The Narco News Bulletin
August 15, 2018 | Issue #67  
 narconews.com - Reporting on the Drug War and Democracy from Latin America
  

We Simply Need More Schools of Authentic Journalism

You can't be an authentic journalist if you don't tell the truth of those who really need their voice to be heard

By Karina González
School of Authentic Journalism, Class of 2010

February 15, 2016
This report appears on the internet at http://www.narconews.com/Issue67/article4827.html

In 2010, after spending a whole day filling in an unusual application for a journalism scholarship, I received a call from a gringo with a peculiar accent by the name of Al Giordano, who with singular joy told me I had been selected as a scholar for that generation. In that moment, my professional life changed.

I ended up in Puerto Morelos, Cancun, meeting around 80 people from all over the world, and together we worked hard to do many things: understand each other in the same language, share experiences of movements and journalism, and we also fought against the heat and the mosquitoes that were eating us alive. At that point the School of Authentic Journalism was showing me what my odd university hadn't taught me: I understood what true journalism was for.

Being a journalist is more than a profession; it's a commitment. You can't be an authentic journalist if you don't tell the truth of those who really need their voice to be heard. As of that moment, my interest for social movements and my career in communication converged upon the same path.

I've been a professor in four sessions of the school since then: 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Each time I get to meet my colleagues from past generations once again, and I meet new scholars. Each time I learn more and more and I am filled with energy to keep spreading, in a truthful way, the essence of every movement I get to know.

Our debates, conferences, lectures, plenaries and workshops are packed with all we journalists need to discover more tools to continue reporting. There should continue to be more journalism schools. It is important that each and every person interested in journalism discovers its true meaning and in so doing contributes to the creation of our own media.

Thanks to the school of journalism, in the time during which I have been involved with it, I have participated in the making of videos with social content that have been viewed by thousands of people, I have participated in viral campaigns that have served as communications and resistance strategies in social movements, and I have learned from true heroes of this world how we can keep doing things to better our society.

I will continue to be a part of this project, because thanks to it I have seen that a better journalism is possible despite the fact that I live in an ultraconservative city (Guanajuato) and in a country where the reporters and photographers who dare tell the truth get killed (Mexico).

For me, the only way is to keep fighting, the only way is learning from the School of Journalism to continue reporting and mobilizing. More and more people are opting for real journalism and that's what keeps us going.

2016 has begun and we would like to make our School possible again this year, but for that to happen we need every reader of this blog and every reader of this letter to contribute, to join us in the trench where we fight. Maybe this year the person who gets the call from that excited gringo will be you, and the next letter requesting contributions to our fund will be written by you.

Join the Kickstarter campaign or go to authenticjournalism.org to learn more about the school.



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