.”
Ramon Alberto Garza, my editor, shook my hand and told me, “Deal”. I learned a lot from that experience, mostly because the criminal page was the last one to close in the daily edition. So, I was always writing on deadline.. But I enhanced my writing skills reading. No one become a good writer without reading everyday.
Later, I was invited to work in Television as investigative reporter. Later I was invited to work in a project of Turner Broadcasting International as they launched TNT Latin America and Cartoon Network.
The experience was great because I was producing small documentaries and promotions. So when I was working on news some teachers told me the big picture. “Francisco, when you write a story about a murder, for example begin, the opposite way than the movies do. You know movies begin with a small detail and after few minutes describe the murder. But in the news you need to describe the fact first, prioritizing the motives and the 6 W question answers, and the trivial details at the end”.
So when I went to work for the movies channel, TNT, my experience as a news reporter helped me to put the “punch” in the promos about the action movies.
My life has been dedicated totally to the mass media. Since summer of 1973 to the summer of 2009, I have worked 15 years in newspapers and radio, 21 for television.
Now that I am almost 50, I have to recognize that mass media prefers the energy of young people- and notoriously dislike “baby boomers.”
If I explain that is because I see the difference. When I worked on the newspaper, I had the opportunity to do well at school and learning to make fewer spelling and composition mistakes. I learned to write clean stories on the typewriter. In fact, you can-not write for the newspaper if you have not learned how to use the keyboard and type two paragraphs with your eyes closed.
My frustration is that now people can become the host of a prime time television show without reading a book and with only a minimal understanding of meaning of the words “talented host.” I tell my son that his generation belongs to a group of kids who don’t analyze the meaning of words. Sick minds use the technological advances to plan new sick words in their minds like sex text. I am not opposed to new technology contributing words to the vocabulary, but we need to approach technology more in the educational field. I don’t want the next generation have to check Twitter to answer a basic question.
Reading is a workout for your brain, and writing is like a body building, it puts more muscle in your brain. Cutting words to answer very fast a text message or twitt what I think about the new health plan, is not a logical way to participate in the decision process. Or a polemic way go determine a educated society.
I think values and points of view are important in my education because it is what I am handing down to my son. If I were to my son to be educated by the malicious minds behind Facebook, or Twitter, I would create a parasite that will be dependant what others say and not on his own point of view based in his good education.
When he comes back from school and find me reading and doing my homework, he is understanding me more. He is perplexed that I am going for my second college bachelor degree; in a language it is not my native tonge. But I believe this is the way to persuade our kids to do more than us.
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