The privilege of having the best job in the world (+audio).
Journalism, described by Gabriel García Márquez as the best profession in the world, is the closest thing I know to personal satisfaction. I came to this world without a conviction that it would be the most appropriate way to continue my studies after finishing my pre-university education.
See also: https://www.radio26.cu/2023/03/14/mirar-el-periodismo-con-ojos-de-contemporaneidad-audio-y-videos/
But, little by little, when I saw myself sitting in a university classroom with colleagues whom I admired from the first day, when I got tangled between the pages of a weekly newspaper where my name appeared reflected at the end of each journalistic work, as just food for my inordinate pride of beginner… I felt happy.
Then came the times of television, but nothing that surpassed the strange sensation of dominion of the world that radio gave me. By the vagaries of life I arrived at Radio 26 and fell in love with radio journalism.
Even in the difficult moments, of traveling without transportation, of walking the city from end to end looking for the right information, of fatigue and sleepless hours thinking about the best approach to the most complex issues, of meetings… even in those moments… I have loved my profession with passion.
Being a journalist entails sacrifice, understanding people and being part of what they feel without knowing them, it entails the necessary passion to defend a not-so-accepted idea on some thorny issue, it requires impartiality and a bit of ingenuity to make digestible complex issues that affect society on a daily basis.
To be a journalist, for me, is to appropriate the voice of the population and, using the journalistic techniques learned during years of studies and experiences, to raise it where everyone can hear it.
Journalism, beyond answering what, who, where, how, when and why, implies the high responsibility of deciphering the world, analyzing it and making it understandable to all.
It is to enjoy the deafening silence of a studio, to sit behind the microphone every day and feel that this is the only barrier that separates me from those who listen to me, even when I am miles away, to spend the day doing it and the night dreaming about it; as many of my teachers and colleagues taught me, to live it from the moment we get out of bed until we go back to bed, and at that moment, to continue being a journalist.
It is a constant challenge, an everlasting challenge… a short, medium and long term project. Being a journalist is not just a trade or a profession, in that I disagree with Gabo, a master in the field because, for me, journalism is a way of life.
…ONLINE AUDIO
Written by Jessica Mesa.
